William A. Menger

William Achatius Menger (March 15, 1827, Windecken, Electorate of Hesse, Germany — March 18, 1871, San Antonio, Texas). San Antonio brewer and hotelier. Founder of the first commercial brewery in Texas (~1855). Co-founder of the Menger Hotel on Alamo Plaza, with his wife Mary Menger. Died suddenly at the hotel on March 18, 1871, age 45. Grandfather of the H&H Menger generation (Gus P., Minnie, R. W., T. J., L. B., A. G.).

Traveled to San Antonio via Baltimore ~1850; worked first as a cooper and learned brewing; naturalized US citizen 1852. Lutheran.

Family

Married Mary Menger (Maria Clara Baumschlüeter, widow of Guenther) in July 1851. Mary was Catholic, eleven years his senior, and already operating a boardinghouse.

Child	Born	Died	Notes
Louis William Menger	1852	1919	Published (did not found) the Catholic newspaper Southern Messenger; inherited Mary’s house 1887; lived there until death
Mary Menger	1854	1856	Died in infancy
Peter Gustav Menger	1857	1914	Further details unknown
Catherine Barbara Menger	1860	1947	= Katarina Babette; married Dr. Rudolph Menger; mother of Minnie, Gus P., R. W., T. J., L. B., A. G.
Sister M. Gonzaga	?	?	”Born in the hotel”; secretary-general, Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence, Our Lady of the Lake College. Not in Immigrant Entrepreneurship entry — possible fifth child or misattribution. Source: Sons of DeWitt Colony archive.

Estate (1887)

On Mary Menger’s death in 1887, Louis William, Peter Gustav, and Catherine Barbara each received approximately 20 pieces of real estate (split three ways) plus $6,000 cash. Tim Draves notes “modest lifestyles” and no King William district homes — no evidence of social-elite status among William and Mary’s children.

Business

Brewery

~1855: built Menger’s Western Brewery on the east side of Alamo Plaza; hired German master brewer Carl Degen. Three-foot-thick walls for year-round lager production. By the 1870s: ~1,666 barrels annually; shipped as far as Fort Concho (200+ miles). 1868: bought the competing Naylor Brewery. After William’s death, Mary closed the Western Brewery in 1878 and converted the space to hotel additions.

Menger Hotel

1858: contracted J. H. Kampmann (who held a mortgage) to build a two-story stone hotel on Alamo Plaza; architect John M. Fries (Bavarian-born). Construction began June 1858; grand opening February 1, 1859; cost ~$15,000. Tunnel connected hotel to brewery for guest tours. By 1860 the hotel employed two bookkeepers, two barkeepers, steward, cook, watchman, four servants, baker, laborer, six waiters, and over two dozen guests.

Civic contributions

San Antonio alderman, 1857
Founded and led Alamo Fire Association No. 2 (1859)
1868: brought San Antonio its first steam fire engine (purchased in New York for $4,000; funded overland transport himself) — making SA the first city in Texas with modern firefighting equipment

Death

Died March 18, 1871, suddenly at the Menger Hotel, age 45. Funeral conducted by fellow Odd Fellows members and Lutheran clergy. Mourned as a “universal favorite with all classes” for his “character, public spiritedness, and charity.”

The Immigrant Entrepreneurship entry (Julia Brookins, AHA) records cause as “natural causes (sudden)” with no further specificity. The primary newspaper obituary (San Antonio Herald or Express, c. March 18–20, 1871) has not yet been retrieved.

Hotel ownership chain

Period	Owner
1859–1881	Menger family (William and Mary)
1881–1943	Kampmann family (2–3 generations; sold 1881 for $118,500)
1943–2025	Moody family
2025–present	State of Texas

Per Tim Draves: “the fact that it wasn’t changed to the ‘Kampmann Hotel’ or ‘Moody Hotel’ demonstrates the good will and market strength established before 1881.”

Archive leads

Menger Family Papers, University of the Incarnate Word Library — cited by Immigrant Entrepreneurship entry; may be the same as or separate from the “Menger Family Collection at the Archives of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word” tracked elsewhere in the KB. Clarify with Tim Draves.
UIW Archives — Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word — Tim Draves has worked on campus since 2008 and has direct working access

Open questions

Cause of death — primary obituary not yet retrieved. Every accessible web source gives only “suddenly of natural causes” (Immigrant Entrepreneurship) or no cause at all. The specific cause requires the primary newspaper obituary — San Antonio Herald or San Antonio Express, c. March 18–20, 1871 — currently paywalled on Newspapers.com and bot-blocked on Portal to Texas History. No stomach-related cause is documented for William A. Menger; the “stomach trouble” detail belongs to William R. Hoffmann (1912 burial permit, HH-CLIP-1912-0010).
Sister M. Gonzaga — possibly a fifth child of William A. and Mary Menger, not listed in the Immigrant Entrepreneurship four-child roster. The Sons of DeWitt Colony archive describes her as “born in the hotel” and serving as “secretary-general of the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence at Our Lady of the Lake College.” Could be: (a) an additional child not captured in the Immigrant Entrepreneurship entry; (b) Catherine Barbara under a religious name (unlikely — Catherine married Dr. Rudolph Menger and had eight children); or (c) a misattribution. Sisters of Divine Providence archives at OLL would resolve.
UIW Library vs. UIW Archives — whether the Menger Family Papers and the Menger Family Collection are the same holding or two separate ones
Peter Gustav Menger — died in 1914; no further details are documented
Mary’s relative age — secondary-source conflict (noted, not adopted). David L. Peché’s San Antonio’s Historic Hotels (HH-LIB-2026-0027, founder plate) describes Mary as “a German widow nine years his junior” — contradicting the TSHA / Tim Draves record (and this page) of Mary as eleven years his senior. The TSHA Mary Menger entry (authored by Tim Draves) is the higher-reliability source; the Peché book is a popular Arcadia history and is treated as the erroneous one. Recorded so the discrepancy isn’t silently lost.