Sisterdale

Sisterdale soon drew Forty-Eighters who had fled Europe after the failed revolution of 1848. Their leader was Ernst Kapp, and the circle included C. D. Adolph Douai, August Siemering, Dr. Julius Froebel, Gustav Theissen and the Baron von Westphal, a brother-in-law of Karl Marx. John R. Bartlett and Duke Paul of Wurttemberg visited and recorded what they saw. Sisterdale was a center of German abolitionism and Unionism before and during the Civil War. Afterward it settled into a quiet farm hamlet of about 150 in 1884, with a shingle mill, a cotton gin and a grocery store.

What the plaque says

Sisterdale Abundant natural resources and a well-traveled pathway made this area one of the earliest frontier Hill Country settlements. The Pinto Trail, an ancient Native American road between Spanish missions in San Antonio and lands north, was a conduit here, crossing the Guadalupe and its local tributaries. Pre-settlement, Henry Karnes led a contingent of Galveston volunteers "to quell Indian disturbances upon our frontier" in October 1839. William R. Sisty was killed on that expedition by the accidental discharge of his rifle, and the nearby creeks were first named Sisty's Creeks in his honor. The Adelsverein brought German settlers to Texas in the 1840s, and engineer Nicolaus Zink built his home here in 1847 on the 1280-acre William F. Wilson survey, becoming the first settler of what would become Sisterdale as well as the later-organized Blanco and Kendall Counties. The families of Ottmar (Ottomar) von Behr, George F. Holekamp, Julius Dresel, Carl Beseler, Ernst Kapp and others came soon after. Since nearby landmarks were named Bosom Hill, Sister Hills and Twin Sisters, von Behr suggested the settlers name their village Sisterdale, while also changing the name of the local creeks from Sisty's to Sisters. Von Behr became the first postmaster of Sisterdale on October 23, 1847. The community was not platted but instead a series of large farms populated by German immigrants, many of whom were part of the failed German revolution of 1848. Sisterdale was also one of the Hill Country's Latin settlements, so named because its well-educated citizens often read and debated in that language. 1854 visitor Frederick law Olmsted was impressed with their free-thinking intellects. Sisterdale remains a historic and scenic Hill Country locale. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Tunnel State Park — 10 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.
• Treue der Union Monument — 12 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.
• Luckenbach — 14 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.
• Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site — 19 mi
  A state park on the Pedernales opposite the LBJ Ranch, with a working Texas-German farm kept as it was around the First World War and the permit desk for the ranch tour.

More markers nearby

• Pinta Trail Crossing of the Guadalupe River — 1.0 mi
• Ottmar von Behr — 1.6 mi
• Beseler Family — 6.1 mi
• Nicolaus Zink — 7.2 mi