[2] For four months, December 1844 to March 1845, Zink oversaw the settling of the colonists who arrived at Indianola, renamed Carlshafen in honor of Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels.

The colonists rode covered wagons, pushcarts, and walked, as Zink led them to New Braunfels, arriving on March 21, 1845.

Those who came were Forty-Eighters, intellectual liberal abolitionists who enjoyed conversing in Latin and believed in utopian ideals that guaranteed basic human rights to all.

[10] Among the other original settlers in Sisterdale were German pioneers Fritz and Betty Holekamp,[11] geographer Ernst Kapp;[12] Anhalt Premier progeny[8] journalist Dr. Carl Adolph Douai;[13] August Siemering[14] who later founded the San Antonio Express News; author, journalist, and diplomat Dr. Julius Fröbel; future Wall Street financial wiz Gustav Theissen;[8] Edgar von Westphalen,[15][16][17] brother to Jenny von Westphalen who was married to Karl Marx;[18] and Edward Degener, future Republican U.S. Representative from Texas during Reconstruction.

In Sisterdale, Zink gained success in farming, and became shrewd in his financial dealings when selling his wheat crop to the United States Army posts.

[19] They sold their Sisterdale home and acreage to Eduard Degener and moved to Barons Creek[20] near Fredericksburg to start a gristmill.