A Dinosaur Story, Honest.

Note the story in the second column from the left. Click to enlarge.

Years ago, writing one of my April Fools' columns, I suggested Sidney Baker Street would be closed for several months because the fossilized bones of a dinosaur had been discovered beneath the roadway.
At the time, I wrote: “'What we found at the Jefferson street corner looked like the tail bones of a plesiosaur called Liopleurodon ferox, the largest carnivore that ever existed,' a friend from the state’s survey team told me. He asked that I not publish his name."
The art of such a column is to give enough detail the reader begins to think the subject is plausible. One does not need to completely convince the reader; plausibility is enough.
Even my editor got in on the act, giving the column the clever title "What lies beneath."
Well, it turns out the joke was on me: while researching old newspapers for a recent column on Howard Lacey, a noted pioneer here with expertise in natural history, I discovered my April Fools' column was almost correct, though off by a few blocks.
Although I doubt anyone will believe me, it's true: dinosaur fossils were once found in the downtown area. I know, I know: the boy who cried wolf wasn't believed, either.
According to the March 21, 1929 issue of the Kerrville Mountain Sun, a fossilized dinosaur thigh bone and several of the dinosaur's vertebrae were found as workmen were digging the Cascade Pool.
The Cascade Pool was in the downtown area of Kerrville, near the intersection of Water and Earl Garrett streets. Looking at the old bank building there, which until recently housed the Bank of America offices, focus on the long two-story part of the back of the building, parallel to the river bluff. That's where the Cascade Pool was.
Excavation of the fossils was led by two instructors from Schreiner Institute, Hal Norman and W. P. Killingsworth.
"The thigh bone was 42 inches in length, 14 inches wide at the large socket end and weighed approximately 100 pounds. The portion of the vertebrae recovered was six feet long and about seven inches in width. The bones were found at a depth of 12 feet in a strata of gravel," according to the news report.
Several theories about the type of dinosaur were given. "Some thought it was part of a blood-sweating dinosaur of the Paleozoic era, while others were of the opinion that it might be the goggle-eyed plesiosaurus of the Miocene period."
Funny thing: my 2005 April Fool's column suggested the dinosaur found beneath Sidney Baker was also a plesiosaur, which was, of course, a complete figment of my imagination. There was no dinosaur under Sidney Baker street.
There was, however, one about 2 blocks away.
What became of the fossilized bones? That's a mystery I'm hoping to solve in the near future. At least one report suggests the bones were taken to Schreiner Institute (now Schreiner University). "Texas A. & M. College sent a wire asking for the bones, and the University of Texas also would like have the fossil for the Austin collection; but Schreiner Institute has the prize and professors Norman and Killingsworth vow that the remains of the old-timer will remain here in Kerrville to form the nucleus of a prehistoric exhibit. They believe that in future excavations for skyscrapers the balance of the prehistoric monsters framework may be uncovered."
So, there you have it. My old April Fools' column was pretty accurate, although completely by accident. I think I'll review the other April Fools' columns, just to see what other unintended predictions they might contain.
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who wonders if anyone noticed dinosaur bones when the currently vacant bank building was being constructed. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times July 27, 2013.

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Saturday Kerrville Mystery Photo -- answer revealed

So, how well do you know Kerrville?  This photograph was taken in the 800 block of Water Street at the old Kerrville Telephone Company central switching building.  When I was a boy scout we took a field trip in the building, and I couldn't get over how many wires and relays were in the building.  I thought it was about the most complicated technology imaginable.

So... where in present-day Kerrville was this photograph taken?

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Saturday Kerrville mystery photo.... How well do you know Kerrville?

So, how well do you know Kerrville?  This photograph was taken within the city limits of modern-day Kerrville.  If you have a guess, just put it in the comments section on the blog.  If you receive this as an email update, you can visit the blog by clicking HERE.

So... where in present-day Kerrville was this photograph taken?

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A Brief History of the YO Ranch in Kerr County, Texas

Charlie III and his four sons.

