KFWW - Pastor Adolf Fuchs

Carl Adolf Friedrich Fuchs, most commonly identified as Pastor Adolf Fuchs, was born on September 19, 1805, in Güstrow, Mecklenburg. He was the youngest son of Superintendent Adolf Friedrich Fuchs and the Superintendent's third wife, Margaretha Dorothea Schröder, who died when he was only five years old. As a youth he enjoyed outdoor activities and he learned to play the violin. He entered university at the age of eighteen and studied theology and philosophy at the Universities of Halle, Berlin, Rostock, and Jena.

According to the memoirs written by his daughter Ottilie Fuchs Goeth, on the occasion of young Pastor Adolf's first public sermon in Güstrow in 1828, his father caught a severe cold in the unheated church and as a result, died from pneumonia. At the time, Carl Adolf had just become engaged to Luise Rümker, and the couple married on July 10, 1829. For the next six years they lived in the town of Waren, where he was a teacher. Here their first four children, Adolf, Luise (Lulu), Ulrike (Ulla), and Conrad were born. Adolf died in infancy.

In 1835 Carl Adolf Fuchs became the pastor of the church in the village of Kölzow, where he served as minister until 1845. Here four more children were born: Ottilie, Wilhelm, Adolphine (Ino), and Hermann.

During his years in Kölzow, Carl Adolf became more and more disenchanted with the existing conditions in the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church. He became interested in emigration to North America, and in 1836 he published a poem called "The New Fatherland." During this time he also wrote a novel dealing with a young theological student-minister who eventually became very critical of the conditions of the Evangelical Church in Germany in the 1830s and decided to emigrate to North America. The novel Robert was published in Rostock in 1842. In February 2005, Kenneth W. Fuchs, great-great-grandson of Adolf Fuchs, published and English translation of the novel. It is available at the Authorhouse website.

Three years later Pastor Adolf Fuchs delivered his farewell sermon to the congregation in Kölzow, and on November 11, 1845, he and his family boarded the ship Gerhard Hermann in Bremen. They landed at Galveston on January 10, 1846, where Carl Adolf introduced himself as "Mr. Fox," using the American pronunciation of his name.

The family soon settled on a farm near the small community of Cat Spring in Austin County, about 63 miles west of Houston. Here another son, Benjamin (Benno), was born in 1848. While Carl Adolf's older sons ran the farm, he supported his family by teaching music at the Institute for Young Ladies at Independence, the forerunner of Baylor University. In 1849 he petitioned the state legislature for financial aid for the German school at Cat Spring, and this act was later recognized as the first petition for public education in the State of Texas. While the family was living in Cat Spring, they established a lasting friendship with the family of Johannes Romberg, who had emigrated from Boizenburg, Mecklenburg in 1847. Eventually, two of the Fuchs sons married Romberg daughters.

Before leaving Kölzow, Pastor Adolf had received papers for a land grant in Texas, and in 1853 he finally acquired title to the land. That year he moved the family to Burnet County, and they settled on the property overlooking the Colorado River, several miles west of present day Marble Falls.

Luise Johanna Rümker was born on October 14, 1809, in Rostock, Mecklenburg. Her parents were Gottlieb Theodor Rümker, a prosperous merchant in Rostock, and Helene Wien. In the words of her daughter Ottilie, she was "the most kind and noble of women. . . It was her life's goal to make others happy, always being self-sacrificing for the sake of others, particularly children. She had a compassionate heart for everyone, even the simplest of men. She seemed to bring out the best in people, as was evidenced in the way they responded to her. She always attempted to see the idealistic side in people. There was no room in her heart for the ugly or mean aspects of the world."

On July 10, 1879, the happy couple celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on the ranch property overlooking the Colorado, surrounded by their many children and grandchildren.

Adolf Fuchs was well-respected for his kindness and wisdom, his love of music and his many poems and songs. He died at his daughter Ottilie Goeth's home near Cypress Mill in Blanco County on December 9, 1885. His beloved Luise died only three months later, on March 1, 1886. A small obelisk monument marks their gravesite in the Fuchs Cemetery, located just a few yards from the site of their original home on the Colorado.