George Henry Haass
George Henry Haass was born on 5 April 1796 at Dürkheim, a wine town in the Palatinate, the part of Bavaria that lay west of the Rhine. His parents were Valentine Haass, also of Dürkheim, and Elizabeth Orth, who was born at Worms. He trained as a cabinetmaker, and from 1830 to 1850 he served on the police force.
In Germany he married Anna Maria Schwarz. They had five children: Valentine Frederick, born on 3 April 1829; Phillip in 1831; Frederick, called Fritz, in 1834; Sibelle in 1836; and George Louis in 1837. Anna was a Catholic. George was a Protestant.
In 1852, at 56, he brought the family to Texas. His brothers Valentine and Phillip had already settled in Medina County, in the colony Henri Castro had planted at Castroville in 1844, and the family joined them there. In 1856 he and his sons went into ranching and were doing well until Indians raided the ranch and drove off all their stock. The settlers chased the raiders but got back only two horses. He never tried ranching again and spent the rest of his life among his children.
He was killed by the accidental discharge of a pistol, at the age of seventy-two by the family history; his stone gives his death as 3 February 1870. He was buried in the Zion Cemetery at Castroville. Anna lived ten years more and died at Castroville in April 1880. By 1907 his sons were a merchant, a stock farmer who had been sheriff of Medina County, and three more stock farmers, and his grandson Valentine was a judge.
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Cite: Heirology, "George Henry Haass (1796-1870)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/george-henry-haass-1796-1870-25b139.