The Lives of the [Kerrville] Cowboys

Illustration from Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, May 28, 1881.
Click to enlarge.

Last week, I wrote about an 1881 newspaper article about trailing cattle which mentioned Kerrville. The story included illustrations by L. W. MacDonald which were originally published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper," in New York, on May 28, 1881. They're detailed illustrations of cowboys driving cattle, one showing the herd and cowboys on a road; the other, in a hill-crowded valley lined with trees.

Elsewhere in that issue I found another image by L. W. MacDonald which shows stampeding cattle racing away from a lightning strike.

"A flash of lightning and the crash of thunder sent many a herd of Longhorns stampeding to parts unknown," the same issue reported. "It also was dangerous for the cowboys who on horseback were the highest objects on the prairie, making them targets for lightning. This storm broke over a herd near Kerrville, Texas."

Not only does the illustrated story mention Kerrville – it tells the story of driving cattle north to markets in Kansas.

Here is an excerpt from the story about Kerrville and driving cattle in the 1881 newspaper:

Kerrville, where our illustrations were made, is situated on the Guadalupe River, some thirty miles from its source and seventy northwest of San Antonio. In the early Spring the town presents a singular appearance of business activity, for it is on one of the principal trails taken by the vast herds that are annually driven up from Texas to Kansas. Eight miles are a fair day's march. Sometimes the herd makes twelve or fourteen, but there is never any haste, for time is of less importance than the condition of the cattle and if they get worried and cease to gain flesh they are given a rest of a few days. Every day the foreman rides ahead to find water and choose the site of the night’s camp. The six drivers ride upon the flanks and rear of the herd. Towards evening the foreman is descried on the summit of a hill signaling the way to the night’s resting- place. Arrived at the spot selected, the cattle are rounded in at twilight, and then the men divided into reliefs for guard-mounting. The guards, two on duty at a time, round the sleeping herd, each making a half-circuit of the camp. Fires are lighted, supper cooked, and the men off duty roll themselves in their blankets and lie down on the grass to sleep until awakened to relieve the guard. Soon after daybreak, the camp is astir and the march is resumed.

Stampedes frequently occur, particularly in the early days of the journey, when the cattle are wild. The least thing will sometimes set them off, such as the striking of a match or the sudden motion of a cowboy throwing his blanket over his shoulders. A thunder-storm is almost certain to cause a stampede. The course usually taken on these occasions is to endeavor to head the stampede, and by shouts and gesticulations to turn the leading cattle so as to make them take a circular course. But this cannot always be done, especially on dark nights and rough ground; then large numbers are lost and make their way back to where they were raised.  Texan cowboys excel in the art of using the lasso, or roping, as it is called there. They can throw the rope over the horns of a cow going at full speed with the greatest ease. The long-lashed whip generally associated with cattle-driving is seldom seen here; a short whip made of raw-hide, called a ‘quirt’ is used instead.

In a recent issue we spoke of the Texas cowboys, giving an illustration of one of their chief diversions when off duty. There is no better place to observe this peculiar product of fronter life than at Fort Worth. He goes there from his home on the plains to spend his money at the saloons, swagger in the streets, buy himself a new sombrero with silver cord and binding of bright-colored braid, and make merry with the girls in the variety theatre. He is apt to make himself obnoxious in a crowded town; but seen on his native heath, cantering over the plains on his swift mustang, swinging his lariat and shouting his whoop and halloo to the fleeing steers, he is a picturesque spectacle. He lives in a hut or a tent, sleeps in Summer rolled in his blanket in the open air, is the saddle from morning to night, settles his quarrels with his six-shooter, looks upon killing as a capital crime, and is altogether the most free and independent fellow to be found in this particularly free and independent country.

Why is this important to Kerrville history?

Trailing cattle from this area to markets in Kansas offered the first real infusion of cash and capital into our area. There was simply little or no cash here after the Civil War. Charles Schreiner and several partners profited from driving their own herds to market, and also profited from driving the herds of other ranchers to market.

With these profits, through his banking operations, Charles Schreiner greatly expanded the money supply here. When he loaned money to a rancher, merchant, or businessperson, he was investing in their operations.  The same dollar in profit he’d earned from his cattle trailing operations could be invested several times in other local enterprises, while also earning interest. The result was increased economic activity in our region.

Even though Schreiner’s bank didn’t mint coins or print bills, it effectively expanded the money supply in our community by increasing the amount of spendable dollars through the loans it made.

This economic miracle all started with driving cattle – which were considered at first basically worthless here, as they ranged freely across our hills – to a place where they had actual value.

