Fredericksburg is celebrating Founder's Day this weekend, even though the actual anniversary of the date the first group of settlers arrived is not until Monday, May 8th. That intrepid group of families left homes in various parts of Germany and sailed for Texas to make a new start. They arrived in the fall of 1845 via Galveston and landed at the port of Indianola. Short on supplies and funds, the nobleman’s society that had arranged for them to come, faced huge obstacles trying to get the colonists to the land grant that had been secured and was located several hundred miles inland. Initially they travelled to New Braunfels, a midpoint on the journey from Indianola, mostly walking behind two-wheeled Mexican ox carts. Finally on May 8, 1846, 177 years ago, they arrived in what would become the town of Fredericksburg and camped near a clear running creek under some large oak trees. Their dreams live on today in their many descendants like my family, and those now giant oak trees still stand near the same small creek that flows through our town.