About
TEXAS FREETHOUGHT JOURNAL (Published in San Marcos, Texas) intends to be a 21st-Century voice honoring the memory of the Texas Hill Country Freethinkers, who began settling here during the 1840s, when German immigrants fled the authoritarian confines of Germany and the social, political, and economic conditions that later led to the Revolution of 1848. They settled mainly in the Hill Country of Texas, in Kendall County (Comfort, Sisterdale, Tusculum), Gillespie County (Fredericksburg), Llano County (Castell), Bexar County (San Antonio), and Comal County (New Braunfels). Others lived in scattered settlements throughout Texas, including in Washington County (Latium), Austin County (Millheim and Shelby), Colorado County (Frelsburg), and DeWitt County (Meyersville and Ratcliffe).
After the Civil War, during which most Freethinkers sided with the Union, a position that led many to be killed by the Confederate Army and their sympathizers, they dispersed throughout Texas. The German Freethinkers considered the idea of a Diety irrelevant and developed secular ceremonies to mark life’s passages. More information about the early Texas Freethinkers can be found at Freethought Links and in some Articles on this site