Jacob Kuechler (February 18, 1823 – April 4, 1893) was a surveyor, conscientious objector during the American Civil War, and commissioner of the Texas General Land Office.

They founded the Fisher–Miller Land Grant community of Bettina, Texas, after John O. Meusebach negotiated the Meusebach–Comanche Treaty in 1847.

[3] The members dispersed to other communities, and Kuechler moved to Pedernales, Texas, to take up farming and ranching with the Lungkwitz and Petri families.

As Gillespie County surveyor, he pioneered dendrochronology at Fredericksburg during the drought of the late 1850s by comparing tree-ring sequences for dating natural events.

Upon recommendation by Samuel Maverick, Jacob Kuechler was commissioned as a captain by Sam Houston to enroll state militia troops in Gillespie County.

[11] Kuechler returned to Texas in 1867 during Reconstruction and entered the political arena, becoming a leading German voice in the Republican Party.

He was elected commissioner of the Texas General Land Office in 1870, holding the position for the entire four years of the administration of Governor Edmund J.