This story by Samuel Hudson first appeared in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Tuesday, May 24, 1983. Note: The Wends did not enter England via London but rather via Hull. Note: The Wends bought their land, called the Delaplain League, for $1/acre, not 50 cents/acre. Note: The Wendish wedding dresses were still black into the […]
Wends Trade Ethnicity for Freedom, Prosperity Read More »
This article by John Makeig first appeared in the Houston Chronicle. Note: the Wends bought the Delaplane League for $1.00/acre not 50 cents/acre. -0- SERBIN – John J. Socha, director of Giddings Chamber of Commerce, encounters a common reaction from those who spot for the first time, his large, red and white “KISS ME I’M
Wends: The Story of a Dying Heritage Read More »
This article by David McLemore first appeared in the Dallas Morning News, Sunday, October 16, 1983. Note: A handful (35) of Wends migrated to Texas in 1853. -0- SERBIN. Texas – Laverne Gersch doesn’t have to search for her ancestral roots. They’re all around her. As she drives along dusty Lee County back roads near
This article by Victor Vogel was printed in an unknown newspaper date unknown. The article by Sigman Byrd, Advance Man in Wendenland, for the Houston Chronicle on 9 Sep 1960 is remarkably similar. Vogel’s article states “122 years ago” which would have made the date of publication 1976. -0- Knecht Ruprecht, the anti-Santa Claus, is
This article by L. S. Imm, Ph.D. was written in 1974 for an unkown publication which may have been something similar to The Lutheran Digest. Note: The 35 Prussian Wends of 1853 did not settle in East Texas but in Central Texas in Austin, and Fayette counties. Note: The Wends arrived in Galveston in December 1854, and while they
The Wends in Texas Read More »
About a decade ago I was so intrigued with old, weathered Texas barns that I was moved to do pen and ink sketches of them. My wife and I would drive down the back roads in various parts of Texas, starting with our own area, and take photographs of old weathered barns that seemed to
Rural Scenes in Texas Read More »
Herman Symmank and his grandson William Daniel Symmank were awarded a total of 15 patents in the United States during their lifetimes. Herman was awarded 2 patents with his co-author Ernst Matthijetz on their plow designs in 1893 and 1896. William Daniel Symmank was awarded 13 U.S. patents between 1959 and 1988. Del Symmank, son
Symmank Family Patents Read More »
This blog wants to encourage you to tell us how your parents or grandparents felt about dancing. To start off this investigation, George Nielsen has offered up his first recollections about dancing. At the wedding of the sister of my buddy, Eldee Hingst, the ladies were sitting in the living room, talking. Mother was in
The Wends and Dancing Read More »
This article appeared in the April and July 2015 editions of the Newsletter of the Texas Wendish Heritage Society, Serbin, Texas. Because some of the Texas Wends originated from Prussia and some from Saxony a question could be asked if origins made a difference. Does political geography influence the way people think and act? If
Prussian or Saxon by George Nielsen Read More »
My Wendish mother and my Wendish grandmother loved to grow flowers in the yard and cut them and place them on the table in the house. Under their influence, I grew up with a great appreciation of a yard full of flowers and other forms of floral beauty. Unlike the two of them, I did
Pen, Ink, and Watercolor Paintings of Flowers Read More »
