Johann Nicholaus Simon
Menger was born in Schwarzburg, Stadtilm, Rudolstadt, Thurigen,
on June 6, 1807. He was
a schoolteacher in Germany for many years before coming to Texas
as one of Herni Castro's
colonists in 1846. He moved to San Antonio to give instructions in music,
especially piano.
In addition to teaching and composing, Menger founded and conducted the San Antonio Maennergesang-Verein. The first such organization in San Antonio and perhaps Texas.
Later, Menger wrote to the Freie Presse fuer Texas, the state's leading German newspaper. By 1850, Menger found that music in San Antonio was not a profitable occupation and, in that year opened a soap and candle factory. Until that time San Antonio had washed with soap imported from Mexico. Not only did Menger thus establish San Antonio's first industrial undertaking, but the first soap factory in the Southwest. See the Buildings Section of this Web Site.
Bibliography:
Simon Menger (1807-1892):The
Activities of a composer, conductor, andteacher in San Antonio before the
civil war. By: Theodore Albrecht (North Texas State University)