Friedrich Ernst

Ernst left Oldenburg in a hurry. A clerk at the post office there since 1819, he fled in September 1829 with his wife and five children, and the duke later charged him with embezzling a large sum. The family escaped by way of Bremen, Osnabrück, Münster and Brussels and sailed from Le Havre for New York, where they kept a boardinghouse. Bound for Missouri with Charles Fordtran, they read a prospectus for Austin's colony on the ship to New Orleans and changed course. In Texas Ernst also recorded rainfall and temperatures at his farm and founded the Teutonic Order.

What the plaque says

Friedrich Ernst Christian Friedrich Ernst (Dirks) was born in Germany in 1796. Friedrich Ernst was inducted into the German army in 1814 and served for five years. He married Louise Gesine Auguste Weber in 1819. They became the parents of Caroline, John Friedrich, Ludwig, Wilhelmine, and Hermann Ernst. In 1829 the family sailed to the United States and settled in New York. In 1831 they came to Texas as part of Stephen F. Austin's second colony and are thought to be the first German family in Texas. Ernst received a land grant of 4,428 acres of land on Mill Creek in present day Industry where he grew produce and tobacco and was the first recorded European to manufacture cigars in Texas. Ernst became active in civic affairs in the area, serving as a Justice of the Peace and as a member of the commissioners court. He supported the establishment of Hermann's University and served on its first board of trustees. Ernst, who wrote a series of letters to German officials to encourage their citizens to move to America, was called the Father of German Immigration to Texas. Ernst died in 1848 and is remembered through this park located on land he once owned and a scholarship in his name. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 24 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.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 25 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.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 32 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.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 32 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.

More markers nearby

• Industry — steps away
• Industry State Bank — 0.5 mi
• Lindemann Store — 0.6 mi
• Education in Industry — 0.8 mi