For a kid raised in Kerrville in the 1960s, the YO Ranch was a place of legend, out past the edge of sidewalks and street lights, where hard work was constant, and where cowboys, horses and cattle were at home.
Since my family's printing shop was in downtown Kerrville, a block over from the home of Captain Charles Schreiner, and within sight of both the Schreiner store, and his eldest son's home, I think I've always better understood the part of the Schreiner family story that took place in town.  That part of their story occurred in a setting I understand: the few blocks making up what we called "downtown" in those days.  I would dare say there are few living who know those blocks better than I, from their rooftops to the tunnels which snake beneath the streets.
But there is another part of the Schreiner story, and it takes place in a nearby setting.  That setting is a ranch in the western part of Kerr County.  Though it's close by, that setting is as foreign to me as the sidewalks of Budapest.
And yet you can't understand the "town" Schreiners if you don't try to understand the story of the YO Ranch.  That story starts with Captain Charles Schreiner, of course, but includes a University of Texas football player who graduated from law school, a resourceful widow, and a man who bloomed where he was planted, playing the hand he was dealt with style and character.
The person I remember most from the YO Ranch was Charles Schreiner III, who from time to time would buy printing from my father.  We have in those few files which survived our print shop's 1995 fire samples of newsletters, stationery, and brochures, and I remember reading them as a boy, wondering about the ranch which was so close to Kerrville, yet so far away.
The YO came into the Schreiner family in 1880, when the Taylor-Clements Ranch was purchased by Charles Schreiner; the YO brand became part of the deal.
J. W. Taylor and James Clements together owned the Taylor-Clements Ranch, and at their headquarters above Harper, Gus Schreiner, Captain Schreiner's son, found that most of the cattle his family had purchased were branded "YO," a mark Taylor had used for some years, including down in Goliad County.
According to Neal Barrett Jr.'s book "Long Days and Short Nights," published to celebrate the centennial of the YO Ranch, at the Taylor-Clements Ranch Gus Schreiner "found the cattle there were already carrying the YO brand.  Being a practical man who didn't like to do the same job twice, he simply bought the YO brand from the sellers.  Thus the YO brand entered the Schreiner domain.  It has found a home there ever since."

Walter and Myrtle Schreiner

The brand, which features a "Y" connected atop an "O" started out on the property of Taylor and Clements -- but has found its way to mark many other types of property and enterprises.  For those new to the area, the name is pronounced by saying the names of the letter Y and the letter O, not slurred together to say the word "yo."  (Mo-Ranch is completely different, where the sounds of the letters "M" and "O" form the sound "moh."  These ranch names are one of our many local shibboleths.)
Cattle were an important foundation of Captain Schreiner's wealth.  Texas longhorns, in the years around the Civil War, had grown numerous in the hills around Kerr County, and the rest of south Texas, and were not considered, in most cases, anyone's property.  When the first local cowmen reported profits from gathering herds of the wild cattle and driving them to markets in Kansas, few in Kerrville believed them.  The longhorns were considered worthless by many locals.
Captain Charles Schreiner knew otherwise, and with several partners organized cattle drives which saw hundreds of thousands of cattle driven north.  Most of these cattle drives were very profitable to Schreiner and his partners.  Some were financial disasters.
In 1917, toward the end of his life, Charles Schreiner divided his assets among his children -- his five sons and three daughters.    His eldest, A. C. Schreiner, whose home still stands between our print shop and the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library, got the store.  Louis, another son, got the bank.  Other properties were divided among the children.
The youngest son, Walter, got the YO Ranch and the Weaver Ranch, just shy of 70,000 acres total.  He was 40, and the next chapter of the YO Ranch began.
Walter is an interesting character.  He graduated from the University of Texas, where he played football, where the team nicknamed him "Crip," since he managed to break a collarbone, arm, leg, and three ribs during his football career.  He finished law school and was captain of the 1900 team that won all six games it played.  A team photo from the time shows Walter Schreiner and the team in uniforms more like rugby uniforms than what we'd recognize as football uniforms.
After graduating he went to manage his father's YO ranch, learning the business from Robert Real, a cousin.
In 1922, Walter Schreiner met Myrtle Barton, a Texas girl from Blooming Grove, and brought her to the YO Ranch as his bride.  She was seventeen years his junior, and neither knew at their marriage how important a role she'd play in the story of the YO Ranch.

