• 304 Saint Louis, Gonzales, TX 78629

1914, Mrs. L.M. Kokernot House

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Quick Info

Designation: Locally significant residence associated with the Kokernot ranching family and with Gonzales’s early twentieth century building trades (contractor Fred Meisenhelder).

Period of significance: 1914–1930 for construction and Mrs. Kokernot’s residency; broader associative significance through the nineteenth century Kokernot–Dilworth cattle and banking network.

Notable owners/associations:

  • Hulda Jane (Carnes) Kokernot — original owner; Methodist church member; IOOF Cemetery interment.

  • Lewis M. Kokernot — Confederate veteran (Co. I, 8th Texas Cavalry, Terry’s Texas Rangers); Big Hill rancher and trail boss; buried at Kokernot Cemetery.

  • G. N. Dilworth — cattle and banking partner (context for the family’s economic reach).

  • Fred Meisenhelder — builder credited with multiple early 1900s Gonzales houses.

Architecture: Bungalow of 1914 with low massing, broad porch, and simplified classical trim typical of the Craftsman period; built by Fred Meisenhelder on the site of the former Dora Harris residence to accommodate the widowed Mrs. Kokernot’s move into town from the Big Hill ranch.

205 St. Peter Street, Gonzales, Texas
Detailed Information

Constructed in 1914 for Mrs. L. M. (Hulda Jane Carnes) Kokernot after the death of her husband, this one story bungalow was erected on a town lot purchased from Mrs. Dora Harris and built by local contractor Fred Meisenhelder. The house reflects an early twentieth century shift from high Victorian forms to lower rooflines, generous porches, and efficient plans associated with the Craftsman era. Mrs. Kokernot moved here from Big Hill to be nearer her children, including F. D. Kokernot and Mrs. C. E. (Leonora Kokernot) Dilworth.

People and context
Lewis M. (L. M.) Kokernot was born June 6, 1836 (Stockman/Stockmon, Louisiana), son of David Levi Kokernot (a Dutch born Texian veteran) and Caroline Dittmar. The family settled first in Colorado County, then in the early 1850s in Gonzales County. L. M. enlisted in Company I, Eighth Texas Cavalry (Terry’s Texas Rangers) early in the Civil War; his headstone in the Kokernot Cemetery (near Big Hill, southeast of Gonzales) records that service and his death on June 4, 1914. After the war he became one of the area’s most prominent cattlemen and landowners, partnering with banker–rancher G. N. Dilworth; local histories place the county’s first Chisholm Trail herd (1869) with their outfit. Period lore also ties trail security on some drives to the presence of John Wesley Hardin, who is documented elsewhere as having worked on Chisholm Trail cattle drives under an alias, though such protections here remain in the realm of local tradition.

L. M. married twice: first to Sarah E. Littlefield (m. Dec. 6, 1866; d. Aug. 30, 1874, Big Hill), kin to the broader Littlefield family; and second to Hulda Jane Carnes/Carnes (b. Aug. 16, 1852, Louisiana; m. July 27, 1876). Hulda was active in the Methodist Church and local civic life. She died Nov. 14, 1930, and is buried in IOOF Cemetery, Gonzales, on a stone shared area with her grandson Coke Emory Dilworth, Jr. L. M. is buried at the Kokernot family cemetery near Big Hill.

House history
After L. M.’s death in 1914, Mrs. Kokernot commissioned the bungalow in town, replacing the earlier Harris house on the site. Fred Meisenhelder, the leading local builder credited on several Gonzales houses of the period, carried out the work. Mrs. Kokernot lived here until her death in 1930.

 

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