moved to Fredericksburg, where he operated a mercantile business to support his family. In 1867, he sold his Fredericksburg holdings and moved his family to Waco Springs, four miles north of New Braunfels. On September 12, 1869 a tornado destroyed the Meusebach home in New Braunfels. Meusebach, whose foot had been pinned beneath a heavy beam, was the only member of his family to be injured. The foot injury remained with him the rest of his life. Loyal Valley Personal life and death Meusebach became engaged to Elizabeth von Hardenberg in 1842. Before they could be married, she died in Germany of Typhoid fever while he was administering the establishments of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. On September 28, 1852, forty-year-old Meusebach married seventeen-year-old Austrian-born Countess Agnes of Coreth, daughter of his friend Count Ernst of Coreth. The couple had eleven children, but only seven lived to adulthood. Meusebach died on May 27, 1897, on his property in Loyal Valley, and is buried in the family cemetery in Cherry Spring. John and Agnes' daughter Elizabeth married Leo Burchheardt Zesch and had two daughters named Leonie (1882–1944) and Leota (1886–1979) . The family moved to California after Leota's birth, and was living in San Francisco at the time of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Leonie von Meusebach–Zesch became a dentist, living in both Texas and Arizona and providing dental services to military personnel. In Arizona she provided dental services to Hopi people. She relocated to Alaska and became a traveling dentist who served remote areas around the state. When her mother Elizabeth was no longer able to care for herself, Dr. Zesch returned to California and spent the rest of her life and career there. The Alaska Women's Hall of Fame inducted Dr. Leonie von Meusebach-Zesch in 2012. Barons Creek in Fredericksburg, Texas is named after Baron Meusebach. See also Cherry Spring, Texas German Texan Notes References 1812 births 1897 deaths People from Dillenburg German emigrants to the Republic of Texas Texas state senators American city founders People from Fredericksburg, Texas People from the Texas Hill Country Prussian nobility 19th-century American politicians People from Mason County, Texas People from New Braunfels, Texas American people of Prussian descent German emigrants to the United States