Myrtle Schreiner

Walter Schreiner was a hard worker, a man of his word, and he knew the cattle business.  When he was given the YO Ranch, the country was in the midst of World War I.  Prices were good for cattle and wool, and the YO Ranch prospered.  But with the armistice, the price for these items fell, and the ranching business became more and more difficult.  Many ranches failed during this time, but Walter Schreiner managed to hold on.
Then the Great Depression hit.  Times got tougher for ranchers, including the YO Ranch.  Walter Schreiner diversified his income streams, and included some lease payments from oil companies to search for oil.  None was found, but the leases appeared now and then on the ranch's books as a much-welcomed source of income.
Then, about the time Franklin Roosevelt was taking office in 1933, Walter Schreiner died unexpectedly, leaving the YO Ranch to his widow, Myrtle, and his young son, Charles III.
Myrtle by all accounts was resourceful.  She admitted her lack of knowledge of the ranching business and sought and received advice from many quarters, from a loyal and smart ranch foreman, Mac Hyde, and later his son Clarence, and from her late husband's brothers, especially Gus, a rancher, and Louis, a banker.
It was during Myrtle Schreiner's stewardship of the YO Ranch when an unusual lease was signed with one of the oil companies, a $3500 lease from Petty Geophysical Engineering. That particular lease was not for hunting for oil.  It was for hunting white tail deer and other game. That lease was signed in 1943, and it marked a turning point for the YO Ranch.
Consider the problems facing the YO Ranch during Myrtle's tenure: the ranch has no running streams, so water for the livestock is always a problem; its sheer size contributes to logistical problems; scourges like the screw-worm fly afflicted both livestock and wildlife; and the national economy frustrates commodity prices.  How she kept the YO Ranch together is probably the most interesting part of the ranch's long history: I think it was by sheer determination.
To add to the problems, Texas suffered a drought of historic proportions in the 1950s.  The YO Ranch, already a dry part of the planet, dried up even more. Warren Klein, who lived near the YO Ranch, used to joke the drought got so bad "we had to gather up the fish and douse 'em with tick powder."  Where Klein found the fish is not recorded.
It was during this time of drought the transition from Myrtle Schreiner to Charles Schreiner III began at the ranch.
Charlie III, like his father, graduated from the University of Texas, where he was a Plan II major.  In 1946 he met his first wife, Audrey Phillips, in Austin.  They would have four sons: Charles IV, Walter, Gus, and Louis.
Charlie III, as he was called far and wide, is important to the story in many ways, but I admire two specific items:
First, he was a student of history, and a collector of historic items, particularly items relating to Texas and the legendary Texas Rangers.  He also gathered one of the best collections of historic firearms in the state.
Second, he saw early on the value of the Texas longhorn -- as a breed, and as an historic reminder of the beginnings of ranching in Texas, and was instrumental in the formation of the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association.
In the mid-1960s, Charlie III and his friend Ace Reid came up with the idea for a modern-day trail drive, covering the same routes as some of the drives of the late 19th century.  After practicing on YO Ranch lands, and getting the herd used to traveling together.  In the summer of 1966, they drove the cattle from the Texas Hill Country all the way to Dodge City, Kansas.
More than a trip down memory lane, and a rough lane at that, the trail drive proved a public relations bonanza, introducing people in several states not only to the Texas longhorn breed, but also introducing thousands of people to the YO Ranch.

Y. O. Cowboys

During Charlie III's tenure, more emphasis was placed on the YO Ranch as a destination.  People traveled to the YO Ranch and stayed at their lodge, mainly as hunters, but increasingly as visitors to a working ranch, where the livestock included exotic animals.
So, like the Schreiners before him, Charlie III effectively diversified the income streams for the ranch.  While cattle, sheep, and goat operations remained important to the business of the ranch, other income was found to help support the ranch.
Captain Charles Schreiner was diversifying his income from his small mercantile store in downtown Kerrville when he entered the cattle business; his son Walter diversified into many things, including oil leases, and even produce farming; Walter's widow Myrtle introduced hunting as a way to diversify the ranch's income; Charlie III introduced many things, but especially found ways for paying guests to visit the ranch.
In the last few days of his life Charlie III lost his son Louis.  They both died in 2001.
His three surviving sons, Charles IV, Walter, and Gus, along with their families and Louis' family, are all actively involved in managing the YO Ranch today.
Their chapter in the ranch's 132 year history is well underway, and, taking the example of those Schreiners who have worked the YO Ranch before them, their future looks bright.
This article originally appeared in the Comanche Trace Lifestyles Magazine in February 2013.

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This time of year, though long ago

