Leopold Stavenhagen

Hood County Texas Genealogical Society

STAVENHAGEN

Roots Traced to German Teen Stowaway

Hood County News On-Line Edition July 20, 1999

Early-day Granbury merchant Leopold Stavenhagen was born in Germany in 1833. As a teenager, he stowed away on a sailing ship that docked in Galveston.

After many adventures in New Mexico and a stint as a teamster for the Confederate government, Stavenhagen settled in Granbury in the early 1870s. He opened a bakery/confectionery shop on the square's north side where he met and fell in love with Sarah Yates. Sarah lived just around the corner on Crockett Street in the Yates cabin, which still stands today.

Leopold and Sarah married in 1874 in Granbury. They eventually settled in the Lipan area where they were active members of the Kickapoo Missionary Baptist Church. Leopold was a Mason and postmaster.

Their descendants live all over the U.S., from Alaska to Florida. Many will be in Granbury Saturday, Aug. 7 for the biannual family reunion.

Sarah's paternal grandparents, Amon and Sarah Carter Bond, and her parents, Austin Newton and Frankey Bond Yates, had traveled from Tennessee to settle at Stockton Bend along the Brazos River in the early 1850s.

While Austin was off serving in the Civil War, Frankey operated a boarding house in the little cabin on Crockett. For 25 cents a day boarders had a place to sleep and a meal cooked by Frankey.

The Yates family eventually resettled in the Lipan area as well, where they were active members in the Baptist church.

There are hundreds of Bond and Yates descendants still living in the Hood County area, says family historian Diane Stavenhagen Kadletz.