Maria Christina Sophie Behrens Brodbeck

          

          Christine Brodbeck was born June 5, 1844, being the 4th child and 3rd daughter of Heinrich Conrad Behrens and Sophie Henriette Behrens (nee Hauer). Her family lived in what is called Brunswick (Braunschweig), a state in Lower Saxony, Germany.

People were promised land in Texas if they would come and colonize the area.  Henry Behrens and his family, together with twelve other families, and at least 7 single people sailed from Germany on October 5, 1845.  Two months later the Ship Gerhard Hermann landed at Galveston, Texas on December 10, 1845.  Within a month Christine's oldest sister Henrietta became ill and the family was transported to New Braunfels.  Henrietta died there and was buried in the old city cemetery.  Finally wagons arrived to take them to their new home.  There were no good roads and it was rainy for most of the trip making it miserable for the travelers.  Their destination was the Doss Settlement on the Llano River in the Fisher-Miller Grant.

           Once the Behrens family arrived at their land the real test came.  The area was raw and frequented by the Native peoples, the Comanche and the Apache, who were not happy that the settlers were taking their land.  At times it was difficult to feed the family, even with abundant game around.  No stores were near and what provisions could be attained had to come from Fredericksburg.

          When the Comanche began raiding and killing the settlers, Henry moved his family to Fort Scott Martin at Fredericksburg for safety.  It is said that about 1850 he road out to the Llano area to survey his allotment and was shot by three poison arrows.  One story indicates that he was treated by Dr. Harmisch but died anyway.  The family does not know where he is buried.  Quite possibly he is buried in Fredericksburg in an unmarked grave since there were so few funds available to Sophie for burial of her husband.

           Christine’s mother, Sophie, now a widow with three children,  met a man recently widowed, Henry Hasse.  He had two children.  Sophie and Henry were married in 1851 and moved out to Llano.  Henry built two little picket houses in 1852 which provided better protection for his family.  Since there as not a school in Llano, Christine's mother sent her to live in Fredericksburg.  There public school was held at the Vereins-Kirche.  Jacob Brodbeck was the second school teacher.  Christine was his pupil until she graduated school at 14 years old.  The story is that there were so few eligible women around that Jacob proposed to Christine and they were married in 1858.  Jacob and Christine lived in Fredericksburg for a short while then bought land near Luckenbach.  Here Jacob built a log cabin, and as the family grew, he added a sturdy rock house with the help of his brother, Johann George Brodbeck.