Sometimes I like to see what was happening in our neck of the woods years ago by studying a newspaper from about the same day and month as today. For example, what was happening in Kerr County during mid-July many summers ago?
Often, studying these old papers seems to confirm the cyclical theory of history: the idea that the stories don't really change, just the players. At other times it seems like the linear theory of history prevails, where each new year is really new.
Let's take a look at an old Kerrville newspaper from a long-ago mid-July, and you can decide which theory wins.
On July 10, 1941, the Salter family published a 10-page issue of the Kerrville Mountain Sun. What was happening here 72 years ago?
The biggest headline read "12,500 Spectators Crowd Tivy Field for Annual Hill Country Championship Rodeo, Horseshow," and reported on the seventh annual rodeo produced by the Kerrville Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees).
I have photographs of the rodeo and parade from that era, and it was a big deal. The rodeo in 1941 was a two-day event, so attendance averaged over 6,000 folks each night.
It says the event took place at "Tivy Field," and you'd assume it was at what we call Antler Stadium today, but that would be wrong: Antler Stadium didn't open until the autumn of '41. In talking with several Tivy alums from that era, I think "Tivy Field" was in the block bounded by Tivy, Barnett, Third, and College Streets, behind what was called Tivy Elementary when I was a student. (I had always assumed the field was behind the school, adjacent to the Auld Center, but I was told this was not so.)
If so, I cannot image how they got 6,000 people a night in that little corner of town. The news story says 400 spectators were refused admission "as every available space was taken," including standing room only. "It was the first time the crowd has been beyond the capacity of the big field," the story reported.
Perhaps that large crowd was one of the inspirations for the construction of the stadium we enjoy today.
"Spiced with the scent of sage brush and the smoke from the campfire, Jim Weatherby rekindled the spirit of the native West with folklore stories and historical narration over the public address system as a prelude to each evening's performance. Sharing the announcer's duties was Joe Burkett, who kept the spectators well informed and the show running with dispatch." Weatherby would serve our area as a district judge; Burkett represented our district in the Texas House.
The other front-page stories of note included a piece about The Vogue building being remodeled; the story of "500 Jewish Youths expected for Conclave July 12," at a youth camp to be held at "Westminster Presbyterian Encampment;" a conference at the Methodist Kerrville Assembly for "Children's Workers;" and a report that building permits had reached $69,185 in the city for the first six months of 1941.
The ladies of the Episcopal Guild were undertaking an interesting fundraising effort, taken straight from the parable about not burying one's money: each was given a dollar and asked to make it grow before their next meeting in the autumn. Accordingly, the ladies started on various economic endeavors. One raised chickens, another painted flower pots, another sold eggs, and one sold cookies and peppermint ice cream. It seems quaint, but they must have been successful; I think the funds were used in the construction of the original portion of the present-day church building.
Over at the Arcadia Theater a Western was playing, which was appropriate, given the fact that rodeo was in town: Charles Starrett starred in the "Pinto Kid." And there was a picture starring James Cagney and Betty Davis also showing there, "The Bride came C. O. D." Over at the Rialto, which stood next door to our print shop, Barbara Stanwyck's "The Lady Eve" was showing, as well as a Marlene Dietrich film, "The Flame of New Orleans."
One small item on the front page also caught my attention: a report on the progress of fundraising by the Tivy Ex-Student's Association for the "improvement of Tivy Mountain." As of the end of June, the group had raised almost $750. As you know, Tivy Mountain has been caught in a sort of limbo for the past few decades.
So, Gentle Reader: is history a cycle, or is it a straight line?
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who ponders the riddles often found in old newspapers. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times July 20, 2013.

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A Brief History of Summer Camps in Kerr County

An early Camp Stewart yearbook

If I were to wager, I'd bet one industry brings more residents than any other to Kerrville and Kerr County: summer camps.
Over and again a new resident will tell me they first heard of our area when they were a child and attended summer camp here.  "I fell in love with the place then," they'll often say.  "And I knew one day I had to live here."
Often they've spent their entire career in a distant city, but the dream of living here continued, day by day, year by year.  And a lucky few make it here.
Imagine the experience of those early campers with me:
When the first camps in Kerr County opened, in the 1920s, there were no Interstate highways and air travel was extremely rare.  Most campers came from Texas's largest cities -- but especially from Dallas and Houston -- and they arrived by train.  Leaving the cities in the heat of summer, traveling half a day on the train, and then arriving here, where it's cooler because of the elevation, would have been a welcome trip.  Then campers were taken by automobile (or, occasionally, wagon) from the train depot to camp, traveling unpaved roads which dipped into the river, because there were few bridges.  Higher and higher the campers would travel, winding their way deeper into the green hills, following the ribbon of river.
When they finally arrived at their camp, and settled into their cabins, they found an enterprise hard at work, dedicated to their fun.  The green river beckoned.  Horseback riding was available.  Campers were taught to shoot guns, arrows; they were instructed in athletics; they learned to paddle a canoe.
And more than one camper wrote home to tell how good the food was at camp, how it was piled high on the tables, and how, after a day busy with camp activities, the food tasted so good.
Why wouldn't campers, even later in life, think of Kerr County as paradise?
Though Native American tribes were the first to "camp" along our river, summer camping as we know it today began in 1921 when Herbert Crate opened Camp Rio Vista between Ingram and Hunt.
Crate was the CEO of the Houston YMCA.  Knowing the "Y" had established camps along the eastern seaboard, Crate was certain the idea would work in Texas.
According to an article written by Jane Ragsdale in the "Kerr County Album," Crate called Rio Vista the "Summer Character Camp for Boys."
Crate attracted great counselors those early years, and many were university professors.  Camp Director under Crate was D. B. Calvin, PhD, head of the University of Texas Medical School's chemistry department, who devised meticulous diets and exercise regimens for each of the boys.
Rio Vista's gift for finding great counselors continues.  My long-time friend Philip Stacy, whose family had an ownership interest in Rio Vista when he was a child, remembers one of his favorite camp counselors from when he was a young camper: a young football star named Roger Staubach, who later gained fame with the Dallas Cowboys.

