A house for Kerr County history

The home of A. C. and Myrta Schreiner, 529 Water, Kerrville
Click on any image to enlarge.

Nine years ago, an anonymous donor gave the historic residence of A. C. and Myrta Schreiner, at 529 Water Street, to the City of Kerrville. This is the large home between the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library and our print shop, on the river side of Water Street.

On Tuesday, the City of Kerrville hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the beginning of construction to renovate the old home into a museum, the Heart of the Hills Heritage Center.

What's the story about the old house?

Aime Charles Schreiner was the eldest son of Charles and Magdalena Schreiner. He was born in 1862 in San Antonio; In 1885, he married Myrta Zoe Scott, and together they had a daughter, Hester, and two sons, Aime Charles Jr., and Whitfield Scott.

A. C. Schreiner (seated)

A. C. Schreiner was involved in our community, serving on the very first Kerrville City Council in 1889. A. C. was a member of Kerrville's volunteer fire department, and he was a mason with the Kerrville Masonic Lodge.

He was also active in his family's business, serving as president of the Charles Schreiner Company, which was the Schreiner store; president of the Schreiner Wool Commission Company; organizer and president of the Kerrville Telephone Company; president of the board of trustees of Schreiner Institute, which is now Schreiner University.

He and other members of his family gave the land for Kerrville's post office, which now is the site of the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center; gave the land for what is now the V. A. Medical Center; and he and his wife Myrta built and donated the First Presbyterian Church building, the portion which is now called the 'Schreiner Chapel.'

The house in 1973

His business interests included ownership of the Blue Bonnet Hotel. In addition, he served as president of the Kerrville Amusement Company, which operated the Cascade Swimming Pool and the Arcadia Movie Theater.

Myrta Scott Schreiner was born in 1865 in Bosqueville, Texas. She moved to Kerrville around 1880, when her father, Captain Whitfield Scott, purchased the St. Charles Hotel.

She was a deeply religious woman and was among those who organized the First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville. She served her community in many ways, including as chairman of various committees of the local chapter of the American Red Cross. She was a charter member of the Kerrville Women's Club, serving as president several times. She directed the choir at the Presbyterian church, and was a soprano soloist there.

It is said she influenced Captain Charles Schreiner to found what is now Schreiner University, and also convinced him to associate the new school with the Presbyterian faith.

The house at 529 Water Street was not the first home of A. C. and Myrta Schreiner on that property.

According to one source, originally there was a small frame home there, built on property purchased from the Quinlan family.

Later, a much larger frame home was built there, which faced down Water Street toward the Schreiner store. I have not found out exactly what happened to this building, but I can see it in photographs as early as 1893. That house looked like a Disney movie mansion, from Lady and the Tramp.

But that house was replaced by a new house, the one we see today.

The building standing at 529 Water Street today was completed in 1909. One source says it designed by James Flood Walker, who had an architecture practice in San Antonio. One project designed by Walker was the St. Anthony Hotel in downtown San Antonio. Another source says the home was designed by Atlee B. Ayres, who served as the State Architect of Texas from 1914 to 1917. Ayres is known to have worked with other members of the Schreiner family on other projects, so it's possible he designed 529 Water Street.

An interesting change happened between the 1896 home and the 1909 home: the current home doesn't face down Water Street, but rather the porches and front door face toward the rising sun, roughly toward the east.

A. C. Schreiner died at his home in 1935, at the age of 73. His widow, Myrta Scott Schreiner, also died at home in 1958, at the age of 93.

The house has had many owners since Myrta Scott Schreiner passed away there, including a couple, the Herman Beckers, who were Christian missionaries in China; A. P. Allison, who purchased it in 1959; the Harold Saunders family purchased it in the early 1960s and lived there; L. D. Brinkman purchased it in 1980; the last couple to live there, Walter and Barbara Schellhase, purchased the home in 1992.

Now the old house starts a new chapter, as the place where the story of the Texas Hill Country is told.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who is glad this project is getting underway. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead November 14, 2024

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Newly Discovered Photographs of a Kerrville Teacher and Hero

This photograph had "Mama's School - Kerrville" written on the back.
It's the school Annie Doyle founded, teaching Kerrville's
African-American students when they had no school they could attend here.
Click on any image to enlarge.

