(1870-1938)
Henry Joseph Lamm
(1870-1938) Born in Comfort
In 1979, the Comfort News ran a feature article on the Joseph Lamm Fachwerk House in Comfort. The then 120-year-old structure was featured on Comfort's Historic Tour. The article, by Margaret Kretzmeier, told of the arrival of the Joseph Lamm family in Comfort in 1855, and how Joseph and a "friend, Anton Bohnert, a single man, purchased land in 1858 that bordered on the north and south sides of the Guadalupe River." In his book "One Hundred Years of Comfort in Texas", Guido Ransleben also refers to the Joseph Lamm family when he lists people who settled in Comfort in 1855, but in the 1860 census, Joseph is the only Lamm listed. He is living with his wife, Louisa, their one-year-old son, John, and his "friend", Anton Bohnert. Did Joseph Lamm come to America with his family, or did he come alone?
Joseph was born on December 14, 1825, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany to Joseph Lamm and Franziska Bohnert. Franziska had an older brother named Moritz, and Moritz had a son named Anton. Joseph and Anton both list Baden as their country of origin on the 1860 census, and both men arrived in Comfort in 1855. They are first cousins and immigrated to Texas together.
The same year Joseph and Anton purchased their land, Joseph married his neighbor, Louisa Heinen. The marriage was performed by Kerr County J.P., Charles Herbst on August 18, 1858. Louisa was the oldest child of Johann "John" Peter Heinen and Anna Maria Kleberg. John immigrated to Comfort in from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany in 1854, with his wife and six children. Almost a year to the day after Joseph and Louisa marry, Louisa's sister, Gertrud, marries John Pankratz on August 28. When the 1860 census is taken, John Heinen, his wife Anna and his four sons are living next door to Joseph. Unlike Joseph, Anton and most of the other men listed on the page, John is listed as a master shoemaker instead of a farmer or farm laborer. John and Gertrud Pankratz are living near Camp Verde. Louisa and Gertrud's brother, Peter, is on both census lists. In June, Peter is living at home, working as a farm laborer, and in July, he is doing the same thing in Camp Verde.
For the next ten years, Joseph and Louisa work their farm and raise their family. When Kendall County is formed in 1862, he registers his brand and earmark on July 8. Earlier in the year, he appears as a Sargent on the muster roll of the Comfort Militia. In 1864, Louisa's brother-in-law, John Pankratz, acquires 31 acres of land adjacent to them from Ernst Altgelt. Cousin Anton marries the widow of Joseph Grollimund, Fredericka Schellhase, in January 1868, and they establish a household next door to Joseph. Louisa's father died shortly after the 1860 census was taken, and her mother died sometime around 1870. When the 1870 census is taken, Louisa's brother Peter, is living next door where her parents had been living in 1860. The four farms are listed in sequence on the 1870 agriculture census: Pankratz, Bohnert, Lamm and Heinen. They all raised similar crops and had similar livestock, but Joseph also kept bees. He produced 60 pounds of beeswax and 600 pounds of honey. John Lamm, now 11, has been joined by four brothers and a sister: Joseph, born 1860; Frances (Volz), born 1862; Ernest, born 1864; Louis, born 1866; and Henry, born 1870. In 1872, the Lamms had another daughter, Carolina "Lena" (Hahn), the last child to be born in Comfort.
In April 1874, Joseph and Louisa sold their land to Cousin Anton and moved to San Antonio. Their last three children were born here. Elfriede (Wernette) was born in 1874; Fredericka in 1875 and Charles in 1879. The 1880 census reported that Joseph was a gardener, and the family was living in a suburb of San Antonio with no street names. Barrera Street was listed at the bottom of the page, and Barrera Street is just south of downtown in the Southtown/Lavaca District. Joseph dies shortly after his sixty- eighth birthday on December 29, 1893, and is buried in Saint Joseph's Society Cemetery in San Antonio.
Sometime between the 1880 census and the 1900 census, Louisa moves a few blocks east to Nebraska Street. She is recorded as Louisa Limm, but the other items recorded make it apparent she is Joseph's widow, Louisa Lamm. The children are gone, and she is living alone. Louisa dies in her home at 114 Nebraska on November 29, 1922, and is buried next to her husband at Saint Joseph's Society Cemetery.