A vintage postcard featuring
Heart o' The Hills Inn

Crate's first summer was not what he expected: "100 men promised to send their sons if he opened a camp -- yet the first summer, Crate found himself with 21 counselors, and only 16 boys."  His words of wisdom for those who followed: "Never start a camp from scratch."
Despite his advice, other camps soon followed.
Edward J. "Doc" Stewart, the head football and basketball coach at the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1920s, is responsible for the beginning days of three well-known Kerr County camps: Camp Stewart for Boys, Heart o' The Hills Camp for Girls, and Camp Mystic.
Stewart started his first camp here, "Camp Texas" in 1924, using the old West Texas Fairgrounds as his site.  The fairgrounds were between today's Junction Highway and Guadalupe Street in Kerrville, in what is now neighborhoods behind the main Wells Fargo Bank location.
Given Stewart's career, it's easy to guess the focus of his camp: athletics.  He brought UT coaches with him, and even the director of the University Interscholastic League.  Football, basketball, track, tennis and volleyball were planned on the fairground's dusty old horse track, with water sports planned for the river.  Not surprisingly, the camp's colors were orange and white.
For three summers Stewart operated his camp in Kerrville, offering two 30 day terms.  In 1927 the camp moved to its present location, 16 miles west of Kerrville, above Hunt on the north fork of the Guadalupe River.
"No swearing, no tobacco, no gambling, no hazing" were among the first rules of the camp.  "The boys arose at 6:30 for 'setting up exercises or a plunge,' breakfast, inspection, and a morning of academic work for high school credits.  Athletics, swimming, horseback riding, riflery, and Boy Scouting were conducted in the afternoon.
I imagine the boys went to bed tired.
"Doc" Stewart started another camp in 1926, Camp Stewart for Girls, on the south fork of the Guadalupe; a year later it became Camp Mystic for Girls.  In those early days, Camp Mystic had 1400 acres, and the girls were housed in 18 log cabins constructed from cypress logs cut on the camp.
In those early days of summer camping in Kerr County, travel to the camps was not easy.  Most campers arrived by train ("only 12 hours from Dallas or Houston") and headed up the Guadalupe valley on unpaved roads which crossed the river numerable times in the river bed.
I am old enough to remember the highway past today's River Inn wandering in the water with only a line of stones to mark the boundaries and keep motorists from the deeper holes.
Sensing an opportunity, Stewart also built "Heart o' The Hills Inn" as a place for parents to stay after they'd dropped their children off at camp.  This inn later became Heart o' The Hills Camp for Girls, under the leadership of Kenneth and Velma Jones.

The front cover of an early
Camp Rio Vista brochure

The Joneses had two daughters, Jan and Jo, who attended camp at Mystic.  Jo especially loved camp, and urged her parents to convert the Inn into a girls' camp.  When Jo died at 15, in a car accident, her family remembered her wishes, and a few years later the inn was made into a summer camp, opening for campers in 1953.
Another pioneer in Kerr County camping was Miss Ora Johnson, who founded Camp Waldemar in 1926.  Miss Johnson was the principal of Brackenridge High School in San Antonio, and many of her early campers were from that city.  In 1926 she had 56 campers, who attended a six week session.
In 1928 Miss Johnson brought in from Mexico a "Russian-born German rock mason, Ferdinand Rehbeger."  It was Rehbeger, working with the Johnson family, who constructed many of the stone and cedar buildings that give Waldemar its distinct beauty.
Miss Johnson died in late 1931; ownership fell to her brothers, and eventually a niece, Doris Johnson, became director in 1934.  She continued in this role until 1978.
Waldemar was noted for its horseback program, and was, for a time, known as "the Texas Horseback Camp for Girls."  Connie Reeves, a noted instructor and rider, was hired in 1937 and continued with the camp for many decades.  Its beautiful waterfront has inspired many photographs, as has the beauty of its architecture.
Other notable camps begun during this time include Camp La Junta, Camp Arrowhead, and Kickapoo Kamp.  Later additions include the much-needed Texas Lions Camp, Camp Loma Linda on the grounds of Mo-Ranch, and Echo Hill Camp in Medina.
The camping business here hasn't always been easy sailing, and quite a few popular camps are no longer in operation.
In 1932 many camps were hit hard by a huge flood that occurred while camps were in session; most had buildings and property washed away overnight.  New structures were built -- during camp -- above flood levels.  Many campers that year slept in tents instead of cabins, and viewed these accomodations not as a hardship, but as a great adventure.
Another flood churned down the Guadalupe in 1935, and though most camps had rebuilt above the flood plain, questions arose about the safety of camping along the Guadalupe.  Attendance at some camps began to suffer.
The Great Depression didn't help, either, limiting the number of families who could send campers to our community.
A polio scare, and then World War II, also affected attendance.  In fact, several camps served as official "rest and relaxation" camps for servicemen and their families during the war, ceasing operations as children's camps until after the war.

