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Charlotte, our new puppy, discussing column ideas with me.
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At the end of each year, I review the stories I’ve written for the previous 12 months, looking to see what was most popular. I use the number of times a story was viewed on my blog to determine which of my columns had the most readers. There’s probably a more scientific way to do this, but I think this is close enough.
I like to do this because it informs me which types of stories my readers enjoy most. Using this information, I can focus future stories on topics of local history which most people find interesting. Well, at least in theory.
Without further ado – here are my Top 10 History Stories of 2023:
10. “
An adorable book of children's life stories: Kerrville's Room 13, in 1958,” published on November 5, 2023. A somewhat ragged handmade booklet was given to me by a kind reader – it is a series of autobiographies written by schoolchildren, students of Sybil Bennett Sutherland’s sixth grade class at Kerrville’s Tivy Elementary School. Each story included a student photograph. It was an incredibly adorable look at life in Kerrville in 1958.
9. “
An historic Kerrville cemetery hidden in plain sight,” published on February 19, 2023. Many have driven past the Tivy Mountain Cemetery, not even knowing it is there. It is not the family cemetery at the top of Tivy Mountain, the resting place of Joseph A. Tivy and his family; it’s farther down Cypress Creek Road, at the intersection with Veterans Memorial Highway. African American citizens of Kerrville are buried there, including quite a few former slaves.
8. “
Some interesting Kerrville banking photos were donated to my collection this week -- you might recognize some folks!” This story was published on June 18, 2023. When the First National Bank building was constructed at Five Points in Kerrville, it was quite a big deal. The three-story building housed Kerrville’s second-oldest bank, and had rented office space above. I remember going there in 1982, being rather nervous, and asking for a loan to buy our first house. The photos showed lots of familiar faces.
7. “
History Mystery solved -- the site of Kerr County's Boneyard Fight from 1856,” published on April 9, 2023. A mural at Kerrville’s Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library depicting a bloody fight between early Kerr County settlers and Native Americans fascinated me as a boy. I always wondered exactly where that fight took place. Using clues from several 1930s-era newspaper stories, plus high-powered satellite imagery – along with the kindness of the present-day landowner – my son and I found the site last April.
6. “
The story beneath a small parking lot on Water Street,” published on January 8, 2023. As I write this to you each week, I face the parking lot my family owns between our print shop and Grape Juice. A lot of history has taken place on that little lot, from a stage coach depot, to the first Catholic mass read in Kerrville. Digging a little deeper into the lot’s history provided some interesting discoveries.
5. “
The War Hero from Kerrville, and the Missing Street Named in His Honor,” published on October 22, 2023. If you’ve never heard of Pedro Castillo Street, named for a local man who died in World War II, you’re not alone. For a little over a year, Schreiner Street was officially named in his honor. Then that honor was quietly taken away on a technicality.
4. “
Hidden Clues in the 1921 Kerrville Telephone Company Directory,” published July 30, 2023. More than a listing of subscribers to the local telephone company, this showed where people from the 1920s lived, and what businesses were operating then. A real gem for historic research.
3. “
The Kerr County Cabin of a Daughter of the Alamo,” published September 24, 2023. Widowed three times, Mary Ann Kent Byas Chambers Morriss lived in a very rustic cabin near Schumacher Crossing. Her father, Andrew Kent, died at the Battle of the Alamo, and so Mary Ann was known as a ‘Daughter of the Alamo.’ Newly discovered photographs of the cabin show how rough life was here in the late 1800s.
2. “
The Seven Graves on the Campus of Kerrville's Schreiner University,” published May 15, 2023. A current student told me this story was incorrect – he argued there were no graves on the university campus – and we bet each other a cold bottle of Coca-Cola whether my reporting was accurate. The student owes me that Coke. Members of the Harris family rest near Delaney Hall.
And the most popular story of 2023:
1. “
Masked riders threatened to hang her husband in 1862. What did this Kerr County woman do?” This story was published on May 21, 2023. This thrilling tale told the events of a fateful night in 1862, when diminutive Clara Faltin saved her husband, August Faltin, from being killed at their home in Comfort. August Faltin supported the Union in the Civil War; the masked riders supported the Confederacy. If it had not been for the quick action of Clara Faltin, the night would have ended in the murder of August Faltin, and the history of Kerr County would have been greatly different.
* * *
I’m thankful for you, Gentle Reader, for supporting me for so many years. And I’m thankful for the Kerrville Daily Times, who have provided me this space in their newspaper since 1994.
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who enjoys learning new things about Kerrville and Kerr County history. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times December 30, 2023.
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