SPRING, Texas — The Wunsche name is all over Spring. It's on the former-saloon-turned-cafe, on a high school campus and on a cemetery almost hidden between the feeder road and the northbound lanes of I-45. That is where one of the founding families in Spring is laid to rest.
"It is the cemetery of the first one of the first German immigrants who came to the town of Spring, Carl Wunsche, Sr.," says historian Margaret Smith.
She shares Wunsche and his brothers landed in Galveston around 1848 and started walking north until they found what is now Spring.
"Carl Wunsche started buying land and farming and he was very, very successful," Smith says. "He and a gentleman named Robinson and the Klein family, they were – especially Wunsche – was very instrumental in the development of the town of Spring."
The Wunsches started a lumber mill, they opened up the saloon and they were at the center of one of Harris County’s most notorious cold cases.
"To me, it's a fascinating story, which I doubt they'll ever be an answer to," says Smith.
RELATED: KHOU 11's Hidden Gems
Olena Wuensche died on May 6, 1929. She was just 21.
"She and her boyfriend, somehow they were accosted and murdered. And their bodies were found in two different places, I think," Smith says.
The crime was never solved, but hopefully Olena is at peace here, surrounded by her family, including Carl.
"His name lives on," says Smith.
Do you have a hidden gem we should check out? Let us know by emailing Brandi Smith at bsmith@khou.com!
RELATED: HIDDEN GEM: Fite Bridge Bat Colony