Comfort Heritage Foundation

640 High St., Comfort, Texas 830-995-2641

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The Engel Store - Bergheim General Store - Marker in/near Bergheim

Photo Credit: Ted and Janis Maxymof

The Engel Store - Bergheim General Store

Marker #5329 - 1983 A native of Austria, Andreas Engel (b. 1864) migrated to Texas in 1885. In 1900 he purchased land here and built a cotton gin, around which an agricultural community developed. When the area post office was moved here in 1901 and Engel became postmaster, he named the town Bergheim, German for "home in the hills". He and his wife Eva opened a store at this site in 1903. Their son Alfred added later services, including a cedar yard, to meet community needs and aid local development. A symbol of Bergheim`s pioneers, the store has remained in the Engel family. (1983)

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Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff - Marker in/near Boerne

Photo Credit: Dietert Historical Archives -
Patrick Heath Public Library (Boerne)

Marker #1268 - 1982   Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff, Nov. 29, 1820-May 18, 1912), the son of a prominent German family and a veteran of the Prussian army, physician Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff first came to Texas in 1847. By the 1860s he had set up practice in San Antonio, where he was an active civic leader. His medical innovations made him a prominent physician in the southwest. Dr. Herff and his wife, Mathilde, 1823-1910, owned a ranch at this site and, through their interest in the area, led in the development of Boerne. Local residents honored their many contributions with a monument here on Malakopf Mountain, a site favored by the Herffs. "After seventy years of weather exposure and vandalism, the original rock obelisk had deteriorated to the extent that doctors John B. and Ferdinand Peter Herff, grandsons of Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff, had it completely rebuilt with limestone blocks in 1952."- [quoted from Garland Perry, "Our Heritage" series] Texas Historical Commission honored Dr. Herff by designating this monument with a Texas Historical Marker in 1982. (on Malakopf Mountain, 1.5 mile NE of Boerne Via FM 474 and Kennon Ranch Road)The monument is on a hill overlooking Boerne across Hwy 474 from Spring Creek Road exit. The trees are too high to see the monument from FM 474 but If one turns right on Spring Creek Road, and then turns around at the first house, and then stops about 50 yards or so down road, now facing FM 474, you can see where it is with the naked eye. Binoculars are helpful. See picture below on the right.

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Peter Joseph Ingenhuett Homestead - Marker in/near Comfort

Photo Credit: Bryden Moon

Marker #3996 - 1986   German immigrant Peter Joseph Ingenhuett (1833-1923) came to Texas and settled on a farm near Comfort in the 1850s. In 1861, he married Marie Karger (1843-1913), and they moved into town in 1867. The Ingenhuetts opened various businesses along what is now High Street, including a hotel, saloon, and livery stable. Ingenhuett served for nearly 25 years as the Comfort postmaster. The small cottage at the back of this property was the Ingenhuett home until the larger dwelling at this site was built in 1888.

The homestead has two buildings involved. The 1863 cabin behind the big house was a home, a wash house, storage room, taxidery shop, garage and antique shop. It has fachwerk and outside stairs. The 1888 house is a one story, German Victorian limestone with gingerbread on porch.

 The original (1863) Peter Joseph Ingenhuett Homestead was located behind the later house. This cabin served as the Ingenhuett's home until they moved into the second floor of the "new" mercantile store building in 1880. In addition to a residence, the cabin has also served many other purposes. It was a wash house with inside hearth, a storage building, a taxidermy shop (when owned by Udo Letz) a garage, and an antique shop (which the Meyer's operated).

The larger house was built in 1888 for Peter Joseph and Marie Karger Ingenhuett. Mr. Ingenhuett was a prominent businessman in the community who built several businesses along High Street including the hotel, saloon, and the Ingenhuett Store. 

