Caspar Real Homestead

The small log cabin known as the "Little House"

This beautiful Victorian-era house, located on Lower Turtle Creek Road, is the Caspar Real homestead. Built by Caspar and Emilie Schreiner Real in the 1870s, it is one of the oldest homes in Kerr County and has been continuously owned and occupied by the same family. The fifth generation of Reals now own and live in it. Their grandchildren represent the seventh generation to enjoy this house.

The small barn between the house and garage encloses a log cabin thought to be the older of the two cabins.

Born near Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1824, Caspar Real came to Texas from Alsace in 1848, landing at Indianola. From there he moved to Bexar County and worked as a carpenter, then became a rancher, raising sheep and cattle along Martinez Creek. He had heard of the springs and creeks of the Hill Country, so when a severe drought arrived in 1857 he moved his cattle and sheep up the Guadalupe and settled by a spring on Turtle Creek. It is said he brought the first sheep to Kerr County and some of the first Hereford cattle.

There are two log cabins on the property, one of which is thought to be the first home of Caspar and Emilie before they built this two-story home. Both cabins are still in use today, one as a guest house, the other as a storage building. Family tradition says the one being used as a storage building was first used by the men who tended the livestock and is most likely the oldest of the three buildings.

Caspar Real served in several public offices, including county treasurer 1864-65, tax assessor and collector 1866-69, cattle inspector 1871-72, sheep inspector 1879, county commissioner 1883-85. He died in 1893. Emilie followed in 1918. They are buried together in the family cemetery not far from the home they built.

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