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| Bergheim
Post Office. TE photo, February 2009 |
History in a Pecan
Shell
Andreas Engel, an Austrian immigrant to Texas
in 1885 is credited with founding Bergheim, which translates into English as Mountain
Home. Engel married and became a storekeeper, opening Bergheim’s first store
in 1900. A post office was applied for and was granted in 1901, with Engel serving
as postmaster.
A permanent limestone building was constructed in 1903 and
remains as the community’s post office in 2009 – still operated by a descendant
of Andreas Engel.
Bergheim became a center for cedar fence posts, perhaps
the largest in Texas. The store would barter cedar
posts for groceries and necessities, providing an income for cedar choppers. These
were itinerant workers whose work cleared land while providing fence posts, usually
camping out on the properties they worked and then moving on
The Berheim
store and post office received a state historical marker in the 1980s. |
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