Texas Land Commissioner, Johann Jacob Groos

Groos, born in Offenbach, had studied civil engineering. Drawn by the Adelsverein's accounts of Texas, he arrived on the ship Herschel and took part in the first public drawing for New Braunfels town lots in April 1845. By 1850 he owned 520 acres at Waco Springs on the Guadalupe. He was a New Braunfels alderman from 1865 to 1866 and mayor in 1872 and 1873, an agent for the Aetna and Phoenix insurance companies, and owner of the Guadalupe Hotel, and in 1871 he secured the International Railroad's right of way through Comal County.

What the plaque says

Texas Land Commissioner, Johann Jacob Groos (March 6, 1822 - June 15, 1878) A professional surveyor before and after coming to Texas in 1845 fom his native Germany, J. J. Groos helped open New Braunfels area to settlement. He served 1849-65 as a Comal County official, and was in Confederate militia during Civil War (1861-65). In 1874, Groos was elected Commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas and served four years, until his death. Married to Katharine Blieder, he was father of seven children. Recorded 1974

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George Washington Carver Museum — 0.4 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Cemetery — 0.6 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.6 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Texas State Capitol — 0.8 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• Joseph Baker — steps away
• John Crittenden Duval — steps away
• Major William Martin "Buck" Walton — steps away
• Swante Palm — steps away