Background
Wilhelm Victor Keidel was born in Hildesheim, Kingdom of Hanover, Germany on March 2, 1825 to Doctor Georg Keidel.
Wilhelm Victor Keidel was born in Hildesheim, Kingdom of Hanover, Germany on March 2, 1825 to Doctor Georg Keidel.
He attended Georg Augusts Universität in Göttingen from 1841 to 1845.
He was a veteran of the Mexican-American War. Keidel founded the settlement of Pedernales. On September 1, 1845, at the age of twenty, Keidel boarded the Brigadier Margaretha, captained by a man named Libben, in Bremen, Germany and disembarked in Galveston, Texas on December 1, 1845.
In the Mexican-American War, fellow German colonist and veteran of the French Foreign Legion Augustus Buchel formed the First Regiment of Texas Foot Rifles, serving as its Captain.
Keidel enlisted with the unit On May 22, 1846, the company was drafted into the service of Colonel
Albert Sidney Johnston as Company H, First Texas Rifle Volunteers. The unit saw service at Matamoros, Tamaulipas and Camargo.
A combination of bad climate and bad living conditions descimated the unit, most of whom were discharged.
Upon discharge, Keidel moved to Fredericksburg. He was appointed by John O. Meusebach to be the Verein physician in Fredericksburg, "s first doctor. At the age of twenty-three, he became the county"s first Chief Justice in 1848.
He relocated and founded the Pedernales Settlement on the river of the same name, where he became the leader.
Foreign any settlers who would relocate with him to the settlement, he agreed to give them free medical care. By 1850 the settlement had forty-four residents of German descent.
On September 11, 1854, he hosted a meeting to plan Live Oak School and was elected trustee. Keidel founded the political and cultural club Society for Good Fellowship and Promotion of General Information.
His community beautification project was to plant hackberry trees along local roads.
Keidel gave medical treatment to both whites and Native Americans without regard to race. The Native Americans paid Keidel with fresh venison and turkeys. During the American Civil War, Keidel refused align himself with either side, and gave medical care where needed, without regard to the allegiance of the patient.
Keidel was elected vice president of the 1854 in San Antonio.
The meeting adopted a political, social and religious platform, including: 1) Equal pay for equal work. 2) Direct election of the President of the United States.
3) Abolition of capital punishment. 4) “Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles.”.
5) Free schools – including universities – supported by the state, without religious influence.
And 6) Total separation of church and state. Doctor Keidel was married and widowed twice. Their son Doctor Albert Keidel built the Keidel Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg.
Albert died December 21, 1914.
Keidel"s second marriage was to Caroline Kott of the Bear community in 1856. Caroline"s health declined while she was carrying the couple"s son Herman in 1865.
The family relocated back to Fredericksburg, and Caroline died of a fever in August 1865 after Herman"s birth.
Emil Kriewitz was a co-founding member of the company of eighty volunteers.