Menger, W. A.

W. A. Menger, a pioneer manufacturer, cooper, brewer and hotel proprietor of San Antonio, was born on March 15, 1827 in Windecken, Hanau, Germany. Menger came to San Antonio, Texas, in 1847 and became a U.S. citizen in 1852. He began a brewery in 1855 and opened the Menger Hotel near the Alamo in 1859.

Gottlieb Pauli was the Postmaster for Giddings, circa 1871, in Lee County, Texas. He was also a member of the Texas Constitutional Convention in 1875 and a member of the Texas Legislature in 1879. Theodore Oswald was a Major in the 4th Infantry Battalion, a home defense unit formed in Galveston of 215 volunteers active from 1861-1862. Oswald was in a business relationship with Menger at Alleyton, Texas during the American Civil War. Friedrich August Faltin was a mercantile businessman who migrated to Comfort, Texas from Prussia in 1856. J. Rosenfield owned a dry goods and notion trade business in Alleyton and Galveston, Texas.

Sources: “Founder of Historic Menger Hotel in San Antonio Cam to this City from Germany in 1847,” The Southern Messenger, November 29, 1945