I had a very pleasant visit this week from a doctor from Florida named Gesenia Sloan, a descendant of Henry and Annie Doyle. She flew to Texas, and drove to visit Kerrville, to learn more about her family’s ties here. 

Annie Doyle

The Doyles, especially Annie Doyle, had a huge historical impact on our community. Mrs. Doyle was an educator, and arrived in Kerrville in 1910 with her husband, who was suffering from tuberculosis. Henry Doyle would die here from the disease in 1913.

She was a teacher, and he was a pastor, and they both were well-educated; Henry had a doctorate and Annie was a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute.

Soon after their arrival here, "she collected money and purchased three lots...and persuaded the members of the school board to donate an old school building for the purpose of establishing a school. She was the only teacher at the school, and served as principal for more than 25 years," according to the Kerrville Mountain Sun.

Though a widow after 1913, Annie Doyle stayed in Kerrville with her three sons. She founded and taught at what was then called the Kerrville Colored School. She died here in 1937. 

In 1940, B. T. and Itasco Wilson arrived in Kerrville to teach at the school, and they renamed it the Doyle School in honor of Annie Doyle. 

Today not only is the Doyle Community Center named in her honor, but also the neighborhood around it is called the Doyle Community, after the beloved school. Special street signs, in the school’s colors of purple and white, mark the neighborhood’s streets. 

The Doyle Community Center is an active place – when we visited it this week, some of my favorite people were there at work. They were preparing for an after-school program, and they gave the Dr. Sloan a tour of the building.

Annie Doyle's home.

While she was here, Dr. Sloan asked to see the place where Annie Doyle lived; she wanted to see the Tivy Mountain Cemetery (not to be confused with the Tivy Family Cemetery on top of Tivy Mountain); and the Doyle Community Center. I also took her to see the mural at Carver Park, which features a likeness of Annie Doyle and B. T. Wilson.

In turn, she brought some family photographs, including images of Henry Doyle and Annie Doyle. These photographs have never been published here before.

One photograph in particular caught my attention. On the back of the snapshot was written “Mama’s School, Kerrville, Texas.” The photo was of a single-room schoolhouse, and is the only image I’ve ever seen of the original building of the school Mrs. Doyle founded in Kerrville – a building which would later be replaced by the Doyle School at its present location.

There’s also a formal portait of Annie Doyle, still in its original sleeve, taken at Kerrville’s Wheelus Photography Studio on Earl Garrett Street. While I’ve seen blurry copies of this original, this is the first time I’ve been able to scan a quality portrait of Annie Doyle.

Another photograph shows Mrs. Doyle on the porch of her home on Houston Street. (Houston Street was renamed Rodriguez Street in 1973.) I’ve never seen this image before. Mrs. Doyle lived in a very nice house.

Unfortunately, the old house is no longer standing, and the site is now part of the parking lot of Kerrville’s larger H-E-B grocery store.

My favorite photograph Dr. Sloan brought might be of Annie Doyle being a little silly, taking a humorous pose in her yard, in photograph taken by someone close to her, perhaps one of her sons. Even historical figures occasionally took a moment to play.

I’m very thankful to Dr. Sloan for sharing these photographs with our community. They show a new side of a hard-working educator.Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who thinks Annie Doyle, and B. T. and Itasco Wilson, are true Kerrville heroes. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead November 7, 2024.

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A Woman of Faith -- Florence Butt and the H-E-B story

A snowball fight in front of the original Florence Butt Grocery Store.
Click on any image to enlarge.

Though we in Kerrville are justifiably proud H-E-B Grocery Company started here (now one of the nation's largest privately-owned companies), few remember the many hardships faced by its founder, Florence Thornton Butt.

This picture tells that story. It's of Mrs. Butt and her three sons, plus some of the early employees of the grocery store, including Leland Richeson, whose son gave me this photograph.

