Steiner Family Cemetery, Photo Courtesy of GBRA
Voyage to North America, 1844-45, Prince Carl of Solms's Texas Diary of People, Places, and Events – Carl Solms-Braunfels, page 131
Depiction of Life in Steiner's Settlement
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Immigration Information
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Family historian, Edwin Nelson, created the following, based on family artifacts. The poem was originally written in German and is believed to have been written by Carl.
Hurricane Harvey damaged the cemetery, privately maintained by a Reeves Family descendant. Please consider a donation to help cover repair and maintenance expenses. Contact me for more info!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Silesia
[2] https://vrhc.uhv.edu/manuscripts/weisiger/personal-notes.aspx
[3] https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrc76
http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasGulfCoastTowns/Coletoville-Texas.htm
[4] HISTORICAL, ARCHITECTURAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT THE STEINER-SCHOB COMPLEX VICTORIA COUNTY, TEXAS, Anne A. Fox and Katherine Livingston, 1979
[5] Circular No. 1 Report on Epidemic Cholera and Yellow Fever in the Army of the United States, During the Year 1867
A 2018 photograph of the relocated cemetery, added to the Reeves Cemetery, is shown below.
Victoria was the first to be buried in the family cemetery on the Steiner’s homesite. The photo below was taken in the late 1970's before the cemetery was relocated.
Reference Sources
Neptune/Neptun Ship and Steamship information
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Victoria and Carl Steiner, though only in Texas for 15 years, made lasting impacts to the development of the Victoria/Goliad county area. Through their hard work and sacrifice, their children and future generations were able to help make Texas what it is today.
1860 Census Victoria County
Carl Frederich Hugo Steiner and Victoria Augusta Dorothea Spanig
Carl Frederich Hugo Steiner was born on February 22, 1812, in Schwammelwitz, Prussia (50°25′N, 17°7′E) to parents Joseph and Catherine (Mucke/Mick) Steiner. Victoria Augusta was born in 1808 in Kamitz (50°26'N 16°57'E). They were married in 1832.
From page 9:
Carl Steiner died in 1867 of yellow fever while in Victoria and is buried in a cemetery there. Sometime later Victoria Steiner died and was buried on the family property near the house. Her burial was the first in what was to become the family cemetery (Fig. 4,b). The cemetery was surrounded by a picket fence painted white except for the very top of the pickets which were painted black (Mrs. Geraldine Johns, personal communication).
1867-1869 Voter Registration, Victoria County
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Sidney Roper Weisiger Personal Name and Topic File
Promised Land, Solms, Castro, and Sam Houston's Colonization Contracts – Jefferson Morgenthaler
The history of Silesia[1] is long and fraught with many political boundary changes, and it is reported that Carl was in the Prussian Infantry and was discharged in 1845. Victoria and Carl had three daughters, Anna Marie (1836-1911), Anna Wilhelmina (1841-1923) and Anna Augusta (1848-1890).
The Weisiger Collection[2] of the Victoria Regional History Center (VRHC) relates that Anna Marie came to Texas with her father aboard the Neptune (rmore likely the Neptun) and landed in Indianola on December 11, 1851. They then proceeded to Victoria by covered wagon. Victoria, Anna Wilhelmina and Anna Augusta left from Bremen on October 16, 1852, on the Bark von Vincke and landed in Indianola on December 16, 1852.
The family settled southwest of Victoria, Texas, in what came to be known as Steiner’s Settlement (or Steiner’s Town), and later Coletoville (28°43'N 97°09"W)[3].
Voyage to North America, 1844-45, Prince Carl of Solms's Texas Diary of People, Places, and Events – Carl Solms-Braunfels, page 33
Special thanks to the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority for sharing these files.
Carl became a citizen of the United States in 1857 according to voter registration rolls of 1867-1869. By all accounts, he was a successful “planter” and winemaker.
Carl, Victoria and their son-in-law Henry Carl Gramann fell to the yellow fever epidemic of 1867[5], Carl on October 16 and Henry Carl on October 27, and Victoria on November 16 (also reported as October 6). A 2018 visit to the relocated Steiner Cemetery brings up some questions about the year of Victoria's death, as her tombstone, shown below, indicates the year of her death as 1870.
Carl is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Victoria, Texas.
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Topographical Map of the country between San Antonio and Colorado Rivers in the State of Texas. By Order of Captain Tipton Walker, Chief of Bureau, executed by Captain W. Von Rosenberg, Assist. Military Engineer, 1864
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Warning
The following article is disturbing and is speculative in nature. It was written by a columnist from the Victoria Advocate, who is not related to Carl and Victoria Steiner, and refers to an undocumented claim about the remains of Victoria Steiner, disinterred in 1978 as part of an archeological survey.
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Information on the family cemetery layout is available through the VRHC, shown below.
The property was largely inundated in 1980 by dam and reservoir construction needed for the nearby coal-fired power plant. However, prior to this, an informative archeological survey[4] was conducted of the Steiner-Schob complex. The following two excerpts are extracted from that document (full document and supporting photos included below in the Reference section).
From page 75:
One of the most interesting items found in the census reports is the 2000 gallons of wine made by the Steiners in 1860. This was probably made both from cultivated grapes and from the wild mustang grapes found in great abundance throughout the area. …the German farmers on Coleto Creek were known statewide for their winemaking (Thurmond 1867:111).
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