Part 8, Note 71

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Colorado Citizen, May 11, 1871; Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 148, Book P, p. 473, Book S, pp. 521, 538; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 3340: Mollie Billert Nelson and Charles O. Nelson v. Simon Thulemeyer and Henry Boedeker as Trustees of the German Lutheran Church, Minute Book F, p. 608; Colorado County Marriage Records, Book E, p. 370; Galveston Tri-Weekly News, December 3, 1873. Billert might be considered a peculiar choice to loan money to a church, for he ran a brewery. Billert's Brewery was located on the river in Columbus, south of Spring Street and north of Washington (block 89). He purchased the property on March 23, 1868. When he died, the inventory of his estate listed 120 empty kegs, three or four kettles, four beer trucks, various measures and funnels, and one malt mill. Though for a time a man named Fred Zaugg leased the brewery and produced beer, it did not survive long after Billert's early death. It is interesting to consider how the history and reputation of Columbus might have been changed had this business continued (see Colorado County Probate Records, Final Record Book H, p. 582; Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 704; Colorado Citizen, April 9, 1874).