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
From the guide to the W. A. Menger Letters 2010-126; 2010-178., 1861-1863, undated, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
