By Carol Powell

There are many reasons why people immigrated to America from the old country. Ludwig Mueller left Germany because of political oppression, revolution and war. Constitutions were being withdrawn, rights were taken away and many decided to seek refuge in other countries. By 1848, revolutionary movements broke out in many countries of Europe.

At the same time, adversities suffered by the German settlers in Texas during the years 1846 and 1847 could have been reason enough to discourage them from immigrating to Texas unless they felt conditions in Germany were worse. Ludwig felt his life would be better in America.

Oral family history says Ludwig set sail from the Rhine River to avoid fighting in a war. The irony was that he ended up serving with the Union Army during the Civil War where he was captured and forced to make confederate uniforms while in prison because he was a tailor by trade. When the Civil War ended, troops that had been withdrawn to fight in the war returned to Texas, including Ludwig, this time to stay until the frontier was tamed. In 1866, thousands of black cavalrymen were recruited by the United States government to open the west and fight the battles against the Indians. These troops had brought peace to the plains and came to be known as the Buffalo Soldiers. (The nickname was given to them by the Indians of the plains who likened their hair to that of the buffalo.) In 1867 and 1868, federal troops re-occupied Forts Davis, Stockton, Lancaster and Quitman, this time building permanent housing and facilities of stone and adobe to replace the uncomfortable and unsanitary pre-war jacales (one-room Mexican adobe huts).

Ludwig Mueller (Louis Miller, the American translation), met and married Clara S. (Olmstead) Howard, a widow with five children in 1870. Her family lived at Fort Croghan, another fort in the Fisher-Miller grant which was about three miles south of the town of Burnet, TX. The Olmstead family had a contract with the government to supply food for another fort before the Civil War and may have been under contract now at Fort Croghan. Seven children were born to Ludwig and Clara while in Texas.

In 1880, Ludwig and his family were living at Fort Concho, TX. Two of Ludwig’s step-sons, Herbert and Frank, ran a saloon at the fort. During the years of western expansion, army posts were established on the basis of anticipated use. Reacting to the fast changing needs of the country, the army would set up a post and then abandon it when no longer needed. This string of forts led westward as expansion proceeded. Victorio was a renegade Warm Springs Apache chief who had led a band of Indians for two years near Fort Concho, killing and terrorizing settlers. The need for Fort Concho ended as peace was established after the Victorio campaign ended in 1880 with his death.

Col. Benjamin H. Grierson of the 10th U.S. Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers left Fort Concho in 1882 and went to Fort Davis in west Texas before heading further west in 1884. Ludwig and his family followed him and the Buffalo Soldiers building forts from one western frontier post to another all the way into Arizona Territory.

When the family was living at Fort Davis, Ludwig’s step-daughter, Pearl Howard met and married John Fletcher Fairchild, a jailer who served for old Presidio County as well as being a deputy sheriff. He also was a bar keeper who built a two story saloon and house of ill repute which he sold in 1883 soon after building it. Fletcher also worked as a deputy and saloon keeper in New Mexico and Arizona after leaving Texas. The family left Texas in the fall of 1884. Pearl and her husband had their first child on the way to Arizona along the San Antonio-El Paso Road (later Route 66) and decided to stay in the Fort Bayard, New Mexico area for a while. Ludwig, Clara and the children continued on with a wagon train toward Fort Huachuca in Arizona.

Ludwig was unable to avoid war in his homeland of Germany and now was involved in Indian wars in this new land. When Texas was tamed, Ludwig had to move with the action into Indian territory in Arizona. He made his living serving army posts so he had to go where the work was. He became a casualty of the Indian Wars on his way to Fort Huachuca, being killed by marauding Apache Indians who attacked the wagon train traveling near Fort Apache (Safford), Arizona Territory. His wife and children were left behind because they couldn’t keep up with the train and another group found them and took them to Phoenix. In 1892, they moved to Prescott where Ludwig and Clara’s boys became a part of the new railroad industry in Arizona Territory. Ludwig never saw Prescott as his new home as did his family.

(Carol Powell is an historian for the Olmstead-Miller families.)

Much more can be read about the Miller family atsharlothallmuseum.org/archives/history/dayspast. Read an excellent history of the Buffalo Soldiers and the Indian Wars at www.buffalosoldier.net

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Library of Congress, Buffalo Soldiers) Reuse only by permission.

The 25th Infantry Regiment of Buffalo Soldiers shown here on duty in Montana, 1890. Note that some are wearing buffalo robes. The 10th U.S. Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers were stationed in the southwest.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Buffalo Soldiers and Indian Wars) Reuse only by permission.

The 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers crossing the Gila River, Arizona Territory, 1878.