It changed the course of our local history.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native and a descendent of at least one cowboy who drove cattle to markets in Kansas. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead May 15, 2025.

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A very rare glimpse of Kerrville in 1881

"On the road to Kerrville," by L. W. MacDonald, 1881.
Click on any image to enlarge.

Years ago, a kind friend gave me a framed set of illustrations from sketches by L. W. MacDonald which were originally published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper," in New York, on May 28, 1881. They're detailed illustrations of cowboys driving cattle, one showing the herd and cowboys on a road; the other, in a hill-crowded valley lined with trees.

Of special interest are the captions. One reads "On the road to Kerrville," and the other, "Rounding up the cattle." At the bottom of the page it reads "Cattle-raising on our great plains.--

Scenes at Kerrville, Texas."

Images of Kerrville from 1881 are exceptionally rare. There are two main reasons: there were few if any cameras here during those years, nor any easy way to develop photographs even if you had a camera; and second, there were not a lot of people here. Some sources say the population of Kerrville in 1880 was only 156 people.

These illustrations of cowboys, of course, were not photographs, but were drawn from sketches by L. W. MacDonald. Still, they show Kerrville when it was still a tiny town beside the Guadalupe River.

There are only a few structures in Kerrville today which were here in 1881. The Favorite Saloon building, at 709 Water Street, was built in 1874 by F. J. Hamer. The Gregory Hotel building may have been around in 1880; after many renovations and additions, it became Pampell's, and today is the home of the Il Posto restaurant. The oldest part of the Schreiner store still standing probably dates from 1882, though the oldest part of the Schreiner Mansion dates from 1879.

In 1881 there were no church buildings in Kerrville. The Union Church was completed around Christmas, 1885; St. Peter's Episcopal Church first building was built around 1884, but that original building lacked a belfry until 1898.

The railroad did not arrive in Kerrville until 1887. Kerrville was not incorporated until 1889.

Let's look now at the illustrations published in New York in 1881.

In "On the road to Kerrville," there are several parts of the drawing that look very true to our community, like the shape of the hills, and the juniper tree on the hillside. The other flora shown in the image also seem plausible.

There are very few buildings in the image, which would be about right, and I don't see any church steeples among them. The poor building right on the riverbank is in harm's way the next time the Guadalupe decides to flood. I don't see any exact renditions of the few buildings I know were standing in Kerrville in 1881, but I don't think that matters much. The artist was not trying to illustrate Kerrville; these images were about cattle and the men that worked cattle.

These images show a glimpse of our community before the convenience and accuracy of easy photography. They show cowboys hard at work, negotiating difficult terrain, handling stampedes, driving a herd of cattle to market. They illustrate a way of life which was dangerous and difficult.

We know so little about the earliest days of our hill country communities. 

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who is happy he lives in the present day. Life here in 1881 would have been a lot of very hard work. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead May 8, 2025.

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The Story of Kerrville’s Louise Hays Park

April 26, 1950: the date Kerrville built Louise Hays Park in a single day.
Click on any image to enlarge.

On Saturday, April 26, Kerrville’s Louise Hays Park turns 75 years old.

On that date in 1950, our community came together to build a park in a single day. 

Louise, Bobby, and
Robert Hays

The Hays family, Robert and Louise, gave the city the land for the park. The tract is now surrounded by Kerrville, but in 1950 there was very little development south of the river. The land for the park was part of the Hays' ranch. State Highway 16 crossed the river, as it does now, traveling through the Hays property. There was a road to the state hospital connected to the highway, today's Thompson Drive. Aerial photographs of the site show plowed fields above the floodplain; near the river, a jumble of trees and brush. 

As far as ranch land goes, the 35-acre site was not optimal, since it was in the floodplain. But as the site for a municipal park, the tract was brilliant. Each year, as Kerrville grew in population and area, having a park in the center of town with river frontage grew more and more ideal.

I've often wondered what motivated Kerrville citizens in 1950 to attempt to build a park in a single day. I thought it was perhaps a clever tactic by the Hays family; then, as now, our community takes forever to finish a project, always finding the time to squabble about each decision made along the way.

Before

However, the truth is probably closer to a 1950 quote from Camilla Salter, as reported in the Dallas Morning News: "We didn’t have enough money in town to build the kind of park we wanted, but we decided we could if we could get everybody to donate one day’s work – get everyone to give one day’s time." 

Mrs. Salter was the owner and publisher of the Kerrville Mountain Sun, and very dedicated to any project advancing Kerrville. "From the day that Mr. and Mrs. Hays announced their gift,” the story reported, “she has plugged hard day in and day out for the realization of the park project.” Building the park in a single day may have been her clever idea.

