Fredericksburg, Texas

Everything Fredericksburg is known for

10 songs mention this city 10 artists from here

Fredericksburg, Texas, located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, is known for its German heritage and as a prominent wine destination. The city also has a notable connection to music. Eleven songs mention Fredericksburg, and ten artists call it home. Among these artists is Bernie Nelson, a country musician, and Johnny Nicholas, who plays the blues. The town is also mentioned in songs like "Fredericksburg" by Say Zuzu and "Stoned" by Old 97s.

Music in Fredericksburg

Songs About Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg
Chad Richard
80%
"Song about Fredericksburg"
Fredericksburg
Say Zuzu
80%
"Song about Fredericksburg"
Fredericksburg
Jesse Stratton Band
80%
"Song about Fredericksburg"
Stoned
Old 97s
74%
"Take a Greyhound to Fredericksburg"
Stoned
Old 97's
52%
"Take a Greyhound to Fredericksburg"
Boomtown (Talco Tapes Version)
Treaty Oak Revival
43%
"From Crown to Enchanted Rock"
My Texas
Josh Abbott Band
41%
"If you haven't climbed up to enchanted rock"
Boomtown
Treaty Oak Revival
40%
"From Crown to Enchanted Rock"
No Kinda Dancer
Robert Earl Keen
19%
"To the oom-pa-pa rhthm of a German delight"
I Like Texas
Pat Green
7%
"I like to pick my guitar down at Luckenbach"

Artists From Fredericksburg

B
Bernie Nelson
country Pop: 55
J
Johnny Nicholas
blues Pop: 18
M
Mike Blakely
country Pop: 9
Q
Quincy Harper
country Pop: 8
J
Jake Martin
country Pop: 5
S
ShAnnie
americana Pop: 5
D
Dan West
country Pop: 5
W
Woody Eastman
folk Pop: 4
J
Jason Grove
country Pop: 3
B
Bryan Maldonado
blues Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Fredericksburg

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Fredericksburg.

Interstate 10 23 songs Guadalupe River 9 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs

History of Fredericksburg

Cross Mountain: A 1757 Spanish Cross, Lost and Found RoadyGoat

1757

Long before the United States existed, in 1757, Spanish missionaries trekking from San Antonio toward Mission San Saba paused on a lonely Hill Country hilltop and erected a wooden cross as a trail landmark. It stood there in the wind for nearly 90 years. Then in 1847, a young German settler named John Christian Durst arrived from the old country and was deeded ten acres that included this hill. When he found the weathered remains of that Spanish cross, he named the spot Kreuzberg -- Cross Mountain. The hill became sacred ground for Fredericksburg's German Catholic community. In 1946, St. Mary's Catholic Church raised a permanent lit cross of metal and concrete that still glows above town tonight.

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Grapetown, TX RoadyGoat

Grapetown, Texas. It's a quiet place now, and maybe that's part of its charm. But these unassuming streets have seen their share of stories. You can almost hear the echoes of stagecoach wheels, imagining one carrying gold, maybe the very one that legend says was robbed and buried somewhere close by.

9.4 mi away

Grapetown, TX RoadyGoat

Grapetown sits quietly now, a place where you can almost hear the echoes of the past. Founded in 1847 by German immigrants making their way along the Fredericksburg-San Antonio Road, it was named for the wild grapes that grew thick and sweet in the area. Imagine those early settlers, carving out a life in the Texas Hill Country, the stagecoaches rumbling through, maybe even one carrying gold, if you believe the old stories. Ranching and farming took root, and for a time, Grapetown thrived as a small but vital community. But the railroad, that iron horse of progress, bypassed Grapetown, and like many small towns across the country, it felt the sting of decline. People moved away seeking opportunity elsewhere, and the once-bustling center quieted. Even so, the spirit of Grapetown endures. It’s there in the wide-open fields, the legacy of those German families, and the nearby Fredericksburg High School, a reminder of the community’s pride and the roar of Friday night lights.

9.4 mi away

Fredericksburg German Settlement

1846

German colony founded in 1846 by the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas. Baron von Meusebach negotiated a peace treaty with the Comanche in 1847.

National Museum of the Pacific War

1885

Chester Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in WWII, grew up in Fredericksburg, Texas. His grandfather's hotel is now the National Museum of the Pacific War.

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Nimitz, Chester W.

1866

Typical early Fredericksburg home built 1866 by Carl Basse. Property of the Henke family since 1873. Heinrich Henke, early settler, Confederate freighter, had butcher counter on front porch; meat processing was done in back yard; there the horses that pulled meat vending cart were stabled. Shop later built on foundation of stone walls surrounding lot. He and his wife Dorothea (nee Weirich) added the long dining room and kitchen with sloped roof to accommodate their twelve children. Many of their furnishings are preserved by Udo Henke, a descendant. In small room to rear of front bedroom, on Feb. 24, 1885, their daughter, Anna Henke Nimitz, gave birth to Chester William Nimitz, destined to command the greatest naval armada in history. A 1905 honor graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy, Nimitz was chief of staff to commander, Atlantic Submarine Fleet, W.W.I. Installed first Naval ROTC unit in U.S. Navy, 1926; selected Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet after attack on Pearl Harbor; appointed Fleet Admiral, U. S. Navy, 1944. As representative of the U. S. he signed Japanese surrender documents on his flagship, USS Missouri, Sept. 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay. Admiral Nimitz died in San Francisco on Feb. 20, 1966. (1968)

