Nassau Plantation: The Evolution of a Texas German Slave Plantation

Chapter 8. Das Herrenhaus

103 ChaPter 8 Das Herrenhaus The tragic and unexpected death of Friedrich von Wrede, Sr., left the manor house to stand empty for several months. By placing the house a half-mile from the center of operations, Count Boos-Waldeck had placed class-consciousness above functionality, and this contributed to the inefficient administration of the plantation, as Friedrich von Wrede had pointed out. The house had been under construction for a full year, and it was nearly finished by the time of von Wrede’s death. 104 James C. Kearney It came to be widely known and celebrated as one of the finest houses on the Texas frontier. When, for example, the celebrated Dr. Ferdinand Roemer visited the house during his travels in Texas in 1846, he described the house as charming and a cut above the average Texas frontier house.1 Friedrich von Wrede, Sr., never given to exaggeration, characterized the house as “schön,” or “lovely.”2 Later, in 1850, Amanda Fallier von Rosenberg, spoke in a similar vein: “You also have no idea of what one calls a house in Texas—a rectangular room, high and airy, with a good roof is called here a house. Among these a house like ours, six years ago the best and still one of the best, is called a fort, a castle, a prince’s house, a manor house. Our house is called all these things in jest, but it is pretty and, I may add, romantic.”3 Boos-Waldeck had located the house on the crown of the most prominent hill in the league where a magnificent panorama opened up for 360 degrees. He put it about a half mile distant from the other buildings of the plantation: impractical, but socially palatable to a German nobleman. It nestled in a large mott of stately live oak trees, which provided shade to the south and east. At first appearance, the house resembled many on the frontier . It was a story-and-a-half dogtrot4 constructed of planked oak logs that were carefully notched and fitted at the corners, in a half-dovetail configuration.5 Well prior to the construction of the Herrenhaus, German craftsmen of the area had mastered and employed this technique.6 Both Boos-Waldeck and Fordtran had singled out Wilhelm Etzel for praise for his work on the house. A picture emerges of Etzel in regard to certain characteristics of temperament: he was a volatile perfectionist who did not mind offending people if that was what it took to do a good job. This is what Fordtran meant when he reported that Etzel had kept everything in “military order.” Under his supervision, the fit and finish on the house was most certainly excellent and a cut above the usual. Etzel’s singular dedication to his work insured quality, but it also created problems. Two local German carpenters, Stuesse and Nelson, eventually quit because of his demanding and overbearing ways. Nassau Plantation 105 To build a frontier house of this style required dressing the logs with an adze to form a flat surface on both sides. This presented a more refined look than a full log house. This method left a gap of two to four inches between the logs. These spaces needed to be filled in with stones and mud, or mortar, if available. A house thus “chinked” became a substantial structure and a solid barrier against wind and rain. The planked logs were fitted to construct two pens, or rooms, separated by a breezeway, or “dog trot.” These were raised to a height sufficient to make a story and a half so that two more rooms could be added above the bottom two. A narrow stairway in the breezeway led to the second story. Over these pens, a roof was fitted which extended to cover two full-length porches on the long axis of the house. This created what is sometimes referred to as a “Louisiana” style roof. Wilhelm Etzel enclosed the porches with a balustrade sufficient to make it childproof.7 The house sat on live oak stumps about two feet off the ground. There is some disagreement on what was used for flooring.8 Shipping receipts suggest pine, but Amanda Fallier von Rosenberg described the floors as cedar.9 Whether cedar or pine, we know it was sawed planking, and this represented an uncommon refinement at this point: sawed planking was considerably...