Discovering Relatives in Unexpected Places

I have posted a slightly different version of this on a different blog I manage, but have put here as well because of the Kerr County connection.

Yesterday I met with a neighