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Birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN
Typical early Fredericksburg home built 1866 by Carl Basse. Property of the Henke family since 1873. Heinrich Henke, early settler, Confederate freighter, had butcher counter on front porch; meat processing was done in back yard; there the horses that pulled meat vending cart were stabled. Shop later built on foundation of stone walls surrounding lot.
He and his wife Dorothea (nee Weirich) added the long dining room and kitchen with sloped roof to accommodate their twelve children. Many of their furnishings are preserved by Udo Henke, a descendant.
In small room to rear of front bedroom, on Feb. 24, 1885, their daughter, Anna Henke Nimitz, gave birth to Chester William Nimitz, destined to command the greatest naval armada in history.
A 1905 honor graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy, Nimitz was chief of staff to commander, Atlantic Submarine Fleet, W.W.I. Installed first Naval ROTC unit in U.S. Navy, 1926; selected Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet after attack on Pearl Harbor; appointed Fleet Admiral, U. S. Navy, 1944. As representative of the U. S. he signed Japanese surrender documents on his flagship, USS Missouri, Sept. 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay. Admiral Nimitz died in San Francisco on Feb. 20, 1966. (1968)
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Moses Austin
(Front) Born in Connecticut, October fourth 1761; moved to Philadephia in 1783. Thence to Virginia in 1785 and to Missouri in 1783. Arrived in San Antonio on December twenty-third, 1820. Died in Missouri June tenth, 1821.
(Right) Moses Austin here petitioned the Spanish authorities for the right to bring three-hundred families to Texas and returned to Missouri to await the answe.r
(Back) Exposure and exhaustion during his Texas journey caused his death a few days after receiving notification that his petition had been granted. His dying request was that his son Stephen should carry out his vision.
(Left) A man of vision, enterprise, industry and indomitable energy...he most fittingly bequeathed the realization of his plans to his more deliberate, patient, tactful and diplomatic son. (1936)
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Site of the camp of Stephen F. Austin
(October 20-26, 1835)
While assembling troops preparatory to the attack on the Mexican garrison at San Antonio * * After his appointment on November 12 as Commissioner to the United States, the Texans, under Colonels Ben Milam and Frank W. Johnson stormed and captured San Antonio, December 10, 1835. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
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Austin County Jail
Calling their old jail "unsafe, unfit, and inadequate," the Austin County Court contracted in 1896 with Pauly Jail Building Co. of St. Louis to erect this structure at cost of $19,970. Romanesque Revival style, with crenelated parapets, bartizans, and stone window arches harmonized with the 1886 courthouse, which later burned. The gallows, used only in 1901, have been removed; jailer's quarters have been enlarged; but original exterior is preserved.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976
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