Von Rosenberg Hotel and General Store
Johannes Carl Johann von Rosenberg owned and operated a Hotel and Store on the north side of the square. The building still stands today.Place cursor over photo for another view
Von Rosenberg Hotel and General Store
Johannes Carl Johann von Rosenberg owned and operated a Hotel and Store on the north side of the square. The building still stands today.Place cursor over photo for another view
This little city is quite an historic place. It was formerly called Townsend's. Two miles from it is the former colony of the "Nassan [Nassau] Adelsverein," founded in the forties.
Round Top is situated about sixteen miles from La Grange on the La Grange-Brenham road. It is built on top of a hill which overlooks the Cumming's Creek bottom lands. Northeast is the rich La Bahia prairie. North towards Ledbetter is postoak.
Round Top used to be in olden times quite a considerable place. Evan after the arrival of the Texas Central and the building of Carmine, it held its own for a long time. Lately, Carmine being situated on the railroad, has cut off some of the trade of Round Top on account of its more favorable location. Still, the traditions and old established business relations of the place will always retain for it a considerable trade.
The population of Round Top is now entirely German, very few of the old American settlers having remained in its neighborhood. Among the old settlers of Round Top may be mentioned Geo. Fricke, a veteran of the Mexican War who served in that war under Gen. Winfield Scot; C. E. Bauer, the Weyand family, Dr. Rankin, ___ White, ___ Taylor, John Bell, I. C. Hill, Joel W. Robison, Wm. v. Rosenberg, Ferd., Henry and Ad. Kneip, C. W. Rummel, Chas. Schiege, Robert Zapp, C. Henkel, ___ Weikel, Rev. A. Neuthard, the late pastor of the Lutheran church who for a generation worked faithfully at that place in the vineyard of Our Lord, highly respected and beloved by all who knew him.
Round Top has two churches, the Lutheran and a colored Baptist church.
The city of Round Top was known in earlier times for the splendor of its feasts. Governors and state officers thought the place important enough to deliver their public addresses there before intelligent audiences.* These feasts are still very famous and always attract a large crowd. They are generally arranged by the Round Top Shooting Club, an organization known throughout South Texas. The president of this organization is Fritz Fricke, the secretary is Hy. Pochmann.
There are two lodges at Round Top: Knights of Honor, G. Froehlich, sr., secretary; and Sons of Hermann, H. C. Rummel, president, Fritz Fricke, secretary, (membership 32).
The Round Top school has been for a number of years under the able management of Prof. G. Froehlich and has retained under him its old established reputation for high grade of scholarship.
As remarked before, Round Top is, for a town not connected by any railroad, on account of its surrounding rich agricultural county, a very considerable trading place. Of the business men who appreciated the work of the writer on their home county to such an extent as to place with him a small ad. and to whom, therefore, the friends of the book should feel kind, because it enabled the writer to get out such a work, he mentions Ernst Fricke, the accommodating postmaster of Round Top, who is the proprietor of a good sized mercantile establishment, dealing in groceries, crockery and hardware; W. J. Dippel & Bro. in the general merchandise business; Wm. Ginzel, the old popular tin man of Round Top; O. H. Helmecke, who is the proprietor of one of the largest blacksmith and wheelwright shops in the county and a skillful workman; Gus Bender, whose saloon is the popular meeting place of the Round Top people; and Dr. A. Posch, a skillful and learned physician and surgeon, a man of high standing among his colleagues and the people. Round Top has four stores, three saloons, one drugstore, one tinsmith shop, one gin, one blacksmith shop, one cigar factory, one photograph gallery, one physician and one shoemaker. Quite a considerable place. It is the seat of justice for the precinct. A nice court house and calaboose stand on the public square.
Round Top has daily mail, a money order postoffice, and is connected with the outside world by telephone.
A fire company has been organized to protect the city against fire. The president of the fire company is Hermann Rummel, the captain of the hook and ladder company Otto Poppe.
The town was incorporated in 1865. Otto Poppe is the present mayor of the town; P. Klar, marshal. The population numbers about 250.
*NOTE. - In those early times Round Top was quite a political center. It was the home of the two leading politicians of the north side of the county, Judge C. Henkel, a democrat, and Robert Zapp, a republican. Both took an active interest in politics and were great campaigners.
Pictured from top are the Otto Heinririch Helmecke home, the home of Peter Carl Von Rosenberg and Amanda Fallier Von Rosenberg in Round Top (Zapp-Von Rosenberg home now at Henkel Square), Adolph Heinrich Kneip's gin (he was from Laubach, Oberhaussen, Germany and married Emilie Amanda Von Rosenberg), another Von Rosenberg family home. Below is the Round Top State Bank, chartered in 1912 with the Hermann Eugene Von Rosenberg home in the background.
All building photos on this page were contributed by Jon Todd Koenig.
Footprints of Fayette article by Donna Green:
Schiege Cigar Factory
Charles Schiege and his family immigrated to Fayette County, from Hanover Germany in the early 1870's.
In the town of Round Top stands a picturesque house and grounds just off of Washington Street. Charles Schiege Jr. built the house along with a small building behind the house that was home to his thriving business, the Schiege Cigar Factory.
