Christian and Francesca Stehling House — Mom’s Dreams
My Mom, Frances (Stehling Hohman) Meskill, one of the grandchildren of Christian and Francesca, had two dreams when it came to the Christian and Francesca Stehling house. She had a deep love for family and the house, having spent the summers there when growing up. She was the first family member to interview prior generations, having interviewed Aunt Lottie in 1984 in the house, and document family history for a college course project. Mom was a renaissance person of many talents. In addition to obtaining a PhD, she was a celebrated artist with art exhibitions in San Antonio museums, and she sold works of art in San Antonio. In addition, she was both an anthropologist and archaeologist with digs in Belize and other Central American countries. A regular Indiana Jones having fought venomous fer-de-lance snakes in Belize! All while raising three children.
When Aunt Lottie died in 1987, Mom insisted the house remain in the family. She and my Dad, Bill Meskill (who worked for the US Air Force), had to sacrifice financially to buy the house. As a result of her love and their sacrifice, they saved the house for the family.
My Mom passed away in 1997 at the young age of 60 from breast cancer. I decided to embark on a journey to fulfill her two dreams on the house. Her two house dreams were:
Participating in the Gillespie County Historical Society’s Tour of Historic Homes
Listing as a Texas Registered Historic Landmark
As part of fulfilling these dreams, we embarked on some internal and external preservation work on the house and the back shed. I intend to provide a series of blog posts that showcase the fulfillment of my Mom’s dreams and some of the house preservation work! Stay tuned!