Further to his credit is the fact that Thürwächter, a carpenter by trade, lived and worked in the prospering commercial port of Harrisburg on Buffalo Bayou prior to 1836. He enlisted the Army of the Republic of Texas and fought with distinction at the Battle of San Jacinto.
After the defeat of the Mexican army, Thürwächter returned to Harrisburg to find his home among the smoldering ruins of the town that had been torched by the army of Santa Anna on its quest to crush the rebellious Texans. He lost all of his possessions including a trunk of carpentry tools, yet he remained to help rebuild the Jane Harris home and re-establish the former capital of the Republic.
As fame and fortune would have it, however, the primary distinction that history has bestowed on Heinrich Thürwächter is the fact that during the thirty-two year period as a resident of Texas, he never had his name spelled correctly.
Andrew Forest Muir, the noted historian of the City of Houston, has estimated that Thürwächter's name has been recorded in some fourteen different variants of its spelling. From the earliest entry on Stephen F. Austin's applications for land, to the muster rolls of the Texas Army, to deed records to land in the City of Houston, and to depositions for a veteran's pension later in his life, Thürwächter's name took various forms, including Durwechter, Tarwester, Tearwechter, Tierwester, Terwechter, Terwester, Terwichter, Tewister, Therwachter, Thurwester, Tierwhester, Tushmaker, Tuwester and Thurwachter.
Why was it that they could not get his name right?
Muir suggests that it may be due, in large part, to Thürwächter's personality and to the fact that he spoke English with a thick German accent. The recording agent often did his best to spell his name phonetically, but the results were mixed.
Known to be somewhat of an
eccentric,
Thürwächter insisted on signing his name in the old
gothic-style
German script that he learned as a young man in Germany, even late in
his
life. The two vowels with umlauts were especially puzzling. Needless to
say,
his signature was indecipherable to nearly every official in Texas.Thürwächter's original grant of land, issued in 1832, was a tract on Brays Bayou extending north toward Buffalo Bayou. Today his tract stretches from Brays Bayou to I-45 and encompasses Texas Southern University.
Heinrich Thürwächter is known in most historical accounts today as Henry Tierwester. His name is perpetuated in its Anglicized form in Tierwester Street on Houston's southeast side.