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Nimitz, Chester William

1885

Chester William Nimitz, who guided Allied forces to victory in the Pacific in World War II , was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, on February 24, 1885, the son of Chester Bernard and Anna (Henke) Nimitz. His father died before he was born. During his early years his grandfather Charles H. Nimitz , a German immigrant, former seaman, and owner of the Nimitz Hotel , served as the father figure whom Nimitz credited with shaping his character and values. In 1890 Chester's mother married her late husband's younger brother, William Nimitz, who managed the St. Charles Hotel in Kerrville, where Chester eventually became chief handyman. Young Nimitz, with little prospect of a college education otherwise, determined to seek appointment to the United States Military Academy. On learning that no such appointment was immediately available, he applied for the United States Naval Academy instead. He graduated seventh in his class of 114 at Annapolis on January 30, 1905. After two years' training as a passed midshipman aboard the U.S.S. Ohio , he was commissioned an ensign and given command of the old Spanish gunboat Panay in the Philippines. After transfer to the destroyer Decatur , he ran the ship aground and was court-martialed, reprimanded, and denied his request for battleship duty; he was assigned to a submarine instead. In four consecutive undersea commands, he became a leading "pigboat" authority and built a reservoir of experience that proved invaluable in both world wars. In 1913 Nimitz married Catherine Vance Freeman of Wollaston, Massachusetts. They eventually had three daughters and a son. Shortly after marriage the Nimitzes left for Europe, where he studied diesel engines in Germany and Belgium. He returned to Brooklyn Navy Yard to supervise the building and installation of the first diesel engine to power a United States Navy vessel. With the rank of commander in World War I , he served as chief of staff to Adm. Samuel S. Robison, commander of the Atlantic Submarine Force, then as executive officer of the battleship South Carolina . Afterward, Nimitz went to Pearl Harbor to build the submarine base and command the Submarine Division. Between wars he progressed through the various steps prescribed by the navy for training its commanders. At the Navy War College, 1922–23, he dealt with a theoretical Pacific war, developing the plan that he eventually put to practical use. He then served again as chief of staff to Admiral Robison, who had become commander-in-chief of the United States Fleet. Nimitz was assigned to the University of California at Berkeley in 1926 to develop the prototype for the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps; there he produced a model that was duplicated in fifty-two colleges and universities. Nimitz left Berkeley with the rank of captain in 1929 and progressed through commands of a submarine division, the San Diego destroyer base, and the cruiser Augusta , flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. After service in Washington as assistant chief of the navy Bureau of Navigation and promotion to rear admiral, he commanded first a cruiser division, then a battleship division. In 1939 he became chief of the Bureau of Navigation, a position he still held when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In the aftermath of the attack, Adm. Husband E. Kimmel was relieved as commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, and Nimitz was chosen to replace him. The change of command took place at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Day, 1941. With the rank of fleet admiral, Nimitz viewed his primary task as combatting the tendency of both the American public and the military to reflect on mistakes that had permitted the Pearl Harbor disaster and brought the nation into World War II. He focused instead on the enemy's mistakes and the positive aspects of the American position: the Pearl Harbor submarine base remained intact, and the aircraft carriers, at sea on December 7, had been spared. From the nerve center at his headquarters, Nimit

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Enderle, Benjamin Lester

1921

Benjamin Lester Enderle, peach grower, surveyor, and teacher, was born in Kerrville on February 28, 1889, to Albert and Amelia (Dietert) Enderle. His maternal grandparents were among the founders of Comfort, Texas. Enderle graduated from Tivy High School in Kerrville in 1906 and received a teaching certificate. For the next six years he taught school in several small towns around the state. On September 9, 1908, he married Louise Elizabeth Forres from Fayetteville. They had three children. In 1912 Enderle moved to Fredericksburg, where he was appointed Gillespie county surveyor, a position he held for the next sixty-three years. In 1913 he also accepted a post at Fredericksburg High School, where he was a math and science teacher and a coach until 1944. In 1921 Enderle and his wife began planting peach trees on fourteen acres east of Fredericksburg as a means of paying off their land house. He worked to develop a durable species that would survive shipment, using Hale, Burbank, Elberta, and Stark clingstone varieties. By 1925 the Enderles were producing more from their several hundred trees than they could sell locally. Enderle's boyhood friendship with Howard E. Butt 's family provided an outlet for the sale of peaches outside the Fredericksburg area, the H-E-B stores in Austin and San Antonio. In 1935 Enderle bought another 145 acres and soon had about 5,000 peach trees in production. He is regarded as the originator of the Hill Country peach industry. He was a charter member of the Gillespie County Peach Growers Association, the Gillespie County Historical Society, and the Hill Country Poultry Association. He was a member of the chamber of commerce and the Lions Club and was an elder at Memorial Presbyterian Church. He died on June 3, 1983, in Fredericksburg and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery. See also FRUITS OTHER THAN CITRUS .

