National Register Listing

Wunderlich, Peter and Sophie, Farm

18202 Theiss Mail Rd., Klein, TX

The Peter and Sophie Wunderlich Farm in Klein, Harris County, is named after Peter Wunderlich Jr., the son of a German immigrant who came to Texas in the 1850s. Peter established the farm at the time of his marriage to Sophie Krimmel in 1891. The farm remained in the possession of the Wunderlich family until 1983 and Peter's son Alphonse occupied the house until 1995. The farm now serves as a living history museum for school children and is a well-preserved example of this once-common type of resource. Although modern residential and municipal development now occupies lands once associated with the Wunderlich Farm, the parcel of land containing the farmhouse and its associated outbuildings survives as a good local example of a simple, late 19th century farm built by a second-generation German immigrant family. As such, the property reflects the typical lifestyle and farming patterns of Germans living in northwest Harris County at the turn of the century, meeting criterion in the area of Agriculture and Ethnic Heritage: European at the local level of significance.

In the mid-1840s, new democratic forces and movements for social, economic, or political reform created political turmoil in Europe and challenged the older monarchical powers. Many Germans in the still disunited German states looked to the United States as a refuge from the political and economic uncertainties of their native land. The immigrants who came to Texas at this time belonged to a larger movement of German settlers coming to the central regions of the United States. The first of these Germans came to parts of Texas in 1831, settling in the region between Austin and Houston.' Between 1845 and 1860, a larger group of Germans settled in parts of east Texas, impelled by overpopulation and crop failures and attracted to farming as a way of life on the open western frontier. Some of these immigrated and settled on land around Cypress Creek in northwest Harris County. In the period before the Civil War, families such as the Stracks, Kleins, Brautigams, Krahns, Haudes, Theisses, Lemms, Klebs, and Wunderlichs began settling the land and establishing farmsteads."

The Germans who settled the land around Cypress Creek operated family farms and ranches. Like other Germans in Texas, they abandoned some traditional customs, such as tightly clustered agricultural villages, and established dispersed farmsteads similar to other Texans. Log, frame, and stone construction was common in German farmsteads, with spacious barns as a distinctive feature due to their preference for mixed farming." Using a type of agriculture known as commercial mixed farming, their farms produced cotton as a cash crop and much of the food for the family as well. Because of their proximity to Houston, many of the German families in the Cypress Creek area engaged in truck farming or market gardening. They worked the land intensively, with women and children working in the fields alongside the men.

Before their arrival in Texas, the Wunderlichs lived in Weide, a village near the town of Feudingen in Westfalen, Prussia. Descendants of the first Protestant Pastor to come to Feudingen at the time of the Reformation, members of the Wunderlich family served as pastors of the town for a century and a half. In 1852 Johann Peter Wunderlich (1828-1864) became the first of the Wunderlich family to immigrate to the United States. Some of the Stracks, neighbors and friends of the Wunderlichs, already lived in America. Johann Peter, known simply as Peter, was the fourth of Johann and Catherina Elisabeth Wunderlich's eight children. Maria Katharina, the oldest child, and Jost Heinrich, the third child, would later join their brother Peter in Texas.'
Four of Peter's letters from Texas back to his parents in Weide are still in the possession of the Wunderlich family in Germany, as well as several letters from his brother Jost. In his letters, Peter described his life in Texas:

Dear Parents, Texas is an excellent country in which people can live very well. I wish you all were here, then you would have a better life than in Germany. Here you see no bailiff, and forestry offices are unknown. Here everybody has usually a wood of his own. This is not hard to get, for woods as well as ground are not as dear as in Germany. Compared to Germany, everything is better here: good earnings, good farming, and best of all cattle-and-horse breeding. All this I enjoy very much, but there is one thing here that I don't like: the fever, with which I already had to do, and which each newcomer gets. It is not as dangerous as one would think, for nobody dies from it unless another sickness is added to it, which might happen. Otherwise, Texas is an excellent, good country...

On December 26, 1852, Peter married Maria Katherina Hofius." Katherina was also from Weide and probably came to Texas on the same ship as Peter. They first rented land from Jacob Theiss who lived on the west side of Stuebner-Airline Road, south of Spring-Cypress Road. In an 1854 letter to his parents, Peter wrote that he had bought 120 acres for $175, with two years to pay for the land. The land was northwest of Theiss Gully along today's Spring-Cypress Road.

After the Civil War broke out in 1861, the German settlers along Cypress Creek began to be drawn into the war effort. Adam Klein wove cloth, blacksmith Herman Strack made spurs and bridles, and the government commissioned several others, including Peter Wunderlich, to operate a gun-powder mill located in the Rose Hill Community near Spring Creek. In the spring of 1864, an explosion destroyed the mill and killed the operators there, including Peter Wunderlich." On June 2, 1864, two months after Peter died, the last of his six children, Peter Wunderlich Jr., was born.

