Birthplace of Hedwig T. Kniker

Kniker spent little of her childhood at Gay Hill. Her father, the Rev. Carl Kniker, took charge of St. Paul Evangelical Church at Cibolo in 1892 and served until 1934. She was valedictorian of her New Braunfels school in 1908 and taught in Washington County before entering the University of Texas. Geologist Robbie Gries has argued, in a 2018 paper, that Kniker and two colleagues, Alva Ellisor and Esther Applin, were written out of the history of the micropaleontology breakthrough. Her will paid for 39 bells that made the Main Building chime a carillon, named for her in 1987.

What the plaque says

Birthplace of Hedwig T. Kniker (November 13, 1891 - October 12, 1985) Born in Gay Hill, Hedwig Thusnelda Kniker was the child of the second minister of St. Peter's Lutheran Church. Kniker graduated from the University of Texas in 1916 with degrees in German, psychology and geology. Her graduate work included a master's program and research at the University of Texas and further studies in the northeast and midwest. Her professional career began in 1920. Kniker worked for Texaco in Houston, Phillips Petroleum in San Angelo and United Geophysical Company in Chile. She retired to Seguin in 1950, remaining active as a consultant and writer. A renowned paleontologist and geologist in a time when few women entered these fields, Hedwig T. Kniker left a scientific legacy and carved a path for professional women throughout the world. (1999)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 7.9 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 15 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 19 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 19 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.

More markers nearby

• St. Peter's Lutheran Church — steps away
• La Bahia Road — 1.4 mi
• Glenblythe Plantation, Home of Thomas Affleck — 1.9 mi
• Holly Oaks — 2.4 mi