Several decades ago, there were more than 1,000 Spanish goat nannies grazing on the vast Wegner family ranch along side hundreds of Herefords.
Coyotes, bobcats and other predators soon got the better of many of them. Eventually it was time to procure some Great Pyrenees dogs to protect the goats. Today the herd stands at around 400, and they share the ranch mostly with Angus cattle instead of Herefords.
Such is the sort of change a ranch experiences during 100 years of activity.
Dorothy Wegner, the 80-year-old who still tends to her Spanish goats and cattle on the ranch off the end of Quail Run and Wegner roads, takes pride in her livestock and the ranch’s place as an example of the culture of life in Comal County.
She is so proud of the history of the ranch that she and her children applied to have it designated under the Texas Family Land Heritage Program through the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Under the program, proof has to be presented to the TDA that the ranch has been owned by the same family and fully operational for the entire 100-year period for the designation.
Oral history recordings, documents, titles and other material were gathered to present to the Department of Agriculture. Dorothy expects to hear back sometime next year.
The ranch was originally purchased in 1909 by Henry Wegner, George Knoke and George Eiband, and became known as the Eiband-Wegner ranch. Eiband, however, had greater interest in running the old Eiband and Fischer Store on the Main Plaza in New Braunfels, and eventually sold his share to Henry Wegner’s son, Rudolph in 1949.
After Rudolph’s only son and Dorothy’s husband, Morgan Wegner, died 20 years ago, nothing has kept her as active, vibrant and young as ranching
“It’s all I know,” she said.
In the early 1950s, Dorothy Ulbricht came from Niederwald to New Braunfels to work as a title clerk at Bock Motor Company on Landa Street. One day, while Rudolph Wegner haggled over the price of a Ford, Morgan sat down at the title desk and became acquainted with Dorothy.
“He and his parents came to buy a car,” she said. “And I knew nothing then about ranching.”
They married in St. Paul Lutheran Church in 1952.
Everywhere she goes on the ranch, Dorothy voices both cheer and concern for every animal’s life. She worries about the kind of food they can rummage and praises the rain for providing more greens for the goats and cattle
Many are named. Tetanus, a nanny, got her moniker because she once had the disease. Dorothy nursed her back to health and into a kid-producing machine.
As the cattle are summoned, Dorothy is pleased to see how healthy they have been looking lately.
