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Meet Erastus Rausch & Tip


Erastus Rausch, the grandson of Carl Rausch & Clara Ziesing Rausch who emigrated from Germany to New Orleans in 1799, has continued his family's tradition of being an ironworker. His father, Fredrich Rausch, relocated from New Orleans, where his family still operates the smithy founded by the elder Rausch, to Gonzales Texas in 1828 to start a new branch of the business. There he met & married Mary Kennedy, the youngest of John Kennedy & Francis Wylie Kennedy's nine children.

Friedrich fought in the Battle of San Jacinto under Sam Houston, while his wife & children accompanied Sarah McClure on the much lauded 'Runaway Scrape', in which the brave women of the American settlements made a dash for the Louisiana border to escape the Mexican Army. At the end of the Texian revolution, the Rausch family relocated to Seguin, where Fredrich opened the smithy that his eldest son, Ernest, still operates.

The Rausch's second son, Erastus, was born in 1833. Mary Kennedy Rausch died in 1840 for childbed fever. Following his father's death in 1857, Eratsus relocated to the Grapevine area of Tarrant County, having been unable to negotiate a share in the Seguin smithy with his older brother. Erastus currently lives on the farm of his cousins, William & Elizabeth Gordon Kennedy, where he helps out with farming & smithy tasks. While it is suspected that Erastus has some abolitionist leanings, such views are unpopular among his north Texas relatives & go, for the most part, unexpressed.

Always by Erastus' side is his faithful dog Tip.


If you any any questions about hand-forged items or blacksmithing, contact Erastus. Also visit our Blacksmithing Class Page