A view of Camp Waldemar, taken
by Starr Brydden

Despite the hardships the camping industry in Kerrville and Kerr County grew and strengthened.  Soon children of former campers started attending camps here, then grandchildren of those first campers.  Today many camps can boast of multi-generational campers from the same family.
I'll admit there are many days, when I'm at my office and problems at work are causing me stress I wish I was once again a camper.  I attended Camp Stewart as a boy.  My memories of that place are very warm and happy, and if I had the chance, I'd be there again.
Summer camps in Kerr County are paradise, a paradise for children and young people, a paradise with a long and good history.  They provide jobs, help the local economy, and, in many cases, they bring Kerrville and Kerr County new residents. Sometimes, during the interval between camp and finally moving here, decades pass, hair turns white, and strides shorten.  But the memory -- of golden days on the Guadalupe, in a cabin with other youngsters -- never grows old.  And a lucky few make it back.
This article originally appeared in the Comanche Trace Lifestyles Magazine in August, 2012.

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The Pioneer Naturalist on Turtle Creek

Although I do not know much about natural history, and cannot identify many plants or animals, I certainly admire those who do.
Last week I wrote a piece about Emerson Stringham, a Kerrville resident who wrote a small booklet entitled "Kerrville, Texas and its Birds" in 1948. I wrote the column because I thought the story about the man was interesting: here was an expert on birds (and patents) who came to Kerrville seeking health. He wrote this little booklet on birds, hoping, I suppose, to sell them, though in the last few months of his life he gave 500 copies of the booklet to the local library for free distribution to anyone interested. His front-page obituary suggested he kept to himself and was not well known in the community.
After the column was published, several readers responded: they each had childhood memories of their neighbor, "Uncle" Emerson Stringham. One wrote: "We lived next door to "Uncle Stringham" when I was a very small child. Some of my very first memories are of him patiently talking to me and my brothers about bugs, birds, and plants."
So, like of most stories I report here, this one had another dimension. My impression, from reading the old newspapers, was completely different from those who remembered Mr. Stringham, and their memories added depth to the story.
Stringham, in his little booklet mentions a local naturalist, Howard Lacey, an Englishman who lived on a ranch on Turtle Creek, south of Kerrville, from 1882 until 1919. I think Lacey was an inspiration to Stringham, and also Lacey's having lived here a deciding factor in Stringham making Kerrville his home.
Howard George Lacey was born in Wareham, Dorset, England, on April 15, 1856, very close, coincidentally, to the time Kerr County was created by the Texas Legislature. He was a member of an aristocratic family and went to the best schools; he graduated from Caius College, Cambridge, and intended to enter the ministry.
He gave up that career, however, and came to Texas at the age of 26, where, considering his background, he embarked on an unlikely career, ranching, in an unlikely place. He gained a reputation locally as a breeder of Angora goats, and I see his name mentioned frequently in the trophy reports of the various fairs held in Kerr County during that period.
If Angora goats were the extent of his reputation, his story would still be interesting. He arrived on Turtle Creek about the same time as several other English immigrants came to the county, and as a group, these English colonists left an indelible impression upon the course of our community.
Lacey's occupation as a rancher gave him an opportunity. "Being always in the woods and fields," he wrote in 1911, in an article for an ornithological journal, the 'Auk', "I have had a good chance to get acquainted with the natural history of the county."
In the article, Lacey lists 202 species of birds observed in our area. I recently read through the article while using the Internet to look for images of the birds he mentions. Most were unfamiliar to me, and I wondered how many changes in the types of birds visiting our area have occurred here in the past century.
Some of his entries are quite specific: "ENGLISH SPARROW.- In 1882 we saw the English Sparrows at Galveston and Houston. They came to Kerrville on December 12, 1897, and came to stay. They nested at the ranch for the first time in 1909, but were often here in the winter long before then." He is similarly precise on the arrival of
Others, like his entries on an all-white Red Tailed Hawk, and a Golden Eagle include the remark that both were "kept as a pet in a saloon at Kerrville."
And still others, like his entry on Aiken's Screech Owl, tell a story: "In May, 1908, a pair nested in the martin box at the ranch. Finding a dead martin under the box, I got a shotgun and sent a friend up the pole to investigate: an owl flew out and was promptly shot and then my friend found three young owls in the box, and brought them down, and put them under a live-oak tree in the yard. The remaining parent fed the young for a night or two on the ground, bringing them, among other things, two or three sphinx moths and a crawfish, and then persuaded them to climb into the tree. The next evening my friend was smoking after supper and the owl knocked his pipe out of his mouth. The owl next attacked the lady of the house as she was bringing in the milk, and as a final exploit struck me full in the face as I was standing near the tree, using force enough to draw blood. The next morning the whole owl family was put to death."
In addition to his knowledge of birds, Lacey added to the scientific knowledge of mammals and trees as well; in fact, he has three mammals and a tree named in his honor.
The tree, now called the Lacey Oak, originally had a local name which could not be printed in a family newspaper. A Lacey Oak was included in the landscaping of Peterson Plaza, in front of the new Kerrville City Hall.
Howard Lacy returned to his native England in 1919, and died there in 1929.
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is constantly amazed at the variety of people who find their way to Kerrville. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times July 13, 2013.

