This following biography was researched, compiled, and written by Geoffrey K. Fleming, Director, Southold Historical Society, Southold, NY.
Carl Iago Meusebach (August 26, 1883 - February 2, 1957)
A.K.A. "Iago Meusebach"
Painter. Born in San Antonio (or Fredericksburg), Texas to Ernest O. Meusebach (b. 1853), a railroad freight agent and solicitor for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, and Lena Nimitz Meusebach (1862-1952). His father also worked as a contractor and owner of a local quarry. The family was of Prussian origin.
His birth dates are reported differently in various official documents. The most common is the one listed above, though his death certificate notes the date July 6, 1883. When he joined Company B of the San Antonio Souaves, 1st Regiment of the Texas Volunteer Guard in October of 1899, he apparently lied about his age to join up, which he reported as being 18, making his birth date for that reference as August 26, 1881.
He married a woman named Mae Mooney Meusebach (1882 - 1957) and settled in the small community of Phelan, located two miles north of Bastrop, Texas where he worked as a bookkeeper and assistant manager for the Independence Mining Company. He began working for the company c. 1907.
According to the Texas State Historical Association, Phelan was "…the site of a lignite coal mining community that flourished briefly in the early twentieth century. A post office opened in 1905, and the town possibly drew its name from one of the postmasters, J. C. Phelan. A school was established about 1910 for the children of the mostly Mexican miners of the Independence Mining Company, later the Phelan Mining Company. In 1914 the community had a general store and a population of 800. By 1925 the population had dropped to 200, and the post office was closed in 1931. Phelan still had a school for Mexican children in 1933."
Meusebach, like Mr. Phelan, also served as the U.S. Postmaster for Phelan, having been appointed to that post on the 13th of January 1915. His family had interests in Torreon, Mexico, and he traveled there on occasion to help look after them.
He appears to have been what is commonly called a 'Sunday Painter," and depicted scenes primarily near his home in Phelan (and later, Bastrop). His paintings are usually signed with his abbreviated name, "Iago Meusebach." The works are simple, impressionist paintings, often signed on the front and sometimes inscribed as to the locations on the verso.
He was residing in Bastrop, Texas at the time of his death on Saturday, the 2nd of February 1957 at the age of seventy-three. Robert E. Jenkins was the funeral director, and he was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Bastrop.
It is not known what exhibitions in which he may have participated and his works are not known to be in any public institutions at present. The largest number of his works reside in private collections throughout the United States.