The Texas State Genealogical Society recently awarded DeWitt County Historical Commission the 2025 first-place award for its book “C.H. Waltersdorf’s History of DeWitt County 1899 and Essays of Rudolph Kleberg 1847-1924.”
The book was published in 2025 as part of the Historical Commission’s celebration of the 175th anniversary of the founding of DeWitt County. Funds for the project were provided by donations and the sale of the books.TSGS chose the book from among 125 entries published by a partner society for the first-place award.
As DeWitt County Historical Commission was preparing to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the county, a member of the commission discovered a small 1899 historical book titled “De Witt County”. The book was written in German by C.H. Waltersdorf, a young German language newspaper publisher working in DeWitt and Lavaca counties. The commission contacted Dr. James Kearney, a professor of Germanic studies at University of Texas.