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Saturday Kerrville Mystery photo: answer revealed

So, how well do you know Kerrville?  This photograph was taken at the First Presbyterian Church in Kerrville, at what is now called the "Schreiner Chapel," but what was, when I was a boy, the main sanctuary of the church.  The "Schreiner Chapel" is on the corner of Jefferson and Earl Garrett Streets in downtown Kerrville, Texas.

Saturday Kerrville Mystery Photo: where was this photograph taken?

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Saturday Kerrville Mystery Photo

So, how well do you know Kerrville?  This photograph was taken within the city limits of modern-day Kerrville.  If you have a guess, just put it in the comments section on the blog.  If you receive this as an email update, you can visit the blog by clicking HERE.

Saturday Kerrville Mystery Photo: where was this photograph taken?

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The Bird Man of Ross Street

As I collect Kerrville and Kerr County historical items, occasionally I receive booklets which are so obscure I'm afraid I might have one of the few remaining copies.
One item which fits this category is a little 6 inch by 9 inch booklet by Emerson Stringham with a very straightforward title: "Kerrville, Texas and its birds." It has 32 pages of text, and it has no illustrations. It was copyrighted in 1948, and published by "Pacot Publications, Box 986, Kerrville, Texas." It sold for 50 cents. The name of the printer, I notice, is missing.
A quick look online yields other books by Emerson Stringham, several with the same publisher. Those books cover quite different subjects. "Patent Claims, a drafter's manual," or "Outline of Patent Law," or even "Mesa Verde National Park."
Why then did this technical writer choose to write about birds, and to pinpoint the area around Kerrville?
I'm not sure, but I think he was here "seeking health." It's only a hunch, but he describes his hikes around Kerrville in a curious way: "Having no car, and a doctor's ukase to limit hikes to a few miles, I was restricted to what transport could be obtained from busses and cabs."
I looked up the word ukase, and learned it was "a proclamation by a Russian emperor or government having the force of law."
Stringham arrived here in January, 1947. "During a few days in January 1947 I lived at the hotel and then moved to a basement room at 417 Water Street," he wrote.
I remember the house that once stood at that address; it has been gone for a long time, and once stood where the parking lot for the River Terrace Steakhouse.
His basement room door "opening level with the ground, which sloped through more than 200 feet toward the river, then dropped perpendicularly nine feet to debris and talus, beyond which was a forty foot littoral strip. A great live oak had its roots beneath y floor and leaned away from the house, half of which it laterally canopied. In the yard were two more live oaks, two locusts, and masses of exotic shrubs and herbage. The precipice was a celestial refuge of tangle for my bird friends, and a row of cypress trees dipped into the water."
Why, then Kerrville?
Well, if my hunch about his health is correct, it was commonly thought, at least until the early 1950s, that our climate was particularly helpful in treating people with respiratory problems, particularly tuberculosis. It would explain the "ukase" limiting his hikes.
But there was another reason: Stringham writes about an observation he'd made. "Throughout the years I had been puzzled by the frequency with which bird books mentioned Kerrville and Kerr County, Texas, as marginal points for the distribution of this, that, or the other species."
He looked until found he solved the mystery. "The answer is Howard Lacey, born 1856, Wareham, Dorset, England, died 1929 March 5 in England. He owned and lived at a ranch on Turtle Creek, about seven miles southward from Kerrville, 1882 until 1919, and published his observations in the quarterly 'Auk' for 1911. Others have followed up his work."
So there's a chance Stringham came to Kerrville not only for his health, but also to observe birds. He notes "Lacey listed 202 species as occurring in Kerr County," a number which, to this layman, seems like a lot of different birds.
Stringham's own book lists 36 varieties, according to a 1949 issue of the Kerrville Mountain Sun, described in "odd notes on some species," written in an engaging and entertaining style.
For whatever reason he came to Kerrville, he remained here the rest of his life. He lived at the corner of Ross and North Streets, "and his place was a bird sanctuary."
The little booklet, which originally sold for 50 cents, must have found little demand. In September, 1960, the Kerrville Mountain Sun reported Stringham donated 500 copies to the Kerrville library, "which are for free distribution to anyone interested in the birds of this locality."
By a few months later, in early December, 1960, Stringham was dead. "He was such a quiet and reserved man that few people even knew that he was ill."
"In his home he had a complete record of birds in the area, [including] where and when he had seen certain species. He was a recluse, by choice, and knew few people of the area. Those who knew him well appreciated his wealth of information on law, nature, [and] history."
Reading the little booklet reveals a well-ordered mind, with a sense of humor, and a love of birds and birding.
Despite being a recluse, his obituary ran on the front page of the newspaper. He was buried at the Garden of Memories. He left behind a lively little booklet.
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who should learn to identify more birds. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times July 6, 2013.

