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Stringer: Luckenbach, Texas
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Dr. Tommy Stringer
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In 1977, Waylon Jennings sang the praises of Luckenbach, Texas, where everybody is somebody. He extolled the virtues of small town rural life compared to hustle and bustle of materialistic urban society.
The community of Luckenbach, located in Gillespie County, was established in the 1840s by a group of German immigrant farmers that included Jacob and August Luckenbach. They had arrived in Texas in 1845, and located near Fredericksburg the following year. In 1852 the family became American citizens, and relocated 12 miles southeast of Fredericksburg to a location that became the townsite of their namesake community.
The Luckenbach family was active in civic and political affairs. Jacob served as county commissioner and school supervisor, and brother Wiliam was justice of the peace for many years. Sophie Engel, Jacob’s daughter-in-law,was named post mistress when the post office was established in 1854. In addition, she operated a store and saloon, and the town also boasted a cotton gin, a dance hall, and a blacksmith shop. The Lutherans and Methodists both constructed houses of worship, and there was a school for the town’s children. By 1904 the population totaled 492, but that number declined consistently through the early decades of the 20th century. From the 1920s through the 1950s the census reported a population of 20.
In 1971 the Luckenbach family sold the town to John Russell “Hondo” Crouch a former swimming champion and journalist from nearby Comfort, Texas. He installed one parking meter near the general store, and introduced a number of special festivals to promote his town. For example, there was the Mud Dobbers Day, a women’s-only chili cook-off, and the Luckenbach’ s Great World’s Fair.
Music was a central part of Luckenbach’s culture. Jerry Jeff Walker recorded his best selling album “Viva Terlingua” in Luckenbach, and the town was the site of Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July picnics from 1995 through 1999. The dance hall attracts professional and amateur musicians who enjoy the casual, laid back environment of the community. Texas Monthly named Luckenbachas one of the state’s top 25 treasures. The Texas Department of Transportation has virtually given up on trying to keep highway signs posted directing travelers to Luckenbach as souvenir hunters repeatedly steal them. But if you want to go to Luckenbach, Texas, and return to the basics of life where everybody is somebody, just head out on FM 1376 of Highway 290 near Fredericksburg.
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Dr. Tommy Stringer is executive director of the Navarro College Foundation. His radio program airs at 6:55 a.m. weekdays KAND Radio.
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