SHARING THE PAST
On Wednesday, April 22, 1908, Kendall County’s popular and highly respected Sheriff, George August Zoeller, died after shooting himself in the Boerne jail.
As was his daily habit, George Zoeller went to the jail before breakfast. He had recently had a severe illness but seemed to have recovered. His wife, Eleanora, thought that his behavior was somewhat odd because George said he wanted to tell her something but could not.
Zoeller arrived at the jail about 6 a.m. There was one prisoner, locked up on the second floor. At 7 a.m. the prisoner heard a gunshot .
Worried about her husband, Eleanora sent her son, Adolph, to the jail to check on him. There he found a prisoner banging on the bars in a vain attempt to gain someone’s attention and his father, lying mortally on the floor below.
George Zoeller was the son of Helwig Karl Adolph Zoeller and Augusta Elizabeth Wendler. He was born March 13, 1861, on his father’s farm near the Guadalupe River. When he was one year old his father left to go to New Orleans to join the Union Army. He became a captain in the Texas Volunteer Cavalry. George was four at the end of the war and greeted his father’s return home by marching up and down the street playing a toy drum.
In the 1890s, the sheriff also served as the county tax collector. In 1897 there was a dispute between then-Sheriff Albert Bodeman and the county commissioners over Bodeman’s accounting of the tax revenue. Bodeman resigned and Zoeller was appointed to replace him.
Zoeller proved very popular and was reelected sheriff in five elections from 1898 to 1906.
In 1903, The Morning Dallas News published an article about the Sheriff’s Association meeting in San Antonio. They commented on Zoeller by writing, “George Zoeller of Kendall County is the only member at the convention in the ‘Z’ class. Although last on the roll, he is among the first in zeal for the welfare of the organization.”
Zoeller was buried in Boerne Cemetery and a large crowd gathered there for a commemorative service. His obituary read, “As an officer, he was courageous, honest and energetic to an unusual degree.”
“Sharing the Past” is a series organized by the Kendall County Historical Commission www.facebook.com/Kendall-CountyHistoricalCommission.
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