Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett Homestead

Hermann Ingenhuett's cotton yard belonged to a short cotton era in the county. In 1900 Kendall County had 542 farms on 339,653 acres, more than double the farmland of 1880, and the average farm had grown from 367 to 626 acres. From the 1880s through the mid-1920s cotton took several thousand acres a year and kept a number of gins busy, but by the 1920s corn and oats had overtaken it, being more profitable for a livestock economy. By the mid-1920s the county had all but abandoned cotton. Goats meanwhile went from 2,048 in 1900 to 13,626 by 1920.

What the plaque says

Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett Homestead This site was the homestead of Hermann (1870-1944) and Aantoine (1873-1941) Ingenhuett from their marriage in 1895 until their deaths and remained in the family until the end of the 20th century. Hermann acquired the Ingenhuett livery stable and cotton yard from his father, Peter Ingenhuett, about 1895 and served as postmaster of Comfort from 1908 until 1915. The Ingenhuetts, who reared two daughters on their homestead, were active in local civic and business affairs. The homestead included a house, barn, washhouse, smokehouse and cistern and remains a significant part of the German-Texan heritage of this part of the state. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Treue der Union Monument — 0.5 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 11 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.
• Schreiner Mansion — 15 mi
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Luckenbach — 17 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.

More markers nearby

• Peter Joseph Ingenhuett Homestead — steps away
• Comfort Community Theatre — steps away
• Meyer Hotel Complex — steps away
• Freidenker — 0.4 mi