 This is largely due to the heavily German American heritage of the county and that Gillespie was the centre of Texas’ small Unionist movement during the Civil War, when most Texas Germans acquiesced to secession but Fredericksburg was still self-sufficient and sold surplus food to the army.Gillespie County has been won by Republicans in every election since 1896 with only a handful of exceptions.Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party won the county in 1912 (but carried no other counties in the state).