The Karl Haas Cemetery
The Karl Haas Cemetery is in Comal County, Texas in the Mystic Shores subdivision northeast of Spring
Branch, Texas. The cemetery is located at the
northwest corner of Astral Point and Triton Drive. The cemetery is approximately 7.3 miles east of U.S. Highway 281, 1.4 miles north of Highway 306, and .6 miles west of North Cranes Mill Road.
The cemetery includes final resting places for Karl and Katherina Haas. This Haas family immigrated to America from Germany in 1861 as the Civil War began. They settled in northern Comal County and became early settlers in an area now known as the Mystic Shores subdivision. Their names are referenced herein as Carl and Catherine Haas.
Starting in 1845, a wave a German immigrants left their homeland to come to Texas with the help of the Verein zum Schutze deutscher Einwanderer in Texas (Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas), or “Adelsverein”. This Adelsverein was organized to both provide benefits to Germany of new trade opportunities and economic relief to immigrants.
On March 21, 1845, General Commissioner Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels led 237 families of settlers across the Guadalupe River, and the New Braunfels settlement was founded. A deadly cholera epidemic in New Braunfels in 1846 and other circumstances provoked many to leave the settlement and follow waterways both north and northwest to find new homelands. The area of northern Comal County became home to three German settlements: Fischer Store (1852), Rebecca Creek (1854) and Cranes Mill (mid-1860’s).
The Carl Henry Haas family arrived in Comal County from the Nister area of Germany by the spring of 1862. Carl and Maria Catherine Haas boarded the ship Georg as steerage passengers and left Bremen, Germany for the U.S. with their three surviving children, Adolph, Auguste and Amelia, or Emile.2 The specific reason for their immigration to the U.S. is not known, but economic hardship at home and better prospects abroad were common drivers for German immigrants.
By 1867, the Carl Haas family owned 320 acres in the area. Their first parcel was a land scrip purchased on May 16, 1865 of 160 acres near Fisher, Texas
west of today’s Cranes Mill Road and north of FM 306 (Survey #708, Abstract #277). Then, two years later, they purchased a headright grant of the adjacent 160 acres (Survey #625, Abstract #250).
The Haas family sold the land in 1936, and it came to be owned and managed as part of a large ranch successively by Dr. and Mrs. L. E. Casey, of Dallas County, Texas, then Wm. K. Holt Machinery Company in 1954, followed by H.R. Murphy through HRM Inc. In 1966, Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Nordan of San Antonio purchased the land as part of their large Seven Eleven Ranch - Comal. In 1999, the Nordan family sold their ranch to Bluegreen Southwest One, L.P. and the subdivision of Mystic Shores was developed in Comal County.
Karl Haas Cemetery Narrative
