Rosa, the wife of Ernst Bauer, grew up in Spring Branch in Comal County. Her father, Henry Bender, was born in Hesse-Darmstadt and arrived in 1861 in New York City. He settled in Wabash, Indiana, and in 1864 he enlisted in the Union Army in Company G, 138th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. According to John Henry Brown’s Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, he participated in Sherman’s March to the Sea. He returned to Wabash, and there he married Harriett Sawyer on 8 August 1865. His health began to fail, and he came to New Braunfels to visit his brother Charles. He decided to move the family to Texas and eventually acquired 2,200 acres of land in Spring Branch along the Guadalupe River. Rosa is the fifth child of Henry and Harriett and was born on 29 August 1874.
Ernst and Rosa “Rosie” married on 9 July 1895 in Kendall County. Rosa was 20 years old, and Ernst was 30. They had three children. Their first child, Elfrieda, later known as Alpha, was born on 27 April 1896. On 11 January 1898, their second daughter Harriet “Hattie,” was born, and their son, Arnold M., was born on 14 January 1901.
After her husband’s tragic death in September 1920, Rosa and her son, Arnold, continued operating the farm. On the 1930 census, Rosa is 54 and a Farm Manager. Arnold, age 29, is a laborer. Two years after the census, a deed of heirship is filed in Kendall County Deed Records V 52, pages 535-536. Max Hofheinz and Charles Bergmann, Jr, friends of the family, say they have known the Ernst Bauer family for over forty years. They listed family members as Rosa Bauer, his wife, son Arnold, daughters Elfrieda wife of Micky Solomon, and Hattie, wife of Fritz Klaeden. Another two years pass, and Rosa has married C. D. Hood. In April, she is involved in Kendall County District Court case No. 829. The dispute is over four Boerne City Lots in the Oak Park Addition. When the court settled the dispute in 1934, Arnold Bauer and his sisters, Hattie Klaeden and Elfrieda Solomon, widow, pay Rosa $10.00, agreed to pay a promissory note of $250.00 due to the Boerne State Bank on 1 May 1934 made by Rosa Bauer. They are to pay any unpaid taxes and all the court costs and can keep the lots but they are to “relinquish all claims and demands against Rosa Hood growing out of the estate of Ernst Bauer, deceased.” The decree stated Alpha, Hattie, and Arnold did not have rights to lots 12 and 26 located in the Artesian Gardens Subdivision is Bexar County which she purchased 3 October 1932.
Rosa and her husband, Charles “Charlie” Dow Hood, live in South San Antonio at 304 Faye Avenue. Charlie is a carpenter. He was born in Big Foot, Texas, on 11 December 1883 to Charles William and Mary J. Coffman Hood. For part of his adult life, he worked drilling oil wells. His World War I registration card described him as six feet tall, medium build, blue eyes, and light-colored hair. In March of 1936, Charlie is working on I. B. Rice’s home when J. B. Kountz, a night watchman for the Missouri Pacific railroad, stopped by the house to talk to him. According to testimony, Hood sent Kountz a note earlier in the day. Kountz owed Hood $46.00, and he wanted payment. They argued about the date Kountz was to repay the loan. Hood hit Kountz in the head with a hammer and was prepared to strike again when Kountz fired a .45 caliber revolver, which he was holding at the time, and shot and killed Hood. Kountz surrendered. The case went to trial in November. Kountz, who defended himself at the trial, said he shot Hood in self-defense. The jury agreed and he was acquitted. Charlie Hood was buried in the Roselawn Cemetery in San Antonio, now called San Fernando #3.
In 1936, Rosa Bauer Hood, “for and in consideration of the sum of $1.00 to me in hand paid, and the love and affection which I have for the grantee herein, my daughter…give to Alpha Solomon, a widow, of the County of Bexar part of lots 26 and 27 in Artesian Garden Subdivision…” In 1937 Rosa Bauer Hood , a widow, “in consideration of Ten Dollars and love and affection to me in hand paid by Mrs. Fred Klaeden [her daughter]…as her separate property….a lot of land….in Artesian Gardens, in Bexar County, Texas.” Arnold M. Bauer paid Rosa $10.00 in May 1940 for a lot located in the New Fenfield Addition, located in South San Antonio.
In 1948 Rosa was listed in the San Antonio City Directory as the wife of Starling L. Friday. S. L. is a driver for Associated Seeds, and they live at 530 Faye Avenue in South San Antonio. Two years later, Rosa died at the age of 75 of liver cancer. Her husband, S. L. Friday, survived her; also, her two daughters Mrs. Hattie Klaeden, Mrs. Alpha Garsic [sic]; son Arnold Bauer of Converse; four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Her services were held at the Southside Funeral home, and interment was at the Roselawn Memorial Park, now San Fernando Cemetery #3.
Bexar County Deed Records, Certified Decree, V1451, 582p.
Bexar County Deed Records, V 1559, 174p.
Bexar County Deed Records, V 1581, 339p.
Kendall County Deed Records, V 54, 92p.
Kendall County Deed Records, V 52, 535-536p.
Murder Trial, San Antonio Light 27 March 1936, 2 Nov 1936, 4 Nov 1936, 5 Nov 1936, 6 Nov 1936, 7 Nov 1936. GenealogyBank.com.
Obituary Charles D. Hood, San Antonio Light, 27 March 1936, GenealogyBank.com.
Obituary Rose K. Friday, San Antonio Light, 7 February 1950, GenealogyBank.com.
San Fernando Cemetery #3, Findagrave.com.
Texas Death Certificates, Ancestry.com.
U. S. City Directories 1822 – 1995; San Antonio City Directory, 1948, Ancestry.com.
World War I Registration Card, Ancestry.com.
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