Edmund Meyenberg, Collector of Reptiles
The Meyenberg surname is familiar to many of the older citizens of La Grange because of the Meyenberg Drug Store and the Robison-Meyenberg house that were once located on Main Street across from the courthouse. Julius Meyenberg, the proprietor of the Meyenberg Drug Store, was the youngest of eight children born to Julius and Rochine Kunigunde (Oske) Meyenberg, who lived on a farm in the Bluff Community until 1866 when they moved into La Grange and Julius Sr. established a drug store. Just a year later, three brothers, a sister, and their mother all died in the tragic yellow fever epidemic that decimated La Grange in 1867. This left only Helena, Edmund, Selma, and Julius Jr. living to adulthood. This story will focus on Edmund, who was born January 25, 1859 and was taken on as a young apprentice at the Zander Saddle Shop in La Grange. Having learned his trade, Edmund moved to Pecos, Texas where he established his own saddlery business about 1893.
His father gathered herbs around the La Grange area for some of his medicines and was touted as having a fine collection of insects and butterflies. Evidently, this love of nature was passed on to Edmund, as he became a collector for the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, donating at least 48 species and subspecies of reptiles from the vicinity of Pecos and also from the Davis Mountains. He also collected and donated other vertebrates, such as rodents, bats and birds. In 1901, he sent the director of America’s first zoo in Philadelphia two species of snakes, unknown to science at the time: the Trans-Pecos ratsnake and the gray-banded kingsnake. Later, he also sent two of the Trans-Pecos ratsnakes to the Bronx Zoo.
Meyenberg was already 44 years old when he married Dora Winis, described as a young orphan, on August 16, 1903. A Justice of the Peace in neighboring Ward County performed the ceremony. Just three weeks later, on September 9, he was murdered as he walked the block from his store to his home to get dinner. A young farm hand road up behind Meyenberg and shot him between his shoulders with a .30-30 rifle. As Meyenberg attempted to rise from the street, the man shot him again at a close distance and then quickly rode away. The cause was a mystery to many, because Meyenberg was known as a quiet, peaceful, and charitable person.
The sheriff and others at Pecos quickly pursued the killer. He was overtaken about twenty miles north of town and brought to jail. The young man, named Jim Pratt, admitted his guilt and was apparently jealous of Meyenberg for marrying Miss Winis, to whom Pratt had been paying attention. His rash act earned Pratt a life sentence in the penitentiary the following month.
The new Mrs. Meyenberg accompanied her husband’s remains to La Grange, where he lies buried in the new city cemetery. She returned home the day after his funeral and nothing more is known of her. Edmund Meyenberg’s contributions as a collector for zoos are significant enough that over a century later, in 2012, an article was written about him in Herpetological Review, a peer-reviewed quarterly that publishes articles concerning the study of amphibians and reptiles.
Sources:
Rhoads, Dustin D. and Gerard T. Salmon, “A Much-Belated Obituary of an Important American Zoo Collector, with Discussion of the Type Locality for Bogertophis subocularis and Lampropeltis alterna,” Herpetological Review, 2012, 43 (2), pp. 270-273.
Lotto, F. Fayette County Her History and Her People. Sticker Steam press, Schulenburg, Texas, 1902, pp. 276-277.
La Grange Journal, September 17, 1903 and October 22, 1903 El Paso Daily Times, September 10, 1903
El Paso Daily Times, September 10, 1903
Meyenberg family file, FAM MEYENBERG 2007.30.65, Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives
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.