Why Texas?
Peter Carl
William
I come from a long line of free thinkers. My third great grandfather Peter Carl von Rosenberg was labeled a Frei Denker for voicing his liberal and democratic opinions in 1848 East Prussia. His son William was also a proponent of the democratic revolutions which had been unsuccessful and was discharged from his job as a licenced surveyor and strongly encouraged to resign his commission as lieutenant in the Prussian Reserve Army which he did. Additionally, William's brother Johannes, an engineer in Saxony, was also asked to resign.
sketch of Eckitten
(the last home in Europe)
by William
Second Coat of Arms
original
coat of arms
This instance of free thinking was not the first time the family had bucked the system. In 1786 due to the Krottingen War, part of the family moved from the estate which had been home to the family for several generations. The abandonment of the family home was considered an affront to the ancestral land and thus a disgrace to the family. This "disgrace" led to the addition of a lion "rampant regardant" looking backward at the affronted home on the family coat of arms. While this helps us see how open the family was to the idea of moving to better lands, it does not answer the question "Why Texas?"
Germans had had a presence in Texas at least since Peter Carl's younger brother Ernst Christoph and others in Long's Expedition landed on the coast in October of 1821. In the 1840's Adels Verein, a society of German noblemen also known as the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas (of which I will speak again), bought the 4,428 acre Nassau in Fayette County. Finding themselves bankrupt in 1847, they began selling portions of this land 800 acres of which Peter Carl bought early in 1850. So there was a lot of talk about Texas in 1849 Germany. It was seen as a place with a German presence where people could both live in and speak with freedom.