Charles William Pressler — A Legacy of Maps in the GLO Archives
Charles William Pressler was one of the longest-serving employees of the Texas General Land Office. His career spanned nearly 43 years, almost uninterrupted, from 1856 until his retirement in January 1899. His critical work as a draftsman is prevalent throughout the Archives’ map collection; however, he also appears in the land grant records as a German immigrant seeking a new life in Texas, as well as an early property owner in the city of Austin.
Karl Wilhelm (Charles William) Pressler was born at Kendelbrück in Thuringia, Prussia on March 26, 1823.[1] He was the youngest of ten children, around 25 years younger than his eldest brother. His mother died when he was young, and he was raised mostly by his brothers and sisters. He followed his closest sibling, Hermann, to the Luthergymnasium (state high school) in Eisleben where he graduated shortly after he turned 18. Having cultivated an interest and showing some talent in drawing, Pressler decided to enroll in a surveying school located in Weissensee. Three years later he passed the state surveyor’s exam. At this point, he entered Prussian state service and was sworn into the Prussian army.[2]
Pressler soon became disillusioned with life in Germany.[3] He disapproved of the political and religious conditions there and joined the Adelsverein, a group in Germany who were looking for colonists to settle in the new Republic of Texas. Along with four close friends,[4] records in the GLO Archives indicate that Pressler left Germany in October of 1845 from the port town of Bremerhaven, and arrived in Galveston, Texas sometime around the first of February, 1846.[5]
Pressler stayed in Galveston for a short time until one of his friends acquired land near present-day Round Top in Fayette County. There, he and his friends tried their hands at farming, but their collective prospects were grim and Pressler began to weigh his options. By this time the U.S.-Mexican War was ramping up and Pressler and a friend decided to join the many columns of soldiers and volunteers they witnessed passing their farm. On their way to enlist, they stopped in La Grange where Pressler’s friend had a change of heart. Not wanting to enlist alone, Pressler abandoned his plan of joining the military and traveled to Austin alone to search for work in the capital.[6]
Upon arriving in Austin, Pressler called upon Robert Creuzbaur (Kreuzbauer), a fellow German who was working for the General Land Office. Creuzbaur initially told Pressler that because of his weak English he would not be able to help him. Disheartened but in need of a job, Pressler eventually found work at a bakery run by another fellow German for a salary of $9 per month plus room and board. However, two weeks later, he was surprised by Creuzbaur with news that Col. Thomas William Ward, the commissioner of the General Land Office, wanted to meet with him. Dressing up “Texas style,” which Pressler described as “Cotton pants and a short blue coat, one trouser leg in the boot, my felt hat on my head,” he met with Ward and accepted a two-month contract drawing maps for $20 per month plus room and board.[7]
After his brief contract at the GLO ended in August 1846, Pressler planned to enlist in the volunteer army in San Antonio to join the fight against Mexico. On August 26, the day he was going to leave Austin for San Antonio, he met a Jamaican named Jacob De Cordova at the General Land Office. De Cordova, who later became one of the largest and most successful land speculators in Texas, was just starting his real estate endeavors by buying and selling land certificates. Pressler offered De Cordova his services as a trained surveyor, and he was hired at the same rate the GLO had paid him.[8]
During his time with De Cordova, Pressler led several surveying expeditions throughout Central Texas. On one ill-fated expedition in Guadalupe County, his party of six men was attacked by 30–40 Wichita Indians. Three of his men were killed instantly, two ran off, and Pressler broke through the Wichita lines on his horse and galloped for at least five miles before eventually abandoning his horse to cross the Blanco River. He lost his shoes in the river but proceeded to hike three miles to San Marcos, cutting up his feet in the process. After finding some young men to help him return to find and bury the bodies of his colleagues, Pressler rode back to Austin where he was bedridden for two weeks as his feet healed.[9]