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The story of La Casita

La Casita, on Highway 39, past Hunt, and past the River Inn Resort

There are a lot of places in Kerr County where you drive by and wonder what the story of the place might be.
For me, one of those places can be found on Highway 39 past the River Inn Resort. Heading west past the River Inn, and past the various cabins alongside the resort, you cross the Guadalupe on a two-lane bridge. As you cross, you'll notice a chimney covered with vines in front of a chalky cliff. The house it served no longer stands, having burned down years ago, but the stone chimney remains.
Though the site is on private property many have explored the ruins of the old house. Walking from the road to the chimney, you notice a series of stone troughs which catch water from a spring, which might have served as a method for keeping things cool years ago. A stairway climbs the first rise of the bluff, and a walkway crosses over the springs and climbs up to the old stone chimney and hearth. The floor is gone -- it was a pier and beam house -- but a few charred piers remain.
In springtime berries can often be found among the rubble of the old house. I remember making a trip out there with my bride when our marriage was still quite new.
The river at the old chimney is shallow, and not in much of a hurry. The river makes a bend there in front of the house, and from the top of cliff above you have a view both directions of the river. The cliff behind the house offers several routes to the top, and over the years I've tried several of them.
Once, years ago, a woman I'd never seen before (or since) was at the site. She had visited the house as a child, she said, and she showed me a photograph of what the house looked like before it burned. I had never seen an image of the house before. This was before cell phones or digital cameras, and I regretted not having a way to make a quick photograph of the picture she showed me.
From her photograph, I remember it was a multi-story house, perched there on the bluff, with balconies and large awnings or flaps over the windows.
To my mind it looked wonderful, like a true retreat.
Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across an image of the house among some historic items loaned to me by some friends down the street from the print shop. Although the story of the house is known by many people, it was a new story to me.
The house, like many in the Hunt area, had a name: La Casita.
According to the recently published history of Hunt, Texas, the house was built by Andy Anderson from Waco, Texas. "In the 1930s," the book reports, Anderson "leased the side of a cliff overlooking the river on the South Fork. He leased it from Foster Merritt. There he built his vacation home, La Casita.
"The 1932 flood waters came within inches of the floor of the home and washed away the garage and entrance steps. By the 1950s the property was again in use by the Merritt family. Members of the Merritt family lived at La Casita a few years and held family reunions there. Then, the home became vacant. It was a well-known roadside icon where people would stop and enjoy a walk through the abandoned home that hung on the side of the cliff and take enjoyment from a nearby spring. In the 1970s hooligans, eliminating fun for the passing tourist, burned the home."
I'll post photos of La Casita on my blog, www.joeherringjr.com, on Monday.
Until then, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who likes to explore sites in Kerr County. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times June 29, 2013.

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