Mary Theresa Juergens

The plaque names Coffee's Trading Post as the place Mary Juergens was ransomed, and the man who kept it had a mixed reputation. Holland Coffee, orphaned at eleven, opened a firm at Fort Smith in 1829 and later traded on the upper Red River, where he learned Native languages and ransomed many captives. The Texas Congress also investigated charges that he swapped guns and whiskey for stolen cattle and horses. Sam Houston still made him Indian agent in 1837. Coffee later built Glen Eden Plantation, developed Preston, and was stabbed to death in a quarrel in 1846.

What the plaque says

Mary Theresa Juergens (1809-October 31, 1891) German natives Conrad and Mary Theresa Hennecke Juergens came to Texas in 1833, the year of their marriage, and built a cabin near this site. In March 1836 as the Texas Revolution was raging, many Texas settlers, in fear of the advancing Mexican army, fled their homes in what became known as the Runaway Scrape. The Juergens family chose to remain, but soon were victims of a raid by Indians, thought to be members of the coastal Karankawa tribe. Conrad Juergens was wounded, and Mary and two of Conrad Juergens' young sons from a previous marriage were captured. Pregnant at the time of her kidnapping, Mary gave birth to a girl, Jane Margret, while in captivity. Months later, mother and daughter were ransomed at Coffee's Trading Post on the Red River, suggesting they were traded by the Karankawas to a nomadic tribe. The Juergens' sons were not rescued. Mary and Jane returned to Conrad, but he died within two years. After a brief second marriage to George Grimes, Mary married Samuel Redgate in 1843. They moved to Dayton, Ohio, where Mary died in 1891. Redgate and Jane Margret returned to Texas and settled in Parker county, where in 1936 the State of Texas erected a monument at their graves to honor them and Mary. (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stafford Opera House — 14 mi
  A cattleman's bank and theater of 1886 on the Columbus square, in a river town Sam Houston burned in 1836 and a county marked by a long feud and a 1935 lynching.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 14 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.
• Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites — 21 mi
  A shared tomb on the Colorado River bluff for the men of the Dawson fight and the black bean lottery, beside the ruins of a German stonemason's spring-fed brewery.
• St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Ammannsville) — 21 mi
  A wooden Carpenter Gothic church built in 1919 after storm and fire took two before it, its dusty-rose interior painted by an artist whose name was lost for decades.

More markers nearby

• Mike Muckleroy — 0.7 mi
• Josef Lidumil Leshikar — 2.7 mi
• Site of Town of New Ulm — 2.8 mi
• Frelsburg — 2.8 mi