In 1848, he learned of the escalating revolution in Germany and decided to return to his homeland that summer. While there he met Clara Johanna Doerk, whom he married in June of 1849. The newlywed couple returned to Texas the following year and Pressler purchased land in Austin County, not far from where he and his companions first tried their hands at farming. In December of 1850, they relocated once again to Austin, where GLO records show Pressler purchased an Austin City Lot along Shoal Creek.[10]
Upon his return to Austin, Pressler was quickly hired as a full-time draftsman at the General Land Office.[11] Meanwhile, he continued to have a close working relationship with Jacob De Cordova and was instrumental in reviewing and proofing De Cordova’s famous 1849 Map of the State of Texas… and subsequent revisions. The pair also collaborated on the book, Texas: Her Resources and Public Men.[12] Pressler’s work with De Cordova was important; however, it was at the General Land Office where he really made his name during his lengthy and celebrated career. In March 1858, he earned a promotion to principal draftsman. That same year he published his own map, titled Pressler’s Map of the State of Texas.[13]
In 1865, Pressler was promoted once again to chief draftsman.[14] In 1879, he and his GLO colleague A.B. Langermann completed their iconic Map of the State of Texas, which demonstrated major improvements in the cartography of Texas and highlighted the importance of the state’s railroad system. The map is so large (8.5 feet long by 8.9 feet wide) that it resides in the GLO’s “jumbo” map cabinet, and there are only four known copies of this map in existence.
In addition to his maps of Texas, Pressler also drew 43 GLO county maps and countless office sketches. Except for a brief time in the Engineering Corps of the Confederacy during the Civil War and a couple of side-jobs going on expeditions and drawing maps for the U.S. Engineering Corps in the 1870s, Charles W. Pressler served at the GLO until his retirement in January of 1899. His son Herman also served at the GLO as a draftsman.
Pressler’s lengthy tenure at the GLO meant he became a long-time resident, property owner, and active community member of Austin.[15] At the same time, he never forgot his German roots and always kept in close contact with the local German population. In 1851 he worked on a map with W. Voelker that appeared in a German publication to assist future immigrants to Texas. He was also one of the incorporators of the German Free School Association in 1858, the first charter school in Austin.[16]
Charles Pressler died on February 6, 1907, in Austin and was survived by his wife Clara and four children. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Pressler’s legacy, in the form of meticulously crafted maps of the state of Texas and several of her counties, lives on in the Archives of the Texas General Land Office.
[1] At some point, Pressler “anglicized” his name from ‘Karl Wilhelm Pressler’ to ‘Charles William Pressler’
[2] Handbook of Texas Online, Charles A. Pressler, “Pressler, Karl Wilhelm,” accessed February 6, 2019, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpr07
[3] David Holman, “Letter to Hermann Pressler from Charles Pressler, March-April 1847,” in Letters of Hard Times in Texas 1840–1890, (Austin: Roger Beacham Publisher. 1974), p. 14.
[4] The names of these friends were Julius Franz, Fritz Kannengiesser, Albin Sörgel, and someone named Schäfer, (Holman, Letters of Hard Times in Texas 1840–1890)
[5] German Immigration Contract #2054, 29 October 1845, Texas Land Grant Records, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[6] Holman, Letters of Hard Times in Texas 1840–1890, 15–16.
[7] Ibid., 16–17.
[8] Ibid., 20.
[9] Ibid., 27–28.
[10] Austin City Lots File 000551, 18 December 1850, Texas Land Grant Records, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[11] Handbook of Texas Online, Charles A. Pressler, “Pressler, Karl Wilhelm,” accessed February 6, 2019, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpr07
[12] Ibid.
[13] This map was reissued in later years as the Traveler’s Map of the State of Texas.
[14] Oaths of Office File 116, 4 March 1858 and 30 August 1865, Texas Land Grant Records, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[15] Austin City Lots File 551, 18 December 1850, and Austin City Lots File 698, 11 October 1855, Texas Land Grant Records, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[16] Handbook of Texas Online, Charles F. Kalteyer, “German Free School Association of Austin,” accessed February 6, 2019, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kbg07
