Johann Kampmann was born
on December 15,1819 in Waltrop, and lived in Kreis Reibenhausen, Munster,
Westpharia, and Prussia. His dad, Johann Peter, died in 1823 when Johann
was 14, and ever since childhood Johann was always interested in architecture.
He served successively as an apprentice the trades of carpenter, blacksmith,
stonemason, and plasterer in and around Europe.
He was an apprecntice on
the building of the Cologne Cathedral.
He proved himself in Europe in his trade assisting as a superintendent of construction of the Apollinaris Church. Johann came to America with his mother (Elizabeth Sellingsboth) in 1848 to escape conscription for military service. He married Caroline on May 14,1850 and had five children.
He started his own business with John Fries called Kampmann and Fries Building Firm. They built the land office in Austin and the courthouse at Bastrop. He designed and built some famous buildings such as the Menger Hotel, the Beckman house in the 1850s, and others around San Antonio prior to the Civil War.
In 1852 Kampmann dissolved the company and continued in business for himself. He began erection of his own home in 1854 on Nacogdoches Street. It was an ell-shaped building of one story with a spacious basement and a porch that extended across the front. It used to be a showplace in San Antonio but does not exist today.
He died on September 6, 1885 in Colorado Springs, CO. and was buried in San Antonio, Tx.
Bibliography:
Jason Jonas. Texas
Historian. September 1983. "Major Johann Herman Kampmann:
 Leader of Early San Antonio." Pages23-29