Missing from the photo is Florence Butt's husband, Charles. He died of tuberculosis only a few months before this photograph was taken. Of the eight people pictured, at least three would also die from TB.
People look at the Butt family today and think of their wealth and influence, but few remember the hard years. The years when it was just one small store, in Kerrville, and a family for whom grief was a frequent visitor.
Florence Thornton was born in Buena Vista, Mississippi, on September 19, 1864, during the Civil War. Her family was deeply religious, and two of her brothers were pastors; Florence often assisted them as they held revivals.
According to her family, she later attended Clinton College, where she was "not only the only girl in her class, but the honor graduate."
After college, she taught school for several years and also taught Sunday School at her church.
At 24 she married Charles C. Butt, a pharmacist, and they made their home in Mississippi and Tennessee. Together they had three sons, Charles, Eugene and Howard; there were also two stepsons from Charles’s first marriage, Kearney and Stanley Butt.
Around the turn of the last century, Charles, Sr. became ill with tuberculosis. At that time little was known about the disease, though it was widely believed to be genetic, since it 'ran in families.' Only much later would science discover it was contagious. Of the various cures offered at the time, the most popular was to move the patient to a warm, dry climate. This often seemed to help, and many spots around the country became known for their care of tuberculosis patients; Kerrville became especially famous in the southern United States for its climate and special hospitals and facilities for victims of this disease.
Tuberculosis brought the Butt family here; Charles Sr. and his son Charles Jr. (who served on the Kerrville City Council, and ran the grocery store for a while) would both eventually die of the disease, and both are buried here, in Glen Rest cemetery.
Since her husband was unable to work, and since she had a house full of sons, Florence Butt decided to sell some of the A&P grocery products shipped to her by a relative. She went door to door offering these products, and, according to her son Eugene, had a door slammed in her face by a Kerrville woman, who told her "I don't buy from peddlers."
"My mother was a very refined woman, and this hurt her deeply," Eugene recalled.
According to family tradition, Florence Butt started her grocery store on November 26, 1905, in a small rented two-story frame building at what was then 609 Main Street. Mrs. Butt opened her grocery store in the small room that served as the first floor; the family lived over the store. The windows were open upstairs summer and winter to provide ventilation and the ‘dry air’ needed for Charles Sr.
The store (with rooms above) was tiny, about 20 feet wide by 38 feet, or 760 square feet, which she rented for $9 per month; she stocked the store with what was left of her savings, $60.

Florence Thornton Butt

According to one of her grandsons, she made a discovery when sweeping out the room downstairs for the first time: she found a Bible left behind by a previous tenant. She immediately prayed for her little company, and dedicated it then and there to her Lord.
Despite many hardships, her store took hold somehow, and survived, providing for the young family. Her young sons were enlisted in the effort: the first deliveries were made in what must have been Howard’s baby buggy, later in a small hand wagon.
Florence Butt ran the store alone for many years; her son Charles was active in the business as early as 1917, and her son Howard, upon return from his military service in World War I, also worked in the business, eventually becoming its moving force. She retired from active involvement in the company around 1934, though she would often go to the store in the afternoons, visiting old friends and greeting customers.
The store was originally on Main Street, but moved to Earl Garrett Street to the rock building that had been the community’s post office, and now houses Turtle Creek Olives and Vines. After Earl Garrett Street, the grocery moved to a larger building on Water Street, now gone, but about where One Schreiner Center is today. My first memory of the store was at its fourth location when it was on the corner of Water and Quinlan, facing Quinlan; it was enlarged in the 1970’s to face Main in the building that now houses Entertainmart.
Its fifth and present location is in the 300 block Main Street, only six blocks northwest and 100 years away from that original store. A new store building was recently built on the site, with a much larger footprint, and a small replica of the original store built into its façade.
The company that has grown so successful was founded by a woman of intelligence and faith, whose need to provide for her family was so strong she overcame countless obstacles, from the humiliation of slammed doors to the prevailing convention that said women couldn’t run businesses. She was ahead of her time in many, many ways and she was very determined.
She was also very generous, giving back to the community that had supported her and her family. She was active not only in her church, but also in the Eastern Star. She organized a Baptist mission at Oak Park here in Kerrville, and paid the pastor’s salary for many years. I have heard many, many stories of her kindness to those in need in our community.
Florence Thornton Butt lived for 89 years. She passed away at her home on Earl Garrett Street, a few blocks from her first store. Her life was not easy in Kerrville: she buried her husband and her eldest son here, as well as at least one grandchild, and now she rests beside them at Glen Rest cemetery near Schreiner University.
Some might consider her company, given its tremendous success, to be her greatest legacy. However, it’s my opinion the enduring gift she gave her family and our community was the strength of her faith as demonstrated by her caring service to those in need.
Her story is compelling to me because after she had one door slammed in her face, she knocked on another door, and it was opened to her.
Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who wishes Greg Nichols, who has ably led the Kerrville H-E-B stores for many years, a very happy retirement. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead October 31, 2024.

