Remembering the Kerrville Mountain Sun and the Salter Family

The 700 Block of Water Street, downtown Kerrville, 1930s.
The Kerrville Mountain Sun was about halfway between 
the Arcadia and Schreiner Bank.

In the 1960s, when I was a boy, there were two newspapers in Kerrville: the Kerrville Daily Times and the Kerrville Mountain Sun. 

KMS masthead,
1920s.  Note
phone number.

Both were located in the downtown area; the Times had their offices on Earl Garrett Street, opposite the courthouse. The Downtown Executive Center offices are located there today. In those days the newspaper was owned by the Dozier family. My father and I were members of the Kiwanis Club, and Bill Dozier was a member, also.

The Mountain Sun had its office in the 700 block of Water Street in a building that’s no longer here; it was halfway between the corner of Earl Garrett and Water Streets, and Baublit’s Jewelers and the Arcadia Theater. The Mountain Sun was owned by the Salter family. Mrs. W. A. (Camilla) Salter was also a member of the Kiwanis Club.

Because of our association with the Kiwanis Club, I knew both publishers, and enjoyed visiting with them during the Thursday lunch meetings.

I often visited the offices of the Kerrville Mountain Sun, and during my high school years I wrote a column for them. They were very kind to me, giving me space in their newspaper.

I was delighted to find the story of how the Salters came to own the Kerrville Mountain Sun, a story written by Camilla Salter in 1981, though published by her son later, in 1986.

Camilla Salter, seated, center, at
a square dance

“The Salter brothers, C. E. and W. A., were natives of Kansas, and their father was a lawyer and newspaperman. When the Cherokee Strip in Northern Oklahoma Territory was opened for settlement, he made the run and settled in Alva. A newspaper and a law office followed.

“All of the family were musical and C. E. and some fellow musicians came to San Antonio to enlist in some musical organization at Fort Sam Houston hospital. He failed the physical and was advised to come to the hills. He came, met J. E. Grinstead, fell in love with the country and the man.

“He was a fisherman and was instrumental in the opening of the fish hatchery. He persuaded C. E. Eddins of the feasibility of running a flume of water from the big spring on the Eddins Ranch, under the highway to the ponds. Just when the project was blossoming, he was stricken with cancer and went everywhere there was even a hint of a cure. He died in 1929 in a cancer hospital in Toronto, Canada. He was never married, a member of the Christian Science Church, and a charter member of the Kerrville Rotary Club.

Forrest Salter, far right.
Looks like they're at Criders.

“W. A. Salter left the newspaper to play football at Northwestern University and later moved to Oklahoma City, where he worked at the printing trade and played with the Shrine Band. With a group of fellow musicians, he joined the 36th Infantry and formed the ‘Old Gray Mare Band,’ which served in France.

“We were married the day after he was discharged from the Army and moved to Oklahoma City.” Mrs. Salter’s maiden name was Camilla Atkison.

“Mrs. W. A. Salter was born in the Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma at the age of 19. She taught school after graduation, coached the girls’ basketball team, and, when the principal went to war, she coached the boys’ football team as well.

“Forrest was born in December, 1920, and we came to Kerrville in June the next year. We were charmed with the beauty of the country and the friendliness of the people. It puzzled us (who had come from a farming country) how people made a living here. It was not too long before we were able to tell a sheep from a goat, and to recognize live oak and cypress trees.

“The first winter here was quite mild, we thought, and a rare snow was beautiful. Most people used wood burning stoves and we had come from a coal burning area, where soot soiled the rooftops. By the next winter, we had become acclimatized and we froze with the rest of them.

Camilla Salter and her grandchildren,
at her desk at the KMS during
the holiday season.

“In 1930, sadness again entered our family when W. A. Salter died. He was an officer in the Presbyterian Church, a Mason, and a Rotarian.

“This was at the beginning of the Great Depression, and those who lived through it knew it could be depressing. Teachers were paid in script, we had to make do, or do without. The summer camps helped the economy. We never failed to make our payroll, and the bank honored our overdrafts, and we survived.

“Then came Pearl Harbor and the world came apart overnight. Boys dropping out of school to enlist. Forrest was in the University and joined the Navy immediately after Pearl Harbor. When he was 21 I gave him a half interest in the Mountain Sun. After four years on a destroyer in the South Pacific he came home, and work was ready for him.

Later, when Mrs. Salter’s grandson, James, returned home from college, she gave him one half of her interest in the newspaper. James has been a long-time friend of mine. He served Ingram as mayor for many years.

I hope this retelling of the Salters’ story brought back some memories of old downtown Kerrville.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who has fond memories of his friends, the Salters. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times January 29, 2022.

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