A Home in Texas
Much to the annoyance of Peter Carl's wife Amanda, a home was not immediately found. It was twenty-four days after their arrival in San Felipe before the 800 acres of Nassau were purchased, and another fourteen days before they could arrive with their belongings to take posession. The 800 acres included a few buildings including one of the finer homes in the state, at least according to what information I've read - this being one of Amanda's letters.
Nassau was not home for too many years. One by one family members picked up enough English to find work elsewhere. Peter Carl and Amanda moved to Round Top and built themselves a home there.
More than one household of von Rosenbergs settled in Round Top. Two houses and one store once occupied by the family still stand there today. Since Round Top is not that big a place, they are all near Henkel Square. In fact one house is in the square. One website for Henkel Square displays a picture of the von Rosenberg house kitchen.
When William moved to Austin, little did he know that the city would also be home for his son Ernst, his grandson Hermann, and his great grandson Charles, my father.
In some ways Texas will always be home to me. I've never lived there, but as a child I visited my grandmother there. When time allowed my parents, brothers, and I visited other family members there. It would seem that the majority of von Rosenbergs have remained somewhere in the state. Every trip I've ever taken to Texas has had something to do with seeing family and this trip was no different with the annual "cousins picnic" where my father's first cousins gather.
I guess wherever there is family there is home. Maybe now it is a little bit easier to understand why abandoning one's ancestral home was considered such an affront and disgrace in 1786 East Prussia. We took "home" away with us when we left our ancestral lands then, and again when leaving East Prussia for Texas. Still, it comes down to land just being land. No matter how many surveys and maps are made, no matter how many houses are built or how well they are made, home goes with us.