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Clues about a 1935 Kerrville photograph

Nine young men, dressed in white, at Kerrville's
Kerr-View Farms, around 1935.
Click on any image to enlarge.

While many are focused on this year’s World Series, where the Dodgers and Yankees will start their series this Friday, I found an old photograph in my collection which was a bit of a mystery to me, and I wanted to know more.
It shows nine men in white uniforms, between two panel vans sporting “Kerr-View Farm” logos. Two other men, in shirtsleeves and ties, rest on the front tire fenders of the cars. This photo came to me from Julius Neunhoffer, who has a vast collection of Kerr County historical items.
Kerr-View Farm was on today’s Highway 173, just past today’s Comanche Trace development. It produced a variety of dairy products, like milk and butter; it also sold fryer chickens and other farm products.
The farm was owned by Benno and Clarice Wiedenfeld, and it was quite an operation.
The first mention of the farm in local newspapers was in the September 9, 1926 issue of the Kerrville Mountain Sun in a front-page story: “Wiedenfeld sees great future for poultrymen.” The story tells about the farm’s chick hatchery, with newly-installed modern equipment, “the first plant of its kind to be installed in this section of the state.”
“Weidenfeld’s mechanical hen,” the story reported, “is no longer an experiment. Skeptics who didn’t believe there ‘was any such animal’ last season came, saw the hatchery in operation and were convinced. As a result, it is believed that the 12,000-egg capacity plant will be inadequate to supply demands and Wiedenfeld, a scientifically trained man, never believes in looking back after being convinced he is on the right track.”

Kerr-View Farms produced eggs and raised poultry according to the story, but it also had a fine dairy herd. Most people remember Kerr-View Farms for one of its products: ice cream.
Over the years I’ve come across a few things from the Kerr-View Farms, starting with a large metal advertising sign which offered “Farm Maid Ice Cream” at 10 cents a pint.
The Kerrville Mountain Sun, in another front-page story in its March 24, 1932 edition, reported “Modern Ice Cream Plant in Operation at Kerr-View Farms.” 
“The plant, recently completed at an expenditure of $7,000 is the last word in efficiency,” capable of “freeze 10 gallons of ice cream a minute.”
“Kerr-View’s ice cream plant will wholesale its output. Cream already is being supplied dealers in Kerrville and is being shipped to neighboring towns. Only pure dairy products from Kerr-View’s own registered Jersey herd are used in the manufacture of the ice cream, according to Wiedenfeld. There are no adulterations and the cream is to be known as ‘Kerr-View’s Jersey Ice Cream,’ with the slogan ‘Milked Today – Frozen Tonight.’”

The company also provided milk and cream to local markets and customers. A Kerrville friend gave me some of the milk bottle paper tops last year – my favorite one says the coffee cream was ‘produced by a tubercular free herd.’ Another friend gave me a Kerr-View Farm fryer-hen carton.
Among the product packaging I notice a nice consistency in the logo – a hand-drawn script K, followed by legible serif letters. In the flowing ribbon underline you can often find “Kerrville, Texas.”
Benno and Clarice had two children, a son who died as a toddler, and a daughter, Anna Jean Wiedenfeld MacDonald. Benno passed away in 1977, Clarice in 1980, and Jean in 2011. (Jean’s late son, Granger MacDonald, was a successful builder, who passed away in 2020.)
Kerr-View Farm also boasted a men’s softball team, which competed in the Kerrville Softball Association, which had both a men’s and a women’s division.
Here are some of the teams of that league, during the 1935 season: Oak Park Baptists; Legion Doughboys; Star Cleaners; Hughes Ice; American Pure Milk; Fawcett Furniture; Schreiner Bank; Tivy High School; Burton Jewelers; Kerr-View Farm; and Wolfmueller’s Bakery. Occasionally a team from a neighboring community, like Comfort or Fredericksburg, would show up and play.
Games were held at a ‘lighted’ diamond, which stood at the ‘old fairgrounds,’ which I assume was the West Texas Fairgrounds, which were between Junction Highway and Guadalupe Street, near present-day Spence and Hugo streets.
These games were often front-page news.
In their season final games, Kerr-View Farm played Fawcett Furniture for the championship. Kerr-View had won more games during the regular season, but Fawcett was a close second. It was going to be a close game.
Here’s how the championship played out, from the September 5, 1935 edition of the Kerrville Times:
“Piling up nine hits, eight runs, and seven errors, the Fawcett Furniture ran away with the championship honors leaving Kerr-View second place with a record of seven hits, four runs, and six errors. Fawcett Furniture defeated Kerr-View Farm 8-4.”
Sounds like it was an exciting game, and a great season.
Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who enjoys watching baseball. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead October 25, 2024.

