The Texas German of Lee and Fayette Counties

Abstract

HE subject of this investigation is the German spoken in central Texas in the towns of Giddings and LaGrange and the many small communities between the two.This area, located in Lee and Fayette Counties about sixty miles east of Austin, was one of the focal points of German immigration in Texas in the nineteenth century.Indeed, the oldest German settlements in Texas (dating back to 1823)-Bastrop, Industry, Cat Spring, Shelby, and Frelsburg-are all located in this general area.2The region has always retained its German character, as even many place-names testify, e.g., Loebau, Weimar, Warda, Oldenburg, Manheim, etc.And many an English name, such as those mentioned above and Winchester, Northrup, Lexington, Lincoln, etc., cIoaks an almost purely German community.Of particular interest are the Wendish-Germans, who settled in and about the community of Serbin.The Wends (also called Sorbs) are a Slavic peopIe who, by-passed by the German colonization of the east in the middle ages, form even to the present day the only appreciable non-Germanic block in Germ a n ~. ~ Many emigrated from Germany in the last century to preserve their Lutheran religion and their archaic Slavic mother tongue-Wendish.The 558 Wends who sailed for Texas in 1854 made up the largest group emigration of thisThe Serbin community which they founded was to remain the only Wendish colony in the United States, and the only other such colonies in the world are in Australia.Many more Wends came to the Serbin area in the years to follow and a number of daughter communities (Fedor, Warda, etc.) were formed.Although the Wends had left Germany to avoid the pressure of Germanization, they were happy to have German neighbors

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