Nebraska Street has since been renamed Martin Luther King Drive. To learn more about First Families, visit our website at www.gskctx.org, or come by 114 E. Blanco Rd. in Boerne. Check website for hours when open.
For more information Google: henry lamm fachwerk house boerne Texas/Genealogical Society of Kendall County
Anna Madeline Gittinger married Henry Joseph Lamm on January 1891.
Wedding photo of Henry Joseph Lamm and Anna Madeline Gittinger showing bride with tiara-style headdress and veil trailing the floor. She carries flowers in her left hand and has her husband's arm in her right hand. A watch chain is visible on the vest.
In 1892, one year after their marriage, Henry and Anna lived at 102 Cactus Street and had opened grocery and feed store at 2805 South Flores Street. By 1894 the store had become the "Henry Lamm Saloon." The saloon was successful and the family moved to 310 West Baylor Street. Their first phone number was O-1014. At one point Henry operated a cotton gin with his brothers.
Henry Joseph Lamm and Anna Madeline Gittinger had ten children in San Antonio.
The ten children of Henry Joseph Lamm & Anna Madeline Gittinger were:
Lamm family
circa 1910.
Standing from left: Herb, Dora, Alex, Helen
Seated from left: Bruno, Papa, Bill, Mama, M. Adeline, Nuddie (Gertrude),
Raymond born a year later
The Lamm family eventually became members of St. Henry's Parish, which was founded in 1904.
Until that time, they were members of St. Joseph's Downtown Catholic Church, which served the German-speaking population of San Antonio. On 2 July 1892, Henry Joseph Lamm and eleven other men of German ancestry founded the San Antonio Liederkranz, a German men's choir that served the parish and entertained the German-speaking community.
For over twenty years the family made a good living. Then their second son Elek died at age nineteen after a difficult fight against cancer. The family expended all its financial resources in an attempt to save him. His younger sister Adeline remembered that after Elek's death, her parents were devastated and recalled that her father never recovered his emotional well-being and did not try to recover financially. By 1918 the saloon had closed, but Henry lived another twenty years, farming until his death on 17 December 1938. Henry Joseph Lamm was sixty-eight.
He appears middle-aged. (circa 1910) in this picture
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Anna Madeline Gittinger (Lamm) (circa 1895)
Anna Madeline Gittinger Lamm died on 14 February 1950, in San Antonio, four days before her eightieth birthday. She and her husband are buried in St. Joseph's Society Cemetery.
Three Generations of Henry and Anna Lamm Family 1938 at Seven Oaks Farm
Top Row Left to Right
1. Herman Jaeckle (Uncle Wiggs)
2. Charles Deason (Uncle Charlie)
3. John Hutzler Jr. (Buddy)
4. John Hutzler (Uncle Nonnie)
5. Yvonne Hutzler
6. Doris Hutzler (Tootsie)
7. Phyllis Lamm*
8. Ernestine Lamm*
9. Lucile Lamm*
10. Philomena Lamm* (Mrs. Herbert - Aunt Philomene)
11. Ann Lamm (Mrs. Bill Lamm - Aunt Ann)
12. Marjorie Lamm (Mrs. Bruno Lamm - Aunt Margie)
2nd Row Left to right
1. Adeline Jaeckle (Aunt Adeline)
2. Helen Deason (Aunt Helen)
3. Gertrude Fetzer (Aunt Nuddie)
4. Dora Hutzler (Aunt Dodo)
5. Henry Lamm (Grandpa Lamm)
6. Anna Lamm (Grandma Lamm)
7. Herbert Lamm* (Uncle Herb)
Holding Mary Louise*
8. Bill (Hilary) Lamm (Uncle Bill)
9. Bruno Lamm (Uncle Bruno)
10. Raymond Lamm (Uncle Boob)
Bottom Row Left to Right
1. Homer Fetzer
2. Charles Hutzler (Fella)
3. Elaine Deason (Cookie)
4. Beverly Deason (Jane)
5. Mildred Lamm*
*All Herbert and Philomena Family