Han.auer

Louis Huth Jean Key Arrival

Marie Wissing Death Certificate

The property is now owned by a commercial ranch corporation but Anton’s name will remain in perpetuity in the legal description of the property:

Legal Description:

ABSTRACT A0141, HANAUER, ANTON, SURVEY #35, ACRES 336.57

and

ABSTRACT A0142, HANAUER, ANTON, SURVEY #34, ACRES 320.0

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As a married man, Anton was expecting 2, 320-acre tracts of land. The original tracts issued in 1850 were a few miles south of Castroville, in Medina County.

However, that title was subsequently voided, and in 1874, after a long and hard fought legal effort[3], two tracts in Maverick County, a few miles southesast of Eagle Pass, were granted to Sophia and Anna, as the sole heirs of Anton.

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On board the Jean Key was also Louis Huth[2], who provided a record of the lack of support the early Castro colonists received once they arrived on the Texas Coast.

Victoria Advocate, Sep 30, 1904

Anton, Marie and Nanette boarded the Brig Jean Key and departed Antwerp, Belgium, on October 25, 1843, and landed in Galveston on December 30, 1843. Sophie Caroline was born 2 weeks before the arrival in Galveston. The Jean Key was the 5th of 27 shiploads of Castro colonists[1].

It is not clear why Anton, Marie and family ultimately established residence in Victoria, but it could possibly be linked to some issues with the early days of Henri Castro’s settlement.

Anton Hanauer and Marie Anna Sengele and Charles Wissing

Anton Hanauer was born in 1817(19) in Wittenheim, Alsace (47°48'N 7°20'E), to parents Francois Antoine and Franciose (nee Reyl) Hanauer. Marie Anna was born on March 22, 1820, in Sennheim (now called Cernay), Alsace (47°48'N 7°10'E), to parents Jean Thiebaut (Theobald) Sengele, Jr. and Catherine Wintenberger. They were married May 24, 1841, in France.

The couple had three daughters:

Nanette, born approximately 1842 in Alsace,
Sophie Caroline, born at sea on December 10, 1843, and
Marie Anna, born November 19, 1853, in Victoria, Texas.

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Navigation Tools

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Promised Land: Solms, Castro, and Sam Houston's Colonization Contracts pp 69-70
By Jefferson Morgenthaler

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Er schied hinüber in das ewige Licht.
Sein wirken bleibt Erinnerung schwindet nicht.

He passed over to the eternal light. His work remains. Remembrance will never fade.

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Victoria Advocate, Aug 26, 1956 (correction: Sengele’s wife was
Theresa Hanauer, sister of Anton)

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Castro's Colony, Empresario Development in Texas, 1842-1865, Bobby D. Weaver pg. 36-38

Charles passed away on September 14, 1881. Marie lived out her life in Victoria, celebrating her 81st birthday quietly.

Texas General Land Office, Excerpts of Map of Maverick County 1947

Marie's Cabbage Recipe

At the age of 84, Marie passed away in Victoria on September 28, 1904. She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery (28°48'N 97°00'W). Anton, Marie and Charles were all early pioneers, helping establish Victoria, Texas.

Möge sie ruhen in ewigem Frieden.

Amen

May she rest in everlasting peace.

Amen

Liebe die auf Erden uns vereinet
Blühet ewig in dem himmel fort.
Wo kein Auge mehr ob
Trennung weinet unu vereinigt
reine Seelen dort

The love that united us on earth flourishes forever in Heaven,

Where no eye weeps in separation and pure souls are united there.

Victoria Advocate, Oct 1, 1904

Marie remarried on March 31, 1856, to Charles Wissing, M.D., who came to Victoria in 1856 from Hohr, Nassau, Germany.

Charles actively practiced medicine for 26 years and opened the first drug store in Victoria. He died at the age of 56, in 1881, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. On the basis of Charles’s assistance to the wounded during the Civil War, Marie was posthumously made a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy (application made by Marie Anna Gramann in 1922), having been made an honorary member of the William P. Rogers Chapter in 1899.

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Anton was engaged in merchandising until his death on August 20, 1852. He is buried in Memorial Square in Victoria (28°48'N 97°00'W), where Nanette is also interred.

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The 1850 Census shows Anton, Marie and Sophie living in the Town of Victoria, Nanette having died in the cholera epidemic of 1846. It is likely they were living in a house on 201 E. Forrest Street (28°47'N 97°00'W), said to have been built by Marie’s brother, Theobald, a noted carpenter and builder of Victoria.

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Corpus Christ Caller Times, Mar 13, 1966

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Marie and Charles did not have children of their own, but it was clear that Charles was considered a father by the family, as recounted by Marie’s granddaughter, Alfreda Gramann, in the following December 4, 1966, Victoria Advocate newspaper article about a PTA meeting for Nazareth Academy.

[1] http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txmedina/PassengerLists/ships.htm
[2] https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhu56Type your paragraph here.

[3] Catherine Lukefahr, nee Smith, granddaughter of Marie, would relate family stories of years of legal battles, including numerous trips outside of Victoria County by Sophia and Marie Anna.

[4] https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/64000855.pdf

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