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Golf comes to Kerrville -- 100 years ago

Kerrville's Scott Schreiner Golf Course in 1924.
The clubhouse is in the background.
Click on any image to enlarge.

Golfing in Kerrville turns 100 this month, and the city is planning a celebration at the Scott Schreiner Municipal Golf Course to mark the occasion.

One journalist covered the new golf course back in 1924: J. E. Grinstead. His October, 1924 edition of the Grinstead’s Graphic Magazine is devoted to the new golf course.

"Some of the Graphic's readers complained last month," Grinstead writes, "because I used a word several times that the preachers talk about every Sunday. Well, you won't find it in this number. The worst word I'll use is Golf."

The little booklet measures about 6 3/4 by 10 inches and had, at one time, 32 pages. My copy is missing the middle four pages, and is thus incomplete. It is illustrated with twelve photographs in the story pages, plus five more in the advertisements. (As you know, I'm particularly keen on old Kerrville and Kerr County images.) Like most of Grinstead's magazines, this one includes some "booster" copy, extolling the unblemished virtues of our neck of the woods, and also a short piece of fiction.

Back to his coverage of golf:

"...Golf has come to Kerrville. It seems strange that in this mountain retreat, where so short a time ago smoke was rising from the campfires of the Comanche, such a modern thing as golf links should be at hand. Fifty years ago [from 1921, that is, 1871], a golf course here in these mountains would have been quite a curiosity. Yes, and fifty years ago a woman with bobbed hair, or a man wearing bell-bottomed pants would have been shot for a new kind of varmint. Fifty years ago, if just one automobile had run through Kerr County at night, the population would have been reduced by those who broke their necks trying to get away.

"The world has progressed, and Kerrville has progressed with it. As a step in that progress, the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce, the liveliest civic body I know anything about, decided that Kerrville needed a Country Club and a Golf Course. When the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce decides that their town needs a thing, they go get it."

Looking over the photographs, I believe this "country club" and its golf course were spread out over the same acreage as today's Scott Schreiner Municipal Golf Course. Of the images in the little magazine, I have the negatives to two, which helps me know approximately how old they are.

The golf course had been completed only a few months before the "Golf Number" was published. The early board "of governors" of the Kerrville Country Club were Scott Schreiner, president; E. Galbraith, vice-president; Cecil Robinson, secretary; A.C. Schreiner, Jr., chairman of the golf committee; Ally Bietel, chairman of the finance committee; E. H. Prescott, chairman of the entertainment committee; Dr. J. D. Jackson, chairman of the house committee; Dr. A. A. Roberts, chairman greens committee; and S. H. Huntington, A. B. Williamson, and Hal Peterson rounding out that first board.

"Through the course runs Quinlan Creek," Grinstead wrote, "a brawling mountain brook, which affords no less than seven water hazards. No matter where the player may look, he is confronted by natural scenery, mountain, valley and stream. This sporty nine-hole course was designed by John Bredemus, well-known golf engineer and architect. The designs were carried out under the supervision of O. J. Dobkins, who is at present professional in charge of the course. Mr. Dobkins was assisted in the work by Hal Peterson."

Grinstead predicted, accurately, that other courses would be built here.

Happy 100^th birthday to the Scott Schreiner Municipal Golf Course!

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who has hit more than a few golf balls in the water at our local golf course. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead October 3, 2024.

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