Published: April 21, 2009 10:42 am      

Family legacy honored at Schulle reunion in Maxwell

Maxwell — One hundred-twenty-three years ago a middle aged couple and their children left Prussia for America.

Friedrich Christian Schulle with wife, Maria Dorothea, and 10 children plus one grandchild, Adolph, came through Galveston Port to settle around Hays and Caldwell County. That family legacy was honored over the weekend with more than 100 family members present at the Schulle Family reunion held in Maxwell.

Soon after arriving to Texas, the men of the families were working the soil and marrying girls from the area. Females of the family married, some to young men outside the counties. When both the parents died in 1899, the children had homes and had started their own families.

By the middle of the century, members of the Schulle families decided to establish a yearly visit to stay in touch with each other. In the year 1955, 200 members met in Uhland to greet and rehash memories of growing up. The grandchild Adolph, and his descendants arrived with the largest number present.

At that event, Adolph's son Walter and wife Katie from South Texas brought their two young children to the 1955 reunion; in 2009 the two children came bringing their “young” parents. This 55th reunion brought together 31 persons who had attended the first reunion; also, five couples who were there in 1955 returned for the 2009 reunion.

Friedrich Christian and Dorothea's 10 children who came to America married into families with names of Hahn, Poch, Koerbel, Faires, Skolaut, Peiper, Anton, Jung, Schawe, and Nolte. Those ten couples added 72 grand children. As transportation became easier, the family spread into 4-5 counties of Texas, and the grandchildren of Christian and Dorothea added 204 great grandchildren by the fourth generation of Schulle descendants.

By 1980, persons of German descent were the third largest ethnic group in Texas, scattered throughout nearly all parts of the large state of Texas, as well as other states. Christian and Dorothea had contributed their share to Texas' population

Now, 2009, eight generations will provide enough “kin” to continue reunions for many future years.