After her husband's death, Katherina had the difficult task of providing for and rearing her family. In 1874 she and the children became charter members of Trinity Lutheran Church. Trinity Lutheran became an important part of the spiritual and social life of the Wunderlich family and their growing community. Trinity Lutheran's school educated the children of the immigrants in spiritual and moral truths as well as in their German heritage and in patriotic appreciation for their new homeland. Lessons were taught in both English and German for many years, and the school continues to have a strong German program today.

Many of the children and descendants of Peter and Katherina became pastors or teachers. Only their two sons William and Peter Jr. continued to farm the land in the Cypress Creek community, called Klein by the 1890s after the local post office."

In 1887 Peter Wunderlich Jr. bought 56 acres of land from Jacob Theiss for $112. The land was in the Nathan Finney grant of 176 acres on the north side of Cypress Creek, about 22 miles west of the city of Houston." When Peter married Sophie Krimmel on March 5, 1891, the couple lived briefly with Katherina before moving into their new house.

The 1891 farmhouse was built of lumber processed in the Jacob Strack sawmill south of Cypress Creek off Stuebner-Airline road. There is no record of a specific architect, and the simple plan of the house does not require one. Many of the earlier houses in the area, such as the William Lemm House in Spring and the Jacob Theiss house in Tomball, followed the plan of a dogtrot cabin. The Wunderlich farmhouse, however, is a simple square, four-room house with no hallway, maintaining a symmetry of doors and windows. Each original room featured a screened door to the outside and usually two windows (the one exception being the northwesterly bedroom used later by the boys which had a door and only one window), providing good air circulation during the hot Texas summer months. The front bedroom on the west side of the farmhouse was the girls' room with the boys' room in the back. The east side front bedroom was the parents' room, with the bedroom in the back of that as an additional bedroom. The house had no sitting room or parlor.

In 1893 Peter acquired an additional 150 acres from W.P. Hamblen and Joe Sam. 16 When the Wunderlich children divided the land at Katherina's death in 1904, Peter and William bought their brother's and sister's portions of land. William Wunderlich acquired the northernmost portion of land and the house Katherina had built in 1874. Peter acquired the southernmost portion, 53.5 acres in the Nathan Finney survey."

Like most of the families of German immigrants in the Klein community, Peter and Sophie farmed and raised cattle. Cotton, corn, and sweet potatoes were raised on the land, with cotton being the main crop. Cotton was ginned nearby and then loaded on the wagon to take to Houston. It was a full day's trip to Houston; families would leave early in the morning and arrive late in the evening. The wagons would be backed up to Market Square, then the mules would be unhooked and taken to the livery stables near Washington and Houston Avenues. The farmers would sleep outside at the market that night, do their business in the morning, then head back home.

Besides farming, Peter and his family were involved in the cattle business. Cattle were then mostly mixed breeds, and in the 1920s they roamed wild in north Houston since the stock law had not been passed. The cattle were branded and roundups were held once a year.

Peter and Sophie had twelve children: six boys and six girls. Eight of the children lived to adulthood. In 1911 the entire family contracted typhoid fever except two-year-old Leona. Leona was taken to stay with her godparents, Simon Krahns since her mother was sick and soon expecting another baby. Little Rosina died two days after her birth, followed by mother Sophie ten days later. Within the next three weeks, the oldest son Philip also died. They discovered that a dead rat had contaminated the well water, bringing disease and tragedy to the Wunderlich family.

After Sophie's death, Peter married Helene Kaiser on September 3, 1912. The couple had no children of their own. In 1915, a hurricane knocked down two sycamores in the front yard of the farm, and live oaks were planted in their place. The 1915 storm also tore off the house's chimney, flooding the house."

All of the Wunderlich children attended Trinity Lutheran School. Their Lutheran faith was important to the family, and prayers were said faithfully before meals and at bedtimes. Peter was a strict father, not allowing the girls to wear brightly colored clothes, only brown or black, or go to any parties like some of the other children.

The girls all enjoyed growing flowers, and there were always a lot of pot flowers around the porch and under the trees. Around the front trees,, they would grow wild, purple verbenas. On the east side of the front steps was a banana tree, and on the west side of the steps there was a large elephant ear planted. On the east side of the house, towards the front, there were quinces and bridal wreaths. At the rear of the east side was a flower bed with red canna lilies. The Wunderlichs had their garden in the front to the east of the live oak trees today. The fields for sweet potatoes and other crops were where the Doerre Intermediate football field now stands.

Peter died on October 29, 1941, and Helene died on May 11, 1958. Both are buried in the Klein Lutheran Cemetery. In early 1959, after Helene's death, the eight surviving Wunderlich children divided the 360-acre homestead. Alphonse, born November 7, 1905, acquired the portion of land with the farmhouse. Alphonse married Elisabeth Theiss on February 6, 1927. The couple had five children. Two babies died at birth while three daughters, August, Margaret, and Mildred, grew to adulthood.

Alphonse, or Alph as he was known, lived in a rented house in Tomball that he later moved to the east side of the Peter Wunderlich house and used as a smokehouse and storage area." After Elisabeth died in 1967, Alph married Viola Madsden, who died in 1991.

