Dr. Maria William Settegast

Dr. Maria William Settegast, was an eminent physician and a native of Koblenz, who married Josephine Matori, a young woman from a wealthy and aristocratic family. The father was connected with the German Emigrant Company for several years as general agent and became interested in Texas. The family of father, mother, three sons and a daughter left Germany on October 29, 1851, and arrived in Houston on December 19, 1851.

The wife and mother died soon after the family arrived in Houston, while two of the children died during the epidemic of yellow fever in the summer of 1852. The father died of the same disease on October 14, 1853, at the age of 35. William J. Settegast at the age of ten and his younger brother, Julius J., age eight, were left as orphans.