13. The Treuthardt homestead at the San Gabriel River

Continuing with the topic, "My Family Authorities," who were so helpful to me in those early days of trying to find information --

My cousin Roy was always looking for a way to add to the family history.   The same day in 1989 that we went to the IOOF Cemetery to find the Treuthardt family plot, Roy took me, Eddie, and our three children to Georgetown's east side where the San Gabriel River flows through the City Park (or we can call it San Gabriel Park).   The south bank of the river has high bluffs which protect the area from flooding.   

Roy showed us where the Treuthardt home place and farm site had been situated, next to the river.   Next door to the main house was another home where the Arnold Treuthardt family lived.   Also next to the main house was a blackshop shop where Anna's brother worked (by himself, I think).     Roy's parents, Oscar and Pauline, when they were first married, occupied a small house to the west of the main house where Oscar’s grandmother lived.   None of those buildings remain.   The American Legion Hall now stands at the former location of the Treuthardt home.    

The only trace of the old home place is a three-legged windmill which Arnold Treuthardt built.  The windmill was left intact as a condition of the Treuthardt’s last will and testament.   The farmland was between the river and the campus of [present-day] Southwestern University.   Nowadays extensive soccer fields at City Park occupy the land that used to be the Treuthardt farm. 

The protection of the high bluffs failed once, during a tremendous storm which devastated Williamson County in 1921 (long after Friedrich's death).   According to one account, the river rose to the level of the home, necessitating the rescue of the Treuthardts by boat.   Roy said that five feet of water covered the farm.    [In another post, I want to document that 1921 storm and flood.]  

 

The three-legged windmill built by Arnold Treuthardt
on the site of the Treuthardt home place at
San Gabriel River, Georgetown, Texas