It was September of 1855 when the Joseph Lamm Family arrived in
the small settlement of Comfort, Texas. Joseph Lamm and his friend Anton
Bohnert, a single man, purchased land in 1858 that bordered on the north and
south sides of the Guadalupe River from John F.C Vles through the agency of
Ernst Altgelt. This land was just south of the small town of Comfort.- from
an article appearing in the Comfort, Texas paper on 22 March 1979, written by
Margaret Kretzmeier and credits Mrs Earl Pankratz for information.
In the
District Clerk's Office, packet #38 are the Naturalization papers of Anton
Bohnert. The information in the application, called the Declaration of Intent,
gives the following:
He was a native of the Grand Duchess [sic] of Baden, age
29 and single, and arrived in the United States in 1855. This application was
made 17 May, 1859 in Kerr County. (Kendall County was not formed until 1862 from
parts of Kerr, Blanco, Bexar and Comal Counties.)
His final papers are from
Kendall County and dated 25 September, 1867.
Anton BOHNERT was married to
Fridericke [sic] Grollmund, widow, on 27 January, 1868, by Otto Brinkmann, J.P.,
Prec. 4. Witnesses were Joseph Lamm and Henry Heinen.
From the Probate Record, Vol. 4, p.202-206, the estate was brought to
probate by the wife of Anton BOHNERT on 7 June, 1904. This document states
he died in Comfort, Texas, on 11 January, 1903. The will was translated
from German, and the date of the will was 20 December, 1902.
In it he left
everything to his wife Frederika BOHNERT and $150 to each of his 6 children at
the expiration of their minority, Moritz, Gottfried, Wilhelm, Ernst, Antonio,
and Anna. Kerr County History Book., Page 56
Anton Bohnert served on a
petit jury selected in July 1859, Page 68
Listed among First Comfort settlers
in 1855, Anton Bohnert
Submitted by Claudia Peschel on December 28, 2001.