Charles Jr’s cigar factory was built in 1882 and it continued to operate until the 1930's. During the years that he operated the factory he used tobacco grown in the area as well as tobacco brought in from Missouri and Ohio. The tobacco was carefully hand-rolled into cigars and distributed to San Antonio, Houston and Austin. Schiege's products carried colorful names such as "Texas Star", "Great Sport", "LaRosa Suprema" and the most popular, "Boss". In 1932 special 50th Anniversary boxes of the "Boss" cigars were put out by the Schiege Cigar Factory. The wooden boxes had the words "light" and "mild" in Spanish stamped on the side. The boxes also carried the dates 1882-1932 on them and featured a photograph of Charles Schiege on the box tops.
Remarkably the building where Schiege made his cigars still stands. It is a one-story frame building of native lumber. Inside the factory the fixtures consisted of a curved counter separating the working area from the office. Huge tobacco bins held raw cigar materials. At the height of his business seven workstations were attached to the walls for operators. Schiege provided on-site accommodations for his employees. Single men slept in the attic of his house. There were no stairs leading to the attic, so the workers had to climb a ladder to their quarters. The employees ate their meals with the Schiege family. A sign over the factory doorway read "Segars and Tobacco". "Segars" was a standard spelling of the word in the nineteenth century. Today most of the buildings in his complex bear historical markers.
In a 1985 article in the La Grange Journal, Charles Schiege’s daughter, Mrs. Frieda Schiege Franke, related a story of how she and her brother would sneak into the factory and learn how to make cigars from the workers. At the time of the article she still owned many pieces from the factory including specially made cigar cutters.
Charles was also a cabinetmaker and served as a justice of the peace. Schiege died in March 1935 and is buried at Florida Chapel Cemetery.
Photo of C. H. Schiege cigar box from Clarissa Newman
Footprints of Fayette article by Donna Green:
Running the Rings
by Donna GreenDuring the late 1800's and early 1900's the small community of Round Top was the scene of one of the more interesting sporting events ever to take place in Fayette County. It was known as a "running of the rings" tournament. The event had a medieval theme in which men on horseback competed against each other in a variety of contests. The participants dressed in extravagantly detailed and flashy costumes. Often the costumes reflected the celebration of a particular holiday or were adorned with family crests. The costumes were brightly colored and often featured gold or silver trim with feathers or other decorations. The horses were usually decorated as elaborately as the riders were. The riders had to be expertly trained and skilled. The horses also had to be trained and skilled to work closely with the riders. Spear throwing, lance making, jousting and horse racing were contested throughout the day. However, it was the main event that gave the competition its name and decided the overall winner of the competition. The main event featured competitors using a spear or long lance to snag rings from a target. Those competing in the day's events were referred to as "knights." The "running of the rings" was just part of the celebration that usually began with a parade headed by a Grand Marshall. All the "knights" and their mounts paraded in front of the large crowd of spectators that always gathered. After the events of the day a picnic and dance would be held. According to the La Grange Journal some of the more prominent local citizens known to have participated in the Round Top events were: H. Becker, A. Becker, Fayette County Sheriffs J.T. Rankin and B. L. Zapp (both who served during this time period), K. Neese, Alex von Rosenberg (businessman and land owner), H. Amberg, and J. Robison.
The origins of the celebration remain somewhat of a mystery although several people have researched it. Most researchers agree that the event probably began as an attempt by the large German population to bring some of the culture of their homeland to the area. The area around Round Top was purchased by a German cousin of Queen Victoria and intended to encourage German colonization in Texas. It is likely that the settlers brought this tradition with them when they emigrated.
Footprints of Fayette article transcribed by Connie F. Sneed from the October 4, 1968 Dallas Morning News:
German Festival Planned
Round Top, Texas - Reviving and bringing to Texas a tradition that began in Munich, Germany in 1810 will be the first annual Oktoberfest Saturday and Sunday. This Texas German community of 124 in Fayette County will present an Antiques Fair and celebration in the Rifle Association Building.
Like the original, it will commemorate the wedding of Prince Ludwig. Along with antique dealers’ booths there will be vignettes with early Texas Pioneer furnishings and a one woman art show by Trudy Sween of Houston, who will present her Fantasy Flowers.
On the grounds will be a German Biergarten and the local German Oompah band will play. Restored buildings in the area open for the Oktoberfest will include Mrs. Hazel Ledbetter’s little “Yellow” house with furniture made in Round Top by early settlers and the Segar factory with some of the original labels and purchase orders for cigars distributed to Southwest Texas.
Hackberry Hill, a complex restored by Mr. and Mrs. Harvin C. Moore of Houston, will also be open for tours.
Carl Siegismund Bauer
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Carl Ergott Bauer
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Wilhelmine Siedentopf Bauer
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Sled in front of Alex Von Rosenberg Store in Round Top, 15 February 1895Mrs. Friederike Recknagel took this photo after eight inches of snow fell on Round Top.
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Mayer Cemetery, Washington County
See Round Top history, architecture and attractions at the TexasEscapes.com site
