PROJECTPLUM WOKE#

John O. Meusebach — Commissioner-General of the German Emigration Company (Adelsverein) — and Penateka Comanche chiefs

March 1–2, 1847

The treaty concluded between John O. Meusebach — Commissioner-General of the German Emigration Company (Adelsverein) — and Penateka Comanche chiefs on March 1–2, 1847, on the San Saba River, secured Comanche permission for German settlers to survey and occupy lands within the Fisher-Miller Land Grant. The grant encompassed present-day Kimble, Mason, Menard, McCulloch, San Saba, Concho, Schleicher, Sutton, Tom Green, and Llano Counties — territory the Texas General Land Office’s own records described as lying “deep into Comanche territory.”

The treaty’s principal terms were:

• Safe passage for German surveying and settlement parties within the grant boundaries
• Peace between German settlers and Penateka Comanche bands
• Mutual trade and commerce between the two communities
• A payment of $3,000 (in goods, not currency) from the German Emigration Company to the Comanche — distributed in blankets, cloth, weapons, and provisions
• Comanche agreement to visit Fredericksburg for trade and future councils

The Comanche signatories included chiefs Mopechucope (Old Owl), Sanaco, Kateumse, and ten other chiefs and warriors. Meusebach signed on behalf of the German Emigration Company. The treaty was concluded over two days on the San Saba River at the edge of the Fisher-Miller grant boundary — precisely the territory Mopechucope had specified in his 1844 letter to Sam Houston as the heart of Comanche Country.

Source

Texas Indian Papers / Texas State Library and Archives Commission