Adam Becker Homestead

Becker's life ran alongside the Adelsverein from its start. Twenty-one German noblemen provisionally organized the society in 1842, it sent Prince Solms to Texas in 1844, and Solms bought the Comal Springs land in March 1845. Meusebach founded Fredericksburg in 1846, and 5,257 emigrants were landed between October 1845 and April 1846 alone. By 1853 the company had assigned its properties to its creditors. Becker, who helped build Fredericksburg, outlasted it on a Guadalupe River homestead of local stone and cypress, privately restored in the 2000s and still his burial ground.

What the plaque says

Adam Becker Homestead Adam Becker Homestead German native Adam Becker (1815-1901) journeyed to Texas in 1845 to join Prince Carl Solms-Braunfels in establishing a colony on behalf of The Adelsverein, also known as the German Emigration Company. Becker contributed to the building of Fredericksburg and assisted with other aspects of the colony. He married Elizabeth Monken and by 1852 had established his homestead on this site, where he raised cattle. The house he built for his family was constructed of locally quarried stone and hand-hewn cypress from the banks of the nearby Guadalupe River. Adam Becker became a United States citizen in 1860 and upon his death in 1901 was buried in the cemetery on his homestead. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natural Bridge Caverns — 13 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.
• Gruene Historic District — 22 mi
  A cotton town on the Guadalupe that the boll weevil emptied, rescued in the 1970s by a kayaking architecture student, with a dance hall that says it has never closed.
• Sophienburg Museum and Archives — 22 mi
  The hilltop where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels raised the Adelsverein's headquarters in 1845, now the museum and archive of the German colony that became New Braunfels.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 28 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.

More markers nearby

• Specht's Crossing — 0.9 mi
• Spring Branch Post Office — 1.5 mi
• Esser's Crossing at Wesson — 3.7 mi
• Anhalt Halle and the Germania Farmer Verein — 4.7 mi