News from the Lake Creek Settlement: Christmas in 1839, “Frohe Weihnachten”

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX -- One of the earliest accounts of a Christmas celebration in the young Republic of Texas was recorded in the diary of a young German traveler and businessman named Gustav Dresel in 1839. This may also be the first account of a Christmas celebration in Montgomery County for which there is a written record. The colonists and settlers, for the most part, were far too busy eking out an agrarian existence in the young Republic of Texas to keep a diary or record their thoughts about Christmas for posterity. Dresel kept a detailed diary of his rather lengthy visit to Texas. Much of his time in Texas was spent in Montgomery residing with fellow German Lewis Stoner [originally Steiner] and his family. He also profited from his visits to Montgomery by buying wagons of corn and selling the corn in Houston for a substantial profit.

The following account is a translation of Dresel’s diary from December 24-25, 1839. His account is from pages 90-92 of Gustav Dresel’s Houston Journal: Adventures in North America and Texas 1837-1841, translated by Max Freund (then Professor of German and Head of the German Department at Rice University) and published by the University of Texas Press in 1954.

“Before Christmas [1839] my corn business recalled me to Montgomery. Christmas Eve was very simply spent with Stoner: we spoke a great deal about Germany and I read German poems to him. In my thoughts, I was with my parents and brothers and sisters on the Rhine. They no doubt thought of me, but could they guess how and where I spent this joyful family festival. Americans allow all these fine festival days to go by uncelebrated, even New Year's Eve. This prosaic life did not please me. I designed a plan to prepare new enjoyments for these backwoods people. I did not want to wallow on the buffalo skin, sunk in melancholic reveries, while all Germany, jubilating, dancing, drinking, and kissing, rejoiced at having got over another year.”

“Escorted by a fellow conspirator, I galloped the four miles to Montgomery to buy as much whisky as our saddlebags would hold. By means of four dollars and good entreaties I succeeded with Mr. Shepherd [W. W. Shepperd], the only one in the region at that time who had a small supply of the most wretched bad spirits in his possession, in purchasing four jugfuls. Happy in the possession of a means for bringing human company together, we set out on the return journey. Old Stoner, after being initiated into our intentions by drink, was ordered to take immediate steps for gathering around me the men of the neighborhood, provided with guns and powder, before darkness would set in. The watchword for the evening was whisky!”

“The prospect of a little glassful of the long missed, though unspeakably bad, liquor acted like a charm. When we were together in sufficient numbers, I made the jug go round. Their frame of mind became favorable. I disclosed my intentions, and they met with approval. Whenever it is a matter of organizing a frolic, a spree, the Texians are not found wanting. It was about eleven o’clock at night when we decamped, after having discharged our guns. We went from farm to farm, and each time we greeted with platoon fire, so that the dogs howled, and the inhabitants took fright and seized their arms to ward off a night attack. As a token of peace, I handed the head of the surprised family the jug and explained in honor of the sublime moment this cannonade took place. It was difficult, however, to make these unbelieving souls conceive that this custom was due to the warlike spirit of the Germans.”

“The last call, for it was to be of right long duration, if possible, was intended for the former gunsmith and for his pretty, shy, and amiable young daughter. The farm lay between trees on a little elevation in the acute angle of the Montgomery and Houston roads. It was already midnight when we approached the quiet homestead and took our stand below the trees. No pinewood was lighting up the dim flame of the chimney fire anymore, a sign the inhabitants had gone to rest. Something special was to happen here. I proposed three volleys. Our troop had increased, since from every farm we visited, some had joined. The first volley raised a general uproar in the interior of the cabin: the children cried, the dogs barked, the Colonel, with his gun in hand, was in the courtyard in no time. A hurrah, twice repeated, quieted him who already suspected Indians or Mexicans. Twice more we interrupted the stillness of the night by the report of our guns.”

“We then accepted his invitation and stood under his hospitable roof, fifteen of us. The fire was stirred, and really, by the glare of the pinewood, the gathering looked so motley, wild, and romantic that we were placed into a merrily enthusiastic mood. The housewife fetched a stag’s ham, the young daughter baked a maize cake., and we contributed the remaining two jugfuls of whisky. After having taken a draught to the welfare of the ladies, we declared to the Colonel that we should neither budge nor withdraw until the last drop had wetted our lips. “In that case, I know what to do boys!” he commenced. “We have eggs; hot water will soon be ready; let us brew an eggnog that the ladies will not despise either!” No sooner said than done; a dozen beaten-up eggs, sugar, the necessary water and our bad liquor furnished a drink by which we spent the night in the merriest of moods. We returned by daybreak only to our scattered homesteads. All were satisfied with the execution of my queer notion and declared that I was “a hell of a Dutchman.”

As we have seen in several of my recent articles, Montgomery town founder, W. W. Shepperd, always seemed to be able to find a way to insert himself into the earliest history of the town and the county. Here he sold the whisky that made Dresel’s band of colonists and settlers evening excursion and merriment possible. The absence of Shepperd’s “most wretched bad spirits” may have robbed us of the details of this early Christmas celebration in Montgomery County.

Kameron K. Searle is a member of the Montgomery County Historical Commission, a regular contributor to The Handbook of Texas Online, and author of The Early History of Montgomery, Texas. He also served as the historian for the Texas Historical Commission marker for the "Lake Creek Settlement" located at the Nat Hart Davis Pioneer Complex and Museum.