Kreische Brewery and Monument Hill: A Historic Overview

The Kreische Brewery-Monument Hill State Historic Sites are two historic sites managed by the Texas Historical Commission. They are located near U.S. Highway 77 on a high bluff on the south side of the Colorado River a mile south of La Grange in central Fayette County. In 1848 the site was chosen as a cemetery for the Texans who died in the Dawson Massacre of 1842 and the Black Bean Episode of 1843. The remains were buried on the bluff overlooking the Colorado River on September 18, 1848, with the survivors and families of the Dawson and Mier expeditions in attendance.

German immigrant Heinrich Ludwig Kreische constructed the original crypt holding the bodies of the fallen men in 1848. In January 1849 Kreische bought the 172 ¼ acres on the bluff, which included the tomb, from German landowner George Willrich. From the 1850s into the 1870s he built a substantial home and a homestead that included a barn, a smokehouse, and other outbuildings. Kreische expanded the house to accommodate his growing family, including wife Josepha (Appelt) Kreische and their six children. In 1850 Kreische agreed to donate the tomb and its surrounding ten acres to the Texas Monumental Committee in Fayette County for $100, provided that the committee would begin work on a suitable monument within fifteen years. No money was raised for a monument, however, and the land reverted to Kreische, who continued to maintain the tomb without payment.

Kreische was a master stonemason and learned his trade at the Baugewerkschule (building trade school) in Holzminden before immigrating to Texas. After moving to La Grange in 1847–48, he quickly gained a reputation for his skills. In addition to constructing the original tomb of the Dawson and Mier men in 1848, Kreische also won contracts for the second Fayette County jail (1853) and the third Fayette County courthouse (completed in 1857). He may have constructed some of the original portion of his house to demonstrate his ability to build the courthouse’s required architectural features.

In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Kreische built a four-story building located at the bottom of a ravine on his land and began his commercial brewing business. His change of profession from stonemason to brewer is indicated in the 1870 census. By the late 1870s Kreische’s business had grown to become the third largest commercial brewery in Texas, with 744 barrels recorded in 1878. It became the primary source of income for the family. Kreische also owned and operated the Union Beer Hall in downtown La Grange, where his customers could enjoy a glass of “Bluff Beer.”

The Kreische family were well-respected members of the German Texan community. The family leased a portion of their land to the local Bluff Schuetzenverein (shooting club), which built the wooden Schuetzen Pavilion mere feet from the tomb. From the 1870s to the 1920s, the Bluff Schuetzenverein regularly met at this pavilion for King Shoot festivals and other societal festivities, including dances, concerts, and holiday celebrations. These meetings provided occasions for the German-Texan community to gather to compete, socialize, discuss politics, and preserve their culture.

Rapid industrialization, the rise of railroads, and the progression of commercial refrigeration challenged local and small-scale brewing in the late nineteenth century. Kreische sensed this change and began constructing a local icehouse in town and investing in La Grange’s railroad. For two years following Kreische’s sudden death in 1882, Josepha and their eldest sons, Henry Louis and Otto, continued the business, but without Kreische's leadership and the decline of small breweries, the business failed, and the building was abandoned. Throughout the subsequent years, the brewery became a prominent picnic spot and attraction for adventuring couples and families. The only known historic pictures of the brewery are of these picnickers in the early 1900s.

The Kreische family continued to live on the bluff until youngest daughter Julia’s death in 1952. Kreische's heirs made many requests to the state for the removal of the tomb and its contents because it attracted vandalism. In 1907, rather than remove the tomb, the state condemned a .36-acre tract of land surrounding it. Unfortunately, there were no attempts to repair existing damage or to protect the site from future misuse. In 1931 Louis W. Kemp, a member of the Texas State Historical Association, visited the site and, upset by what he found, told local reporters that he would attempt to have the remains moved to the State Cemetery in Austin, where they could be accorded proper respect. Local members of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, fearful of losing the shrine, cleared the area, erected a fence, and signed a contract for a new granite vault to enclose the original. On September 18, 1933, the ninety-first anniversary of the Dawson Massacre, the new vault was dedicated, and during the Texas Centennial celebration in 1936 the state erected an additional monument. In 1949 the Board of Control transferred the site to the State Parks Board.

Upon Julia Kreische’s death in 1952, the remaining land was willed to the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Hostyn. In 1956 the citizens of Fayette County purchased 3.58 acres of the land surrounding the tomb and donated it to the Parks Board. In 1964 private interests purchased much of the surrounding Kreische land from the Hostyn church with the intention of developing a tourist attraction on the bluff and at the site of the ruined brewery. The plan did not succeed, and so in 1977 the state acquired thirty-six acres surrounding the monument, including the Kreische home and brewery, and designated them a part of the state park system. In the late 1970s and early 1980s archeological investigations and stabilization efforts were made to preserve the history of the Kreische family and their brewery. By 1989 the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) operated the two sites jointly, and the 40.4-acre park provided hiking, picnicking, and an interpretive center that told the stories of both the monument and the beginnings of the Texas brewing industry. In 2019 the state legislature transferred Kreische Brewery and Monument Hill State Historic Sites from TPWD to the Texas Historical Commission.