In 1972 the Klein I.S.D. had the opportunity to buy 9.6 acres of land near the Wunderlich farm from Mr. Goetee. The property was in the shape of a T, however, and not shaped as a typical school site. In 1983 the school district was able to square off the Goettee property with the purchase of 13.5 acres from Alph Wunderlich and his children August and Mildred.
Superintendent Dr. Don Collins realized that Alph's home, the house his father Peter had built, was worthy of preservation as an example of a typical turn-of-the-century farm in the Klein community. Alph was allowed to continue living in the house as long as he wished and the school district provided basic maintenance for the house."

Doerre Intermediate School, located just west of the Wunderlich farm, opened its doors in August 1984. On May 10, 1988, the Klein I.S.D. school board approved the designation of the Wunderlich farmhouse, built in the late 1800s, attendant buildings, and immediately adjoining acreage as a historical site and authorized the administration to present a plan for future utilization that will guarantee the structures will be both preserved and utilized as a tribute to the early settlers of the Klein, Texas, community.

Alph Wunderlich continued to live in the house until August 24, 1995, when he moved in with his daughter Mildred and turned the home over to the Klein I.S.D. On December 4, 1995, the Wunderlich Farm opened for tours for 4th graders in the Klein I.S.D. The farmhouse, smokehouse, and tool sheds began to be used immediately and future plans for the farm include restoration of the barn and sheep shed and cultivation of a garden with period vegetables and crops. The Klein I.S.D. plans for the Wunderlich Farm to be developed into a living history farm depicting the way of life prevalent in the Klein Community from 1890-1925. The Wunderlich Farm as well as the Klein Museum, located in the Doerre Intermediate School Library adjacent to the Wunderlich Farm, are under the auspices of the Klein, Texas Historical Foundation, established in 1988. The Museum and Farm are open to the public the last Saturday of every month, except May, November, and December, from 11 A.M. to 3 P.M.

The Peter and Sophie Wunderlich Farm is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of the history of the Klein community northwest of Houston. The farm preserves and reflects the typical life patterns of the early German settlers to this area.
During the past twenty- five years the Klein area has been rapidly transformed from a quiet rural area farmed by descendants of 19th-century German immigrants into a bustling suburb of the nation's fourth-largest city. The quiet, rural life enjoyed by the original German settlers to the Klein area and their farmsteads are rapidly vanishing. With the opening of Houston's Intercontinental Airport north of Houston in 1966, and the transfer of many oil-related businesses to the Houston area, real estate developers began to look at the land of northwest Harris County and the Klein area as rich in potential suburban growth. By 1977, the Wall Street Journal declared the area the fastest-growing residential community in the United States. Preservation of the Wunderlich Farm will allow future generations to better appreciate the contributions made by the early German farmers to the establishment of the Klein community.

The Wunderlich family has been an important part of the growth of the Klein community, and the preservation of the Wunderlich home helps complete a picture of the life of a particular family of early pioneers. The 19th-century letters to Germany from Peter Wunderlich Sr. are important primary sources for the character of life among the German immigrants and their descendants to northwest Harris County at the end of the 19th century. The family made important contributions to their community, as educators, pastors, farmers, and as charter members of the 1874 Trinity Lutheran Church, which continues to be an important part of the community's life today. Preservation of the farm is important in developing a generational history of the Wunderlich family's contribution to the local community.

The Wunderlich Farm also follows typical yard patterns of German farms. Although development has eroded most of the acreage associated with the farm, the buildings survive, creating a farmstead of various related outbuildings clustered around the central primary dwelling. Typical turn-of-the-century German farm complexes consisted of a 1- or 1 1/2-story wood frame dwelling flanked by agricultural buildings grouped to the rear of the farmhouse. Narrow graveled or packed earth driveways led from the nearest county road to the main entry of the house. A fence often encloses the house and surrounding yard, with buildings associated with human use, such as the well, smokehouse, or privy, within this fenced area and buildings associated with agricultural use beyond this perimeter. Although partly for ornamentation, the fence separated free-roaming livestock from the farmhouse. Farmhouses reflect little ornamentation or stylistic influences, while functionality defines outbuilding forms and locations. Outbuildings were within easy walking distance and the compact complex of buildings allowed for a greater amount of land to be reserved for cultivation. The arrangement of the buildings of the Wunderlich farm reflects these patterns, and although the dates of some of the outbuildings post date the 50-year cut-off for eligibility, they still conform to the historic arrangement of the farm and do not detract from the integrity of the farm as a whole.

The Peter and Sophie Wunderlich Farm represents a well-preserved local example of a once-common resource in this area. Its reflection of German farming and living patterns supports Criterion A in the areas of Agriculture and Ethnic Heritage: European. Through its preservation, school children are able to learn about the lifeways of early German farmers to Klein and see visible signs of their contributions to the settlement of the area, signs which might otherwise not survive amidst the fast-paced development of the 20th century.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1997.