The beautiful Hill Country of Texas beckoned to settlers with its Llano River running clear and forests of cypress, pecan and oak trees growing thick throughout the river valley. Louis Martin was among the first of some 7,000 Germans who traveled to Texas in 1844 as part of an agreement between the government of the Republic of Texas and German officials. Martin worked as a wagon freighter and trader, acquiring wealth and prominence in the German community that grew rapidly in the new state. (Texas joined the Union on Dec. 29, 1845.)

In 1855, Martin bought for $1,000 several sections of land in what was then Gillespie County. With it he purchased, for an additional $1,200, cattle, oxen, other livestock, a wagon, farm equipment and household items. Records indicate that he is the builder of his second home, the dogtrot-style house preserved at the National Ranching Heritage Center. In 1858, he bought the store at Hedwig’s Hill operated by American settler John Kline and, on June 29, 1858, Martin established the earliest rural post office in the county.

Hedwig’s Hill was on the route of trail drives. Some of the cattle from old Mexico headed north right by the settlement. Its location was also on a trade route that served the Hedwig’s Hill area. Mason County was established from a portion of Gillespie County, where Martin served as postmaster and freighted goods throughout the Hill Country, East Texas and to and from Mexico.

He and Elizabeth lived in the house with their growing family of five children, whose ages spanned twelve years, only briefly before moving to a house on Elm Creek. It was renamed Martin Creek after the drowning of the youngest Martin child, Alexander, age 7, in 1863. Louis rented the house to John and Kathryn Keller, who turned it into a store before moving the business to another building about 30 feet away. The county, which was predominantly comprised of skilled German craftsmen, had a cooper, beer brewer, soap and candle makers, tinner, sawmills, saddle and harness makers, grist and flour mills, wheelwrights, blacksmiths and furniture makers.

The house at Hedwig’s Hill, under both the Martins and the Kellers, was a hotel of sorts, with one of the rooms reserved for paying guests. The breezeway was available for travelers, some of whom slept on bedrolls. Robert E. Lee probably was familiar with Hedwig’s Hill, since the settlement was near a military route he traveled while commanding Fort Mason. He arrived at the fort on Dec. 23, 1860, as a 54-year-old lieutenant colonel and left in mid-February for San Antonio and the Civil War history books. When the Hedwig’s Hill Dogtrot House was excavated for removal to the historical park, brass military buttons and a bag of glass marbles were found.

Hedwig’s Hill Dogtrot House was there for it all, serving at various times as a dwelling with a combination of uses, including post office, store, tavern, boarding house, church and polling place. How the structure was used is well documented, but speculation still exists about who, in actuality, may have constructed it. Some indications point to the American John Kline as builder, selling it and the several tracts of land to Martin in 1858. The building type is characteristic of many built by Anglo-Americans throughout the Southern states. But, it is also possible that Martin built the house, since many German settlers did not duplicate their home country’s architectural traditions. They favored, instead, homes that were typically American.

In the house, the northwest room was used for bulk food storage. The family’s hired man, Christian Johnson, a Danish farmer, probably slept on a bedroll in that room. Upstairs the Martin daughters slept on one side of the loft, while the other was for the boys and their live-in teacher, Mr. G.H. Fuchs.

The last person to live in Hedwig’s Hill Dogtrot House was Ike Henry, who ran a service station. He moved out in the 1930s, when U.S. Highway 87 came through only 400 yards from the house.