The house originally had clapboard siding. The stucco exterior was added in the first half of this century to improve the fire resistance as several fires had occurred in the vicinity. The house was renovated in the early 1970s with turned balusters and a new fretwork design being installed on the front porch. It was purchased in 1986 by Bill and Helen Meyer. Working from old photographs, the Meyers replaced the balusters and fretwork design in 1991 to more nearly approximate that of the original construction. The stairway in the central hall, giving access to the expanded attic, was moved from the Ingenhuett-Faust Hotel.

The Homestead received a Texas Historical Marker in 1985.

More info and Map Link

1907 Comfort State Bank Building - Marker in/near Comfort

Photo Credit: Jay Pennington click to their website

Marker #29 - 1988   Constructed in 1907 for Alex Brinkmann, this building housed the Comfort State Bank until 1960. Local stonemason Richard Doebbler is credited with the hand-cut stone craftsmanship of the structure. The Comfort Public Library was located here from 1961 to 1982. Features of the modified Richardsonian Romanesque building include polished red granite columns, a round-headed window, a corner entrance, and a blind arcade in the tower. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988. (Corner 7th and High Streets, Comfort)

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James House - Marker in/near Boerne

Photo Credit: Dietert Historical Archives -
Patrick Heath Public Library (Boerne)

Marker #2726 -    This two-story limestone house is believed to have been built about 1880 by Ives Brown for Ichabod and Alice Kingsbury. In 1925 it was purchased by Maria (Williams) James (1859-1940), the pioneer surveyor and early community leader who platted the town of Boerne in 1852. Named `Puccoon` by Maria for her ancestral home in Hanover County, Virginia, the residence remained in her family following her death. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982

Records show that John Small originally owned the land where the house is now located. In 1853 his heir, Martha A. Solomon and her husband Alexander, sold 1280 acres to Dr. W.G Kingsbury for $300.00. Dr. Kingsbury in turn sold a part of the land to William Kernaghan. William Dietert acquired the Dietert Addition acreage in 1874 and town lots No. 3 and 6 were sold to Ichabod and Alice V. Kingsbury in 1879.

In 1891 the property was purchased by Bertha Biessner who later married H. H. McFarland. The McFarland heirs sold the house to Mrs. John H. James in 1925. She bought it to replace a summer home in Comfort that she and her late husband previously owned. (Judge John James was the son of John James, a well known land dealer who with Gus Theissen, platted and surveyed the city of Boerne in 1852 and later gave the Main Plaza and courthouse land to boerne and Kendall County)

The beautiful old house which was built around 1880 has been known variously as the Kingsbury-Biessner home, the Kingsbury Place, the McFarland Home and now the James House is presently owned by Maria M. Sykes, a great-grand- daughter of John James, the great frontier surveyor and businessman who contributed so much to the early development of Boerne.

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Brownsboro Cemetery - Marker in/near Comfort

Photo Credit: Natalie Morgan

Marker #14411 - 2008   This cemetery served the community of Brownsboro, which was originally settled by shinglemakers. Later, farmers and then railroad workers resided here. Thomas and Sarah Manning donated land for a burial ground and church in 1870; Levi and Sarah Howell later donated additional property. The first known burial was of Henry Bierschwale in 1877. Other notable burials include five veterans of the Civil War. As Brownsboro’s population declined and floods damaged the area, the cemetery fell into disuse. Today, the Comfort Heritage Foundation cares for the burial ground, which remains as a memorial to the residents of the former Brownsboro community.

Historic Texas Cemetery – 2007
Marker is property of the state of Texas

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George Wilkins Kendall - Marker in/near Boerne
Photo Credit: Dietert Historical Archives - Patrick Heath Public Library (Boerne)	Marker #2169 - George Wilkins Kendall (1809–1867) was a journalist, war correspondent, and pioneer Texas sheepman, known as the father of the Texas sheep business. Kendall County, Texas is named for him. Kendall was given a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1989, Marker number 2169. (Northwest corner of cemetery at stone wall, school Street and Main, Boerne) More info and Map Link

Kendall Masonic Lodge No. 897 - Marker in/near Boerne
	Marker #15599 - 2005 Kendall Masonic Lodge No. 897 More info and Map Link