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Citation:  [Identification of Item], Alex Reszczynski Papers, MC053, San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston, Texas.

Creator Sketch:

J. Alexander Reszczynski was born at Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, December 10, 1819.  He completed his studies to become a pharmacist while still in Europe.  It was there in 1846 that he wed Adele Von Mockry (1822 – 1878) and had two children:  Adela (1847 – 1902) and Margarethe (1855 – 1886).  The family immigrated to New Braunfels in 1856 but after a few years moved to Blanco, Texas, to farm.  Reszczynski returned to New Braunfels in 1866.

Mark F. Deutsch, a relative by marriage, played a major role in ordering and stocking items to establish Reszczynski’s drug store.  The first items arrived on November 20, 1866, and the New Braunfels Zeitung of January 4, 1867, reported that on January 1, 1867, Reszczynski and Carl Pantemühl opened a pharmacy on San Antonio Street next to the Big George Pfeuffer store.  This partnership continued until October 1868 when Pantemühl became a schoolteacher.

Reszczynski continued in the drug store business until October 1890 when he sold out to Heinrich Valentin Schumann due to failing eyesight.  He was completely blind at the time of his death May 22, 1897, and is buried in the Comal Cemetery at New Braunfels, Texas.

Scope and Content Note:

Financial documents, correspondence, and printed materials document the drug store business of Alex Reszczynski (1866 – 1890).  Invoices and statements of account (1866 – 1890) record the materials necessary to conduct a drug store business in the second half of the 19^th century on the edge of the Texas frontier.  Of particular interest are the invoices of goods ordered by Mark L. Deutsch to establish the drug store prior to Reszczynski arriving in New Braunfels.  Forty-one prescription books hand-written by Reszczynski provide an almost complete record of all prescriptions filled from March 1867 to March 1890.   Loose prescriptions in an accordion style filing book and those from a filing book entitled NichtGezahlte / Recepte correspond to those in the prescription books, linked by date and prescription numbers added by Reszczynski.  Printed materials include the funeral notice for Dr. Levin Claessen (1882), a broadside with brief life histories and sketches of eight extraordinary German-Americans, and a circular advertising Cincho-Quinine.

Archivist’s Note:

This collection is a part of an accession donated by Mrs. Henry V. Schumann shortly after the death of her husband in 1942.  Included in the collection were three other finite collections.  Of these, the August Forcke Papers also contain financial documents and prescriptions of Alex Reszczynski. 

Further information about Alex Reszczynski can be obtained from the Sophienburg Museum and Archives, 200 Seguin, New Braunfels, Texas  78130.