On October 20, 1846, Berlin emigrants Ferdinand Friedrich Wilhelm Doebbler and his wife Auguste Matheus[6] disembarked from the Elise and Charlotte in Galveston, Texas, destined for Fredericksburg.

[7][8][9] By 1857 they had opened Grapetown's first business entity, Doebbler's Inn and General Store at the crossing of Immigrant Road and Upper South Grape Creek.

[10] Doebbler's establishment became a stage stop and community gathering place, eventually including horse stables.

Grapetown ranchers benefited from proximity to Kerrville, where they found a thriving market in selling their cattle to Charles Schreiner.

Unionists from Kerr, Gillespie, and Kendall counties formed the Union League, a secret organization to support President Abraham Lincoln's policies.

Grapetown residents August Hoffman and Heinrich Rausch joined sixty-some conscientious objectors attempting to flee to Mexico.

On April 1, 1882, Friedrich Baag[19] donated land for a school building, with the stipulation that no political or religious activities be held on the property.

The county event includes crowning of one or more Schützenkönigs (shooting kings), a parade and a Saengerfest[22] On January 3, 1913, the San Antonio, Fredericksburg and Northern Railway was chartered to connect Fredericksburg with the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway near Waring, building through Grapetown and neighboring Bankersmith.

[23][24][25] Crossing the high ridge between the Guadalupe and Pedernales River basins south of Fredericksburg required the construction of a 920 ft (280 m) long tunnel at a cost of $134,000, and the resultant debt sent the railway into receivership on October 28, 1914.