The General Store
Photographed at Sophienburg Museum, New Braunfels, Texas
There were 32 retail stores in New Braunfels by 1866. Storekeepers received mechandise from salesmen who represented manufacturing firms in Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, and New York. They would arrive by stagecoach carrying dozens of trunks with different styles and examples of boots, shoes, hats, housewares, gifts, jewelry, and toys. Some of the merchants had merchandise imported from the settlers' homeland of Germany.
Often local merchants would take eggs, honey, molasses, and other "home grown" items in trade for merchandise from their stock.
- Some items that might have been in stock:
- clothes plunger (for washing clothes)
- lamps
- vases
- clocks
- binoculars
- record player
- New Braunfels souvenirs and games
- light bulbs
- window panes
- chamber pots
- cow bells
- sewing supplies
- knick-knacks