BRACHT, VIKTOR FRIEDRICH (1819-1887). Viktor Bracht, businessman, explorer, and railroad agent, was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, on September 17, 1819. Sent by the government to represent the interests of German colonists in Texas, he landed at Galveston on June 19, 1845, and proceeded to New Braunfels, where he lived for a year. He was back in Germany in 1846-47 but returned to Texas in 1848, worked as a merchant at New Braunfels until 1855, and then became a wholesale grocer in San Antonio. In 1848 Bracht wrote a history entitled Texas im Jahre 1848; the book was translated into English by Charles Frank Schmidt in 1931. Bracht made extensive explorations along the Medina, Colorado, Guadalupe, San Antonio, Pedernales, and Llano rivers. He left Texas for New York in 1860 and subsequently spent several years in Mexico as general agent of a railroad company. In 1869 he moved to Rockport to be bookkeeper for J. M. and Thomas H. Mathis. Bracht became deputy collector of customs at Rockport in 1871, held the same position at Carrizo in Zapata County for a time, and then became postmaster at Rockport. He married Sebilla Shaefer at Indianola in 1848 and died in Rockport on January 26, 1887.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Corpus Christi Caller, February 5, 1887. S. W. Geiser, "Men of Science in Texas, 1820-1880," Field and Laboratory 26-27 (January 1958-October 1959).