Many thanks to every person and family who have loaned and/or donated items to the La Vernia Heritage Museum. We are always honored that you allow us to be the caretakers of your family artifacts and memorabilia.
Thank you to Charles Haese for a cash donation and copies of the Final Resting Places pages of the Zuehl and Gutz family cemeteries. Tracey Young and Shirley Hormuth recently donated items, too.
Thank you also to brothers Austin and Kolby Louis of La Vernia who recently visited the La Vernia Heritage Museum to share items found by their family while looking through dirt taken to their home from a La Vernia property. The artifacts included a 3 ½“ square nail, an arrow point, a thin white button, an 1853 silver dime, and part of a small ceramic boot marked “Allie Houston July 10, 1896.” The brothers learned that Allie Houston was born in 1880 and married James Wiseman of La Vernia in 1900. They said, “We figured the date of 1896 marked on the ceramic boot was when Allie Houston Wiseman was 16 years old.” Allie died in 1905 and is buried in the Rector Chapel Cemetery near La Vernia, added Susan Richter, Director of the La Vernia Heritage Museum.
The brothers also shared two early Texas pottery items their family owns; a small pottery jar and a round flat pottery dish stamped “1/2.” Both items were made by potters George and Isaac Suttles, who were Union soldiers. Following the Civil War, they moved to La Vernia, where they made utilitarian pottery. Isaac died in 1884 in Abilene, Texas. George died in La Vernia in 1930 and is buried in the Concrete Cemetery. Austin and Kolby spent time viewing the museum's permanent exhibit of Suttles Pottery.