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Fredericksburg, TX

1846

Fredericksburg, the county seat of Gillespie County, is seventy miles west of Austin in the central part of the county. The town was one of a projected series of German settlements from the Texas coast to the land north of the Llano River, originally the ultimate destination of the German immigrants sent to Texas by the Adelsverein . In August 1845 John O. Meusebach left New Braunfels with a surveying party to select a site for a second settlement en route to the Fisher-Miller Land Grant . He eventually chose a tract of land sixty miles northwest of New Braunfels, where two streams met four miles above the Pedernales River; the streams were later named Barons Creek, in Meusebach's honor, and Town Creek. Meusebach was impressed by the abundance of water, stone, and timber and upon his return to New Braunfels arranged to buy 10,000 acres on credit. The first wagontrain of 120 settlers arrived from New Braunfels on May 8, 1846, after a sixteen-day journey, accompanied by an eight-man military escort provided by the Adelsverein. Surveyor Hermann Wilke laid out the town, which Meusebach named Fredericksburg after Prince Frederick of Prussia, an influential member of the Adelsverein. Each settler received one town lot and ten acres of farmland nearby. The town was laid out like the German villages along the Rhine, from which many of the colonists had come, with one long, wide main street roughly paralleling Town Creek. The earliest houses in Fredericksburg were built simply, of post oak logs stuck upright in the ground. These were soon replaced by Fachwerk houses, built of upright timbers with the spaces between filled with rocks and then plastered or whitewashed over ( see GERMAN VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE ). The colonists planted corn, built storehouses to protect their provisions and trade goods, and prepared for the arrival of more immigrant trains, which came throughout the summer. Within two years Fredericksburg had grown into a thriving town of almost 1,000, despite an epidemic that spread from Indianola and New Braunfels and killed between 100 and 150 residents in the summer and fall of 1846. The first two years also saw the opening of a wagon road between Fredericksburg and Austin; the signing of the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty , which effectively eliminated the threat of Indian attack; the opening of the first privately owned store, by J. L. Ransleben; the construction of the Vereins-Kirche , which served for fifty years as a church, school, fortress, and meeting hall; the formal organization of Gillespie County by the Texas legislature, which made Fredericksburg the county seat; the founding of Zodiac, a nearby settlement, by a group of Mormons under Lyman Wight ; the construction of the Nimitz Hotel ; and the establishment by the United States Army of Fort Martin Scott, which became an important market for the merchants and laborers of Fredericksburg, two miles east of town. After the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1849, Fredericksburg also benefited from its situation as the last town before El Paso on the Emigrant or Upper El Paso Road. Religion played an important part in the lives of the German settlers of Gillespie County. Devout farmers drove as much as twenty miles into town for religious services and built Fredericksburg's characteristic Sunday houses for use on weekends and religious holidays. Though most of the original colonists were members of the Evangelical Protestant Church, there were also Lutherans, Methodists, and Catholics. Initially, all communions held services in the Vereins-Kirche, but in 1848 the Catholics built their own church, which was supplanted in 1860 by the Marienkirche (old St. Mary's Church). Also in 1848 the German missionary Father Menzel erected a large wooden cross on Cross Mountain just north of Fredericksburg. The Methodists withdrew from the Vereins-Kirche around the same time, and another group left the Evangelical Protestants in 1852 and formed Zion's Evangelical Luthe

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Things to Do in Fredericksburg

historical 13.1 mi away
Luckenbach Texas

Luckenbach was a failing ghost town of three residents when Hondo Crouch bought it in 1970 for thirty thousand dollars and declared himself mayor of an…
quirky
ALL WELCOME / COME BACK Street Names

Stand at the Gillespie County Courthouse and look at the cross streets running off Main. Heading east the first letters spell ALL WELCOME — Adams Llano Lincoln…
quirky 9.4 mi away
The Song Nobody Had Seen

When Waylon Jennings recorded Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics of Love) in 1977 it shot to number one on the country charts and number 25 on the pop…
quirky 9.5 mi away
The Town That Sold for Thirty Grand

In 1970 old Benno Engel retired as postmaster of Luckenbach Texas and placed an ad in the local paper that read TOWN FOR SALE -- lock stock and dancehall. The…
quirky 11.1 mi away
Luckenbach Texas

The entire 'town' is a dance hall and post office. Waylon sang about it.
historical 12.7 mi away
Birthplace and Burial of a President

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in Stonewall on August 27 1908 in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. He served as the 36th President and spent about 20…
historical 15.0 mi away
LBJ Ranch

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in this stretch of the Hill Country in 1908 and came home to it every chance he got even as president. The ranch on the…
quirky 16.3 mi away
Enchanted Rock

A massive pink granite dome rises four hundred feet out of the Hill Country north of Fredericksburg. Tonkawa and Comanche peoples believed the rock was haunted…

Everything Near Fredericksburg

205 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Fredericksburg on the Map
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