au texas

Henri Boll

Occupation
meat processor
Origin
Canton Aargau, Switzerland
Sources
Santerre, Foster, DMN 1906, Boyer, Franziska #12, Sandell, Cordillot, DMN 1903
Notes
m. Lizzette Knepfly (Knoepfli) in the colony (DMN 1906 marriage list)

Ship

Positions

From the register of positions.

Land

Biography

Henri Boll


Name
  Canonical: Henri Boll
  German: Heinrich Boll (Jr)
  Also: Henry Boll (Sandell, Boyer); H. Boll (DMN 1906)

Birth: November 14, 1830, Gwinden, near Bergdietikon (Aargau), Switzerland
Death: November 5, 1904, Dallas, Texas
Burial: unknown

Origin: Canton Aargau; apprenticed in a cannery at Zurich from age 19

Family
  Wife: Elizabeth Knoepfli, married at the colony July 21, 1856; ten children
    (Cordillot). DMN 1906 marriage list has "Lizzette Knepfly."
  First wife and two children died in Switzerland, 1854.
  Parents, two sisters and an uncle, Jacques Peire, followed him to the
    colony; his brother Jacob Boll, a pharmacist, came much later (Cordillot)
    -- Sandell has Jacob as "internationally known naturalist," which is the
    same man (Jacob Boll, 1828-1880, trained as a pharmacist).
  Father: Heinrich Boll Sr., butcher, age 57 in 1860, lived with him (Sandell).
  Sister: Dorothea Boll, married Jacob Nussbaumer at the colony.
  Sister (probable): Suzanne Boll, married a Frichot (Cordillot's appendix).

Occupation at colony: meat preserving (Cordillot: charge de la mise en
  conserve des viandes). Santerre lists him as "meat processor."
Occupation in Dallas: butcher, real estate

Ship / arrival: Franziska, Bremen to Galveston, 13 May - 4 July 1855, with
  Burkli's Swiss group (passenger #12, "BOLL, Heinrich"). Cordillot dates
  the embarkation February 12, 1855 and the colony arrival July 4 -- the
  manifest shows July 4 was the Galveston landing, and the sailing was
  in May.

Colony role: none beyond the meat work; married there

Post-colony
  - 1862: Confederate army, commissary department (Santerre: under Col.
    Buford, then Post Waco; returned to Dallas)
  - Meat trade in Dallas in association with the Henri brothers, Heinrich
    Frick and Knoepfli; then real estate
  - 1868: Cordillot says he refused the deputy mayor's post offered by the
    military authorities. Sandell has him appointed alderman on Gen.
    Reynolds's September 1868 slate and resigning at the first meeting
    because he was not a city resident -- the same refusal, seen from the
    Dallas side.
  - May 1, 1871: appointed City Treasurer (Sandell)
  - November 1872: elected Treasurer in the first free election, a 4-4 tie
    broken by Mayor Long (Sandell). Cordillot: "City and County Treasurer."
  - Freemason, several lodges
  - May 12, 1889: Mayor W.C. Connor presents him a testimonial signed by
    130 Dallas citizens (Sandell)

Land
  1859 tax roll: "Henry Boll & father," 13 1/10 and 149 acres.
  Sandell: moved to Moon Lake, then built on what became Swiss Avenue, a
  family of ten. Boll's Addition is recorded Vol. U, p. 277 (Murphy &
  Bolanz block 326, Swiss Ave at Cantegral), with "H Boll" among the
  pencilled owners.

Sources
  Cordillot, "Boll Henrich (Jr)," Au Texas (2003)
  Sandell, assimilation thesis (1986), colonist directory; ch. II, IV
  Santerre, White Cliffs of Dallas (1955), colonist list; ch. XII (war service)
  Franziska passenger list, #12 (doc/colonists/ships/franziska/roster.md)
  DMN 1906 roster and marriage list
  deeds.py: 1859 tax roll

Notes
  The Swiss meat-and-grocery partnership -- Boll, Frick, Knoepfli and the
  Henri brothers -- recurs in three of Cordillot's notices and is the
  economic core of the East Dallas Swiss community. Boll is the one who
  turned it into office: treasurer of city and county, and the 1889
  testimonial is the city's formal thanks to a colonist.

Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County (1892), pp. 625-626
  His own sketch: son of Henry and Magdelina (Peier) Boll; on a farm until
  19, then four years' apprenticeship as a butcher at Zurich (Cordillot:
  a cannery) and business on his own; first married September 22, 1852 to
  Anna Notzli, who died with both children in 1854; sailed from Bremen
  "the following February," 61 days to Galveston, Houston, ox team and on
  foot, reaching Dallas July 4, 1855 -- the same date the Franziska
  manifest gives for the Galveston landing, and a February sailing the
  manifest does not support: conflict. In the colony "detailed to do the
  butchering, three times a week"; after about three months he and three
  countrymen leased 160 acres of the colony, found it had no title, and
  gave it up; then butchering with his brother-in-law Nussbaumer until
  the war. January 1862 commissary; sent back to Texas for cattle in the
  spring; Burford's regiment until January 1, 1863; Post Waco to the end.
  "In 1869 elected City and County Treasurer, three or four years" (the
  minutes: appointed May 1871, elected November 1872). Father, mother and
  two sisters came 1856; brother John 1864; Jacob 1869 (back to Europe,
  returned 1874; died 1880 in Wilbarger County -- Henry brought the body
  to Dallas). Married again July 22, 1856 to Elizabeth Knopfli, daughter
  of Jacob K. and Barbara (Steinman) Knopfli, who came with his father's
  family. Eye disease from about 1880; operation in Europe 1889; retired.
  Tannehill Lodge No. 52, Dallas Chapter, Dallas Commandery No. 6.
  Signed the June 4, 1868 Trinity-navigation memorial, as did "John Boll."
  doc/text/books/1800/lewis_memorial_dallas_county_1892/excerpts.md

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