The indigent children home was created by a charter enacted into state law by the 2nd Texas legislature on March 16, 1848.

[2][3][4] The American frontier settlement was founded by the German Emigration Company often referred as the Adelsverein.

[5] The self-reliant homestead endured disease outbreak hardships during the preparatory years of the German Emigration Company establishment on the Texas Guadalupe River.

[6] Beginning in 1845, the German colony suffered an infectious disease epidemic inflicting cholera on the New Wied inhabitants.

The German Texan Waisenhaus site received a Texas Historic Landmark medallion and plate in 1970.