New Ulm is an unincorporated community in Austin County, Texas, in the rolling countryside west of Houston. It sits at the junction of Farm Roads 109 and 1094 in the western part of the county, about twenty-two miles southwest of Bellville and sixteen miles northeast of Columbus. The community's history reaches back to 1841, when it was founded as Duff's Settlement, named for James C. Duff, who purchased the original land on which the town was built. The settlement sat about a mile north of the present townsite. Growth accelerated after 1845 with an influx of German-speaking settlers arriving from nearby communities such as Industry, Shelby, and Nassau Farm, part of the broader German migration into central Texas in the mid-nineteenth century. That German heritage became the community's defining identity. New Ulm developed as an agricultural and trading center for the surrounding farms, and its surviving nineteenth-century buildings have drawn interest for their representation of early Texas public and commercial architecture. The community has remained small, with a population of about 285, and it has never incorporated, preserving its rural, unincorporated character through more than a century and a half. The surrounding landscape is devoted to farming and ranching, and the community continues to serve the rural area around it. Its churches and local institutions anchor community life, while residents travel to Bellville, Columbus, or the Houston area for larger services and employment. The community's location in western Austin County places it within reach of several notable regional destinations. State Highway 71, a short distance to the south, links the area east toward Houston and west toward La Grange and Interstate 10, while the historic German settlements of the county, including Industry and Shelby, remain part of the local landscape. This network of farm-to-market roads and small towns preserves the settlement pattern established by the region's nineteenth-century immigrants, and New Ulm's German-Texas roots, its historic buildings, and its rolling farm-country setting give it a distinct identity among the small communities west of Houston.