Celebration photo

Jack Peterson served as chairman of the “Build a Park in a Day” committee, and led a capable group which made the dream of a park into a reality.

“Some 600 men, using machines in a race against time,” the Dallas Morning News reported on April 23, 1950, “will attempt to turn thirty-five timbered acres into a finished playground park between dawn and dusk.

“An Army of men, manning more than 100 trucks, tractors, bulldozers and rollers, will rumble into the river-bank acreage at 7 a.m.

“Twelve hours later Louise Hays Park should be finished, even to its name cut into the native stone entrance archway.”

Tulahteka, 2018

The date for work to begin (and be finished) was April 26, 1950, which happened to be the 94th anniversary of the founding of Kerr County. Well, near the anniversary, actually.

The volunteers made the ‘park in a day’ happen. The Houston Chronicle called the completed park the “Miracle on the Guadalupe,” in an April 27, 1950 story:

“A thousand men have made a gift grow into a lovely park in a day…. The gift was a tract of 35 acres along the river from Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Hays. Their only stipulation was that the city beautify and make it a public park and that it be named the Louise Hays Park in honor of the wife of the donor.”

While doing research for this column, I learned some new things about the Hays family:

April 26, 1950 -- the big day

Robert Simpson Hays Sr. was a veteran of both World War I and World War II; he attained the rank of Major in the U.S. Army in the engineering corps during his service in the second world war. Robert Hays was born in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. At the age of 14, he left school to work in the oil fields, starting out with a pumping crew, and made a tool dresser by the age of 15. He held various positions in the oil field, and later entered the oil business as a producer. He had his first big success in the Snyder Field in Scurry County, and other successes elsewhere. He and his wife, Louise, moved to Kerrville in 1949, buying one of Louis Schreiner’s homes, Tulahteka, from John L. Sullivan. The couple considered the mansion their ‘ranch house,’ and they raised cattle and fine horses on the other parts of the ranchlands surrounding the house. 

Louise Hays was described as delightful, “for she is genuine, she is charming, and she is smart,” in an article written in March, 1950, by Camilla Salter. “She likes a farm,” Mrs. Salter wrote, “and loves a small town, and likes animals of all kinds. She enjoys fishing, and when we first saw her, she was indulging in this sport with an old-fashioned pole and line in one of the lakes on the ranch. We were immediately impressed with her friendliness, with her youth, and her hospitality….”

Robert and Louise Hays had one son, Robert Hays Jr. I understand Robert Jr. will attend the 75th anniversary celebrations of the park with his family this Saturday.

Robert Hays had two daughters from a previous marriage, Sara Jean Hays, and Ada Sue Hays Blume. Sue Blume was a local realtor here in Kerrville for many years. Both daughters have passed away.

Robert Hays died four years after the park was completed, dying in his sleep at his Kerrville ‘ranch house.’ He was only 55 years old when he died. He is buried in Arkansas.

Louise Hays later remarried. She died in 1982, at the age of 64, and is buried next to her second husband in Illinois.

This couple changed the course of Kerrville’s history with their generous gift.

My entire life I've enjoyed time spent at Louise Hays Park, as have my children. I'm so grateful for the gift to our community from the Hays family, and I'm thankful for the clever leadership of local folks like Camilla Salter and Jack Peterson.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who needs to spend more time in the sunshine. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead April 24, 2025. 

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An Oddly-Shaped Block in Downtown Kerrville

The block as it appears on the revised 1950 Sanborn map of Kerrville.
Click on any image to enlarge.

Over the last month or so, I’ve watched the demolition of the old Entertainmart building on Main Street in downtown Kerrville. The building is being removed to make room for a new branch office of Frost Bank, as well as some retail building spaces. Change happens. 

As of 04-16-25

The only building remaining on the block is the Voelkel Building, there at the block’s southern corner. That building started out as an automobile sales and display office. 

I was born here in the early 1960s and remember downtown Kerrville from the late 1960s on, especially after my parents purchased our printing company from the Hunter family around 1965. I feel like I’ve spent most of my waking hours in downtown Kerrville since then.

I still work a block away from the former site of the hospital where I was born -- so I’ve gone a long way in life.

August Braeutigam Blacksmith
Shop, 1895

The block where the demolition is taking place is known as Block 22 and Block 44 of the Schreiner Addition. If you take a long view of things, that block has been constantly changing for over 100 years.

The earliest photograph I have of anything on that block dates from around 1895; the latest several I took this week.

