Count Ludwig Joseph von Boos-Waldeck (26 November 1798 – 1 October 1880) was a German noble who promoted the settling of Texas by Germans.
Boos-Waldeck was born in Koblenz as the son of Count Clemens von Boos zu Waldeck (1773-1842) und Freiin Johanna von Bibra[1] (1774-1856). He descended from a line of Rhenish knights and nobles dating back to the 13th century. Boos-Waldeck married about 1827 Freiin Henriette von Wessenberg-Ampringen (1807-1856), the daughter of Johann Freiherr von Wessenberg-Ampringen (1773-1858). He was the uncle of the composer Victor von Boos zu Waldeck (1840-1916).
In April 1842 Boos-Waldeck and a few other nobles met at Biebrich on the Rhine, near Mainz, to organize a society, which they called the Adelsverein, to promote German immigration to Texas. In 1843 Boos-Waldeck bought and developed the Nassau Plantation near Round Top, Texas on behalf of the Adelsverein. In addition to his native German, he spoke Spanish and English when Texas came under Mexican and U.S. rule. He died in Aschaffenburg, Kingdom of Bavaria.
References
- ↑ Regarding personal names: Freiin was a title before 1919, but now is regarded as part of the surname. It is translated as Baroness. Before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given (Graf Helmuth James von Moltke). Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix (von, zu, etc.), can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, and thus come after any given names (Helmuth James Graf von Moltke). Titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. The title is for unmarried daughters of a Freiherr.