A Kerrville magazine from 1920: get outside and explore Kerr County

Image, Grinstead's Magazine, June 1920.
Click on any image to enlarge.

Have you ever wondered what life in Kerr County was like 100 years ago?

Fortunately for us there is a publication which can take us back to those days – complete with photos.  In June, 1920, a little over a century ago, J. E. Grinstead published an edition of “Grinstead’s Magazine,” with a subtitle of “Kerrville, Texas: On the Spanish Trail.”

It’s a small magazine, 10 ¼ x 6 ¾ inches, printed on a nice gloss stock, all in black ink. It has 68 pages, counting the cover. Most pages include a photograph. This copy was a gift to me from Jon and Sandy Wolfmueller.

“This issue is the first issue of Grinstead’s published since the fateful day when America was drawn into the frightful vortex of the world war,” Grinstead writes in the introduction. “There have been graver things to employ the minds of the people than seeking playgrounds and pleasures. But now, the strife is sometime ended.”

It’s a magazine, but it’s also a brochure for our community. “This issue is an invitation to the world to make the Hill Country about Kerrville their playground. If still your mind is not at peace and rest, after the trying years just past, let us call your attention to those lines of Wordsworth:

One impulse from a vernal wood,

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sages can.

Grinstead is celebrating the natural beauty of our area in this issue of his magazine, but he’s also celebrating two other things.  First, he’s celebrating a ‘return to normalcy’ following World War I and the influenza pandemic of 1918.  And he’s celebrating something relatively new to the Hill Country: reliable automobiles. Several of the images in the issue show groups of automobiles on area roads, exploring Kerr County.

“We invite you,” he writes, “through these pages, to travel a little way into the Hill Country…This is not only an invitation to the vacationist, but a glad hand to the home-seeker. Texas still needs thousands of good men to help develop her resources. There are no battercake trees, honey ponds, or soup springs in this country, but there are splendid opportunities for men that are will to work a reasonable part of the time. There is nothing coming to those who won’t work.”

He also provides an ‘historical sketch’ of Kerr County, starting with brief mentions of prehistoric people, he proceeds through the colonization efforts in this area, projects of Spain and Mexico, followed by the settlers who eventually organized the county in 1856.

Of course, the thing that interests me the most are the old photographs.  He shows homes and businesses in Kerr County, and some of the images can only be found in this issue of his magazine.

Here’s the thing I noticed, as I read through the pages:  100 years ago people were longing to return to normal times. (Sound familiar?) Grinstead was encouraging people to explore our county, find recreation and rest, and, hopefully, make their home here.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who needs to wander more.

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