The commercial building which held Entertainmart had several tenants in recent memory. Before Entertainmart, Hastings operated there. Hastings was a book store and video rental place, mainly, and moved into the space in the early 1990s. A clothing store, Weiner’s, was in the spot for about five years, closing in 1989.

Aerial around 1960

The business most of us remember operating in that building was the H-E-B Grocery Company. It was originally in a modest building which faced Quinlan Street, but over time the store expanded in size with new construction and consumed other structures on the block, including the George H. Callcott auto parts store (which faced Water Street), and, in its last remodel there, turned the entrance toward Main Street.

I have vague memories of other buildings on the block facing Main Street, especially at the corner of Main and Clay streets, but those memories are pretty dim.

Memorial Funeral Home
photo from Jeannie Stover Berger Collection

The very earliest photograph I have of a structure on that block is of the blacksmith shop of August Braeutigam. It’s a great photo, showing a group of men, with tools of their trade, posing in front of the little shop. It was taken around 1895. The building itself still shows up on the 1930 map of that block, though by then it might not have been the site of a blacksmith workshop.

Another interesting building which once stood on that block was a house that was once the home of two of Captain Schreiner’s daughters – though they lived there at different times, each as newlyweds. More recently that home was a funeral home, the Memorial Funeral Home. I don’t remember the building, but it was possibly there when I was a boy.

For an oddly-shaped block, it’s had a lot of different uses: private homes, a gas station, auto parts, groceries, and even video rentals. Its new chapter begins soon.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who tolerates change more easily the older he gets. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead April 17, 2025.

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A lesson about the Kerrville community from 1995

KFD fighting a fire at 615 Water Street, Kerrville, April 11, 1995.
Click on any image to enlarge.

Please allow me a story of personal history this week.

30 years ago, on Friday, on April 11, 1995, our print shop was heavily damaged by a fire.

A print shop employee who had a second job – delivering pizzas for Mr. Gatti’s – noticed the building had smoke pouring out of it and called 911. Had he not passed by that evening, things could have been much, much worse.

The Kerrville Fire Department arrived very quickly, and worked into the night to put out the fire and save as much of our printing equipment as possible.

Our family was so thankful no one was hurt by the fire: no employees, none of the firemen, and no passersby.

I received a phone call that night around 9 pm from our pizza-delivering employee, and raced from home to town. As I turned the curves connecting Jackson Road and Water Street, I could see the valley below, holding the center of town, was filling with smoke. The smoke was from our building, fueled by the tools of our trade: paper, ink, and equipment. 

I had hoped the fire was not going to be too bad, too damaging. When I saw that smoke, I knew it was going to be bad. Very bad.

It was later determined the fire started when a pair of wires – in a conduit – shorted. It was in a bend of conduit, above our old darkroom. A silent spark, it came from a wire which no one had seen since the building was built in the 1940s. The fire spread through the building via our air-conditioning ducts. The only room spared was our press room, which had a separate air-conditioning system.

Gone were our offices, all of our computers, our reception area, our typesetting, paste-up and platemaking areas, plus our bindery, stockroom, and customer files.

Here’s what I learned that week:

Kerrville is a great community.

Our neighbors offered help to us in a hundred different ways. The firefighters were heroes. Our employee who called in the alarm was a hero.

Our customers were heroes, too. The next morning, customers showed up in our parking lot and placed orders with us, telling us they were in no hurry for delivery. We lacked any ability to produce printing that first morning, but customers came and placed orders with us.

And our employees were heroes. Working together, we were printing again in only 7 days.

Since we lacked critical equipment, another group of heroes came to help: our competitors. Wally Stanton and his crew at So Fast Printing let us borrow his cutting machine; if I remember correctly, he also folded several projects for us. Other competitors, who are no longer in business, also helped.

Since our building was mostly destroyed, we needed a place to put what was left of our equipment; we needed a building in which to operate a business. Tim Crenwelge, of Crenwelge Motors, let us borrow a little building facing Rodriguez Street, which had been the home of the Kerrville Mountain Sun several years before. We were in that building for over a year – and Tim let us be there rent-free the entire time.

Two long-time friends, Susan Sander and Marcie Dorman, painted a little mural on our boarded-up windows. That mural still hangs in our bindery, and it makes me smile every time I see it.

The fire itself was a real “character-builder.” But the lessons I learned that year were about our community; generosity and kindness, concern and support. These are Kerrville traits. I am so thankful we live here.

There is one other thing to note about April 11, 1995. That day was my sister’s 30th birthday – meaning, of course that this Friday, also April 11th, is also her birthday. If you happen to see Judy, I hope you’ll wish her a very happy birthday.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who is thankful for this community. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead April 10, 2025.

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