Frank Hausmann’s Ferry Across the Colorado River

Footprints Of Fayette

Fayette County is one of the most historic counties in Texas. In this weekly feature from the County Historical Commission, a rotating group of writers looks back at local history.

There were several ferries that provided transportation across the Colorado River near La Grange before the first Travis Street bridge was built in 1883, thereby eliminating the need for most ferries to still be useful. The ferries were a profitable business for the various owners, who charged fees for their use. However, ferry operators did have to pay for permits issued by the county government. Besides the first ferry that was owned by Col. John H. Moore, the founder of La Grange, another ferry that was owned by Heinrich Kreische was perhaps the one that was the most popular and best documented. Having built his brewery on the very picturesque bluff south of town in the late 1860s, he utilized his ferry to transport kegs of beer across the river to saloons on the town square. The ferry was also used to transport visitors to his brewery and to the various activities held at his Schuetzen Verein pavilion. Shooting competitions, dances, picnics and Easter season celebrations brought large crowds from town to Kreische’s Bluff, with all of them utilizing his ferry going back and forth.

Kreische employed several ferry operators, one of whom was Frank Hausmann, the son of Franz Hausmann, who purchased a 205-acre farm between Creamer Creek Road and Buckner’s Creek near Kreische’s property in 1870, although he was living in the county by the late 1850s. The Panorama Estates subdivision now occupies part of his farm. Coincidentally, Heinrich Kreische’s wife, Josefa Appelt, immigrated to Texas in 1853 with her brother and family on the same ship with Franz Hausmann and his brother, Joseph Hausmann, Sr. and wife. Their villages of origin were just a few kilometers apart in northern Bohemia. That borderland region of Bohemia had been settled by Germans for centuries. They had assimilated the Czech culture but still retained their German language and heritage with many of them being bilingual and practicing a blend of cultural traditions.

Frank Hausmann, born in 1862, worked as a ferryman in his teens for Kreische, probably between 1878 to the early 1880s, when the brewery was at its peak of production. Unfortunately, Kreische passed away in 1882 from injuries sustained in a devastating accident caused by a wagon load of rocks falling on him a few months prior. Two of Kreische’s sons tried to keep the brewery operating, but by that time, there was too much competition from the refrigerated beer being brought to La Grange by the railroad that had arrived in 1881. So, the brewery ceased operations in 1884.

In the September 24, 1885, issue of the La Grange Journal, Josefa Kreische, the widow of Heinrich, had an ad stating that she had a good ferry boat and wire cable for sale. It is unknown who purchased the ferry boat, but Frank Hausmann purchased the wire cable. At the time, he had no need for the cable, but perhaps nostalgia was the deciding factor for the purchase. The heavy twisted wire cable was essential for enabling the ferry to traverse the river without being swept downstream with the current. The ferry boat was attached to the cable with a rope and gliding metal ring allowing the ferryman to safely pole the ferry across the river.

The cable sat unused on the family farm until after Frank married and purchased his own 220-acre farm in 1899. It was located on the river on the opposite side of the town of La Grange and a short distance from the mouth of Cedar Creek.At that time, Frank would have had to take a long, circuitous route to get into town, traveling on the old La Grange to Weimar Road, now Loehr Road, across the old La Grange to Schulenburg Road, going down the escarpment on the old Bluff Road that is now Country Club Drive, across what is now the golf course, over the Buckner’s Creek bridge to the Travis Street bridge. So, due to necessity he built his own personal ferry, utilizing the old Kreische ferry cable. His ferry crossed the river at an angle from his property to the upstream side of Cedar Creek. He then traveled by wagon up a road that is now Mode Lane and into town for supplies or any other business that needed tending to. He allowed his neighbors, Fred Wilkens and August Hensel, to use the ferry as well. After the Jefferson Street bridge was built with the winding drive up the bluff in 1926, traveling to La Grange was much easier, so Frank stopped using his ferry. However, at some point thereafter, the ferry cable was cut into two unequal pieces.

After Frank’s death in 1958, his widowed daughter, Pearlie Heinsohn, who already owned part of the original farm, moved her house next door to her son, Dude Heinsohn, and family on Loehr Road. The shorter piece of cable came along and was lying in their pasture for years. Eventually, Dude cut it into four pieces that were later taken by his son, Bob, when the property was sold. One piece has been donated to the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives and another to the Kreische Brewery & Monument Hill State Historic Site, having come full circle to its origin, although in a much shorter form. It is now shown at various events by the park staff, along with other artifacts from the historic site. Surviving for over 150 years, the remaining cable is still in remarkably good condition. The cable has had a long life, from keeping ferries on course to a piece being used as an educational tool about transportation in times past.

Sources: Heinsohn, Paula and Bob Heinsohn. Recollections of the life of Frank Hausmann Lefler, John J. The Kreisches and Their World; Morgan Printing, Austin, TX; 2008 The Fayette County History Book Committee. Fayette County, Texas Heritage, Vol. 1; Curtis Media, 1996