Editing Boerne, Texas (section)

==History==
[[File:Herff-Rozelle Farm2.JPG|left|thumb|200px|A barn on the [[Herff–Rozelle Farm]] in Boerne]]
Boerne came into being as an offshoot of the Texas Hill Country [[freethought|Free Thinker]] [[Latin Settlement]]s, resulting from the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the German states]]. Those who came were [[Forty-Eighters]], intellectual liberal abolitionists who enjoyed conversing in [[Latin]] and who believed in utopian ideals that guaranteed basic human rights to all.<ref name="Freethinkers of the Early Texas Hill Country">{{cite web | title=Freethinkers of the Early Texas Hill Country | publisher=Freethinkers Association of Central Texas | author=Scharf, Edwin E | url=http://www.freethinkersact.org/articles.htm | access-date=11 May 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219213619/http://www.freethinkersact.org/articles.htm | archive-date=19 February 2009 }} Freethinkers Association of Central Texas</ref> They reveled in passionate conversations about science, philosophy, literature, and music.<ref name="German Intellectuals on the Texas Frontier">{{cite web | title=German Intellectuals on the Texas Frontier | publisher=TexFiles | author=Kennedy, Ira | url=http://www.texfiles.com/texashistory/castell.htm | access-date=11 May 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100511055348/http://www.texfiles.com/texashistory/castell.htm | archive-date=11 May 2010 | url-status=dead }} TexFiles</ref> The Free Thinkers first settled [[Castell, Texas|Castell]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Castell, Texas | publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. | url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasHillCountryTowns/Castell-Texas.htm | access-date=11 May 2010}} Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC.</ref> [[Bettina, Texas|Bettina]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Bettina, Texas - Vanished Sister to Castell | publisher=Castell, Texas | url=http://www.castelltexas.com/bettina.html | access-date=11 May 2010}}</ref> Leningen,<ref>{{Handbook of Texas | name=Leiningen, Prince Carl | id=fle61|author=Brister, Louis E. |  retrieved=30 April 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> and Schoenburg in [[Llano County, Texas|Llano County]]. These experimental communities were supported by the [[Adelsverein]]<ref>{{Handbook of Texas | name=Adelsverein | id=ufa01|author=Brister, Louis E. |  retrieved=11 May 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> for one year. The communities eventually failed due to lack of finances after the Adelsverein funding expired, and conflicts of structure and authorities. Many of the pioneers from these communities moved to [[Sisterdale, Texas|Sisterdale]], Boerne, and [[Comfort, Texas|Comfort]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Freethinkers of the Early Texas Hill Country | publisher=Free Thinkers Association of Texas | author=Scharf, Edwin E. | url=http://www.freethinkersact.org/articles.htm | access-date=11 May 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219213619/http://www.freethinkersact.org/articles.htm | archive-date=19 February 2009 }}</ref>

In 1849, a group of Free Thinker German colonists from Bettina camped on the north side of [[Cibolo Creek]], about a mile west of the site of present Boerne. They named their new community after [[Cicero]]'s [[Tusculum]] home in [[ancient Rome]]. In 1852, John James and Gustav Theissen,<ref name="Freethinkers of the Early Texas Hill Country"/> who helped settle Sisterdale, platted the townsite, renamed it in honor of German author [[Karl Ludwig Börne]],<ref name="Börne, Karl Ludwig">{{cite encyclopedia | title=Börne, Karl Ludwig | encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia | url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1342&letter=B| access-date=11 May 2010}}</ref> with the [[Anglicisation|Anglicized]] spelling of "Boerne". The town was not incorporated until 1909. August Staffell<ref name="Boerne Postmasters">{{cite web | title=Boerne Postmasters | publisher=Jim Wheat | url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txpost/comal.html | access-date=11 May 2010}}Jim Wheat</ref> was the original [[postmaster]] in 1856.

During the Civil War, Boerne voted against secession and was a mostly pro-Union town; many communities in Kendall County were part of the formation of the [[Union League]], which supported the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] and [[Abraham Lincoln]].

[[File:Boerne-tx2015-22(henry-j-graham-building).jpg|left|thumb|200px|Historic office building in Boerne]]
The 1870 limestone courthouse, second-oldest in Texas, was designed by architects Philip Zoeller and J. F. Stendebach, and stands directly across the street from the current 1998 courthouse designed by architects Rehler, Vaughn & Koone, Inc.<ref name="Kendall County Courthouses">{{cite web | title=Kendall County Courthouses | publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. | url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TOWNS/Boerne/KendallCountyCourthouseBoerneTexas.htm | access-date=11 May 2010}} Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC.</ref>

In March 1887, the [[San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway]] came to town. The coming of the railroad was an economic boost of some magnitude, and it created better conditions for the area.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/history-boerne.php |title=Boerne and the Railroad |access-date=2016-04-16 |archive-date=2016-04-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420150141/http://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/history-boerne.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the late 1870s, retired British army officers, including Glynn Turquand and Captain Egremont Shearburn, played one of the first [[polo]] matches in the United States in Boerne.<ref name="laffaye">Horace A. Laffaye, ''Polo in Britain: A History'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 69</ref> The polo ground is still visible on Balcones Ranch, bought by Captain Turquand in 1878.<ref name="laffaye"/>

Boerne's robust environment encouraged the [[health resort]] industry. Sisters of the Incarnate Word founded the St. Mary's Sanitarium in 1896 for [[pulmonary]] patients;<ref name="St. Mary's Sanitarium">{{Cite web | title=St. Mary's Sanitarium | publisher=Kendall County TxGenWeb Project | url=http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/stsan.htm | access-date=11 May 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003175056/http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/stsan.htm | archive-date=3 October 2011 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Dr. W.E. Wright contracted with the Veterans Administration in 1919 to provide care for [[World War I]] veterans suffering from lung ailments;<ref name="Dr. Wright's Sanitorium">{{Cite web | title=Dr. Wright's Sanitorium | publisher=Kendall County TxGenWeb Project | url=http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/wrigt.htm | access-date=11 May 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003175131/http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/wrigt.htm | archive-date=3 October 2011 | url-status=dead }}</ref> the William L. Sill [[Tuberculosis]] Resort operated northwest of Boerne;<ref name="William L. Sill Tuberculosis Resort">{{Cite web | title=William L. Sill Tuberculosis Resort | publisher=Kendall County TxGenWeb Project | url=http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/sill_san.htm | access-date=11 May 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003175153/http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/sill_san.htm | archive-date=3 October 2011 | url-status=dead }}</ref> and Mrs. Adolph (Emilie) Lex opened her home to recovering patients, eventually converting two rooms into operating rooms.<ref name="Lex Sanitarium">{{Cite web | title=Lex Sanitarium | publisher=Kendall County TxGenWeb Project | url=http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/lex.htm | access-date=11 May 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003175201/http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/lex.htm | archive-date=3 October 2011 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Karl Degener organized the Boerne ''Gesang Verein'' (singing club) and the Boerne Village Band<ref>{{Cite web | title=Boerne Village Band | publisher=Texas Music History Online | url=http://ctmh.its.txstate.edu/artist.php?cmd=detail&aid=357&start=0&letter= | access-date=11 May 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100222114609/http://ctmh.its.txstate.edu/artist.php?cmd=detail&aid=357&start=0&letter= | archive-date=22 February 2010 | url-status=dead }} Texas Music History Online</ref> in 1860. The family and descendants of Sisterdale resident Baron [[Ottomar von Behr]] have included three generations of directors of the Boerne Village Band, and four generations of musicians.<ref name="von Behr musicians">{{Handbook of Texas | name=von Behr musicians | id=xgbjv |  retrieved=11 May 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> The band is billed as the "Oldest Continuously Organized German Band in the World outside Germany", and in 1998<ref>{{Cite web | title=Boerne Village Band | publisher=TKendall County TxGenWeb Project | url=http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/bvb.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123032611/http://www.txgenweb2.org/txkendall/bvb.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=23 November 2008 | access-date=11 May 2010 }} Texas Music History Online</ref> the [[Federal Republic of Germany]] recognized the Boerne Village Band for its contribution to the German heritage in Texas and America.