The Gazette-Enterprise

On Aug. 12, 1838, 33 men came together on a spot then called Walnut Springs overlooking the Guadalupe River and drew lots to divide up what would come to be Seguin.

Some got agricultural lots. Some got riverfront lots and some got city lots.

The only requirement was that the grantee must build a home on the lot and live there for at least six months — no easy deal just over two years after the Alamo.

But the city named for a hero of the Texas revolution prospered.

And more than 100 years later in 1952, when a group of citizens concerned about protecting the city’s heritage coalesced around buying and preserving Los Nogales as a museum and became the Seguin Conservation Society, the group began a tradition of celebrating this city’s birthday on the closest Saturday to Aug. 12.

And birthdays, as everyone knows, are about cake and ice cream — and in the 171st rendition of Seguin’s Saturday night, Nash Family Catering created a cake and H-E-B kicked in some ice cream for a party off Live Oak Street at the Fist Church and Campbell-Hoermann log cabin.

For the last four years, the party has featured an ice cream-making contest, and at Saturday’s event, awards were given out for best vanilla, best pecan and “people’s choice” categories.

The winner in the people’s choice was a historic “peppermint twist” recipe right out of the Hoermann family — Reatha Hoermann, to be exact — prepared by three generations of descendants, Melle Downs, Codi Downs and Kendall Carter.

And on a hot Saturday evening, a little ice cream while listening to Mayor Betty Ann Matthies read a birthday proclamation, wasn’t a bad thing.

“This is a recipe my grandmother really loved,” said Codi, explaining why they chose it. “She always loved peppermint ice cream.”

Kendall, a Lifegate third-grader, really likes it, too — particularly since she gets to make it with “Grammy and Mimi.”

She began helping two nights earlier by smashing up a bag of peppermint candies to provide the flavor.

The peppermint is swirled into half-and-half — a mixture of heavy cream and milk — with a number of other rather fattening ingredients, which is packed in the old-fashioned way in rock salt and ice for the freezing.

“We went to Grammy’s today and we mixed it all up in her kitchen,” Kendall said.

“It’s a group effort,” Melle said.

“It’s how it was made, and we love it,” Codi said.

Audra Schulz said this year the Conservation Society decided to forego its annual dinner and focus instead on the ice cream — not a difficult choice to make in South Texas in August.

Flavors this year included some with rather fanciful names, including “Koo Koo Cocoanut” and “Banana Monkey Business” — although its maker declined to describe just what ingredients, besides bananas, contributed to the name.

“The founding fathers weren’t thinking about celebrating the birthday when they picked Aug. 12 to sign the charter,” Schulz said.

And there have been a few times since 1953 when it was deemed so hot it was just decided best not to celebrate even in the evening, Schulz said.

But not Saturday. Evaporative coolers were brought in, and as many as 150 people attended to eat cake and ice cream or watch the square dancers or the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse.

The night is also the Conservation Society’s annual meeting and installation of board members — and is a good evening for people who might like to get involved in the history of the community to come meet like-minded folks.

“The Conservation Society is always looking for volunteers for these events,” Schulz said.

One day, Kendall Carter might just be one of those volunteers.

But for right now, Kendall, “Mimi” and “Grammy” are focused a little more short term — on how they’ll defend their ice cream title next year.

“Kendall asked why they don’t make apple ice cream,” Melle said.

Turns out, Reatha Hoermann had a recipe for apple ice cream.

“Next year, we’re going to enter apple,” Melle said.

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