Joseph W. Stubenrauch

Stubenrauch came to America, the Handbook of Texas says, to avoid compulsory German military service. Near Mexia he found that standard peaches suited Central Texas poorly, so he crossed an Elberta with Bell's October and budded the seedlings onto mature trees for quick fruit. His first success was a chance seedling, the Carman, named for the Rural New Yorker's editor. The Frank began as Farmer's Friend until a critic objected that a tree needing thinning was no friend, and he renamed it for Frank P. Holland, Sr. He sold propagation rights to nurseries for royalties and earned little.

What the plaque says

Joseph W. Stubenrauch Agricultural genius, born in Ruelzheim, Rhenish Bavaria, of a family of horticulturists. Educated in Germany. Migrated to New York in 1871 and to Texas 1876. In Limestone County (surrounding this marker site) lay 100 acres of open prairie land which he purchased. He discovered that fruit varieties then being grown here were unsuited to the climate. By cross pollination, budding and grafting, he developed some 100 new varieties of peaches. More than 20 which were propagated for commercial purposes included "Anna", "Barbara", "Carman", "Frank", "Fredericka", "Katie", "Liberty", "Lizzie", "Miss Lola" and "Tena". In 1882, his younger brother Jacob also came and settled nearby. Both men were outstanding citizens. Joseph W. Stubenrauch shared his findings through his writings for "Farm and Ranch", "Rural New Yorker" and "Holland's Magazine". He practiced and advocated terracing, crop rotation and diversification, soil testing, fertilization and irrigation. Many of his ideas of conservation farming and agricultural education were incorporated into U.S. Government programs. He was nationally recognized for his contributions to American agriculture. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 5.5 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 7.4 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Old Fort Parker — 9.9 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.

More markers nearby

• One Half Mile North to the Site Once Occupied by Trinity University — 2.6 mi
• Alfonso Steel — 2.7 mi
• Albert R. Mace — 2.7 mi
• Origin of the Texas State Teachers Association — 2.9 mi