Clues about a 1935 Kerrville photograph

Nine young men, dressed in white, at Kerrville's
Kerr-View Farms, around 1935.
Click on any image to enlarge.

While many are focused on this year’s World Series, where the Dodgers and Yankees will start their series this Friday, I found an old photograph in my collection which was a bit of a mystery to me, and I wanted to know more.
It shows nine men in white uniforms, between two panel vans sporting “Kerr-View Farm” logos. Two other men, in shirtsleeves and ties, rest on the front tire fenders of the cars. This photo came to me from Julius Neunhoffer, who has a vast collection of Kerr County historical items.
Kerr-View Farm was on today’s Highway 173, just past today’s Comanche Trace development. It produced a variety of dairy products, like milk and butter; it also sold fryer chickens and other farm products.
The farm was owned by Benno and Clarice Wiedenfeld, and it was quite an operation.
The first mention of the farm in local newspapers was in the September 9, 1926 issue of the Kerrville Mountain Sun in a front-page story: “Wiedenfeld sees great future for poultrymen.” The story tells about the farm’s chick hatchery, with newly-installed modern equipment, “the first plant of its kind to be installed in this section of the state.”
“Weidenfeld’s mechanical hen,” the story reported, “is no longer an experiment. Skeptics who didn’t believe there ‘was any such animal’ last season came, saw the hatchery in operation and were convinced. As a result, it is believed that the 12,000-egg capacity plant will be inadequate to supply demands and Wiedenfeld, a scientifically trained man, never believes in looking back after being convinced he is on the right track.”

Kerr-View Farms produced eggs and raised poultry according to the story, but it also had a fine dairy herd. Most people remember Kerr-View Farms for one of its products: ice cream.
Over the years I’ve come across a few things from the Kerr-View Farms, starting with a large metal advertising sign which offered “Farm Maid Ice Cream” at 10 cents a pint.
The Kerrville Mountain Sun, in another front-page story in its March 24, 1932 edition, reported “Modern Ice Cream Plant in Operation at Kerr-View Farms.” 
“The plant, recently completed at an expenditure of $7,000 is the last word in efficiency,” capable of “freeze 10 gallons of ice cream a minute.”
“Kerr-View’s ice cream plant will wholesale its output. Cream already is being supplied dealers in Kerrville and is being shipped to neighboring towns. Only pure dairy products from Kerr-View’s own registered Jersey herd are used in the manufacture of the ice cream, according to Wiedenfeld. There are no adulterations and the cream is to be known as ‘Kerr-View’s Jersey Ice Cream,’ with the slogan ‘Milked Today – Frozen Tonight.’”

The company also provided milk and cream to local markets and customers. A Kerrville friend gave me some of the milk bottle paper tops last year – my favorite one says the coffee cream was ‘produced by a tubercular free herd.’ Another friend gave me a Kerr-View Farm fryer-hen carton.
Among the product packaging I notice a nice consistency in the logo – a hand-drawn script K, followed by legible serif letters. In the flowing ribbon underline you can often find “Kerrville, Texas.”
Benno and Clarice had two children, a son who died as a toddler, and a daughter, Anna Jean Wiedenfeld MacDonald. Benno passed away in 1977, Clarice in 1980, and Jean in 2011. (Jean’s late son, Granger MacDonald, was a successful builder, who passed away in 2020.)
Kerr-View Farm also boasted a men’s softball team, which competed in the Kerrville Softball Association, which had both a men’s and a women’s division.
Here are some of the teams of that league, during the 1935 season: Oak Park Baptists; Legion Doughboys; Star Cleaners; Hughes Ice; American Pure Milk; Fawcett Furniture; Schreiner Bank; Tivy High School; Burton Jewelers; Kerr-View Farm; and Wolfmueller’s Bakery. Occasionally a team from a neighboring community, like Comfort or Fredericksburg, would show up and play.
Games were held at a ‘lighted’ diamond, which stood at the ‘old fairgrounds,’ which I assume was the West Texas Fairgrounds, which were between Junction Highway and Guadalupe Street, near present-day Spence and Hugo streets.
These games were often front-page news.
In their season final games, Kerr-View Farm played Fawcett Furniture for the championship. Kerr-View had won more games during the regular season, but Fawcett was a close second. It was going to be a close game.
Here’s how the championship played out, from the September 5, 1935 edition of the Kerrville Times:
“Piling up nine hits, eight runs, and seven errors, the Fawcett Furniture ran away with the championship honors leaving Kerr-View second place with a record of seven hits, four runs, and six errors. Fawcett Furniture defeated Kerr-View Farm 8-4.”
Sounds like it was an exciting game, and a great season.
Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who enjoys watching baseball. This column originally appeared in the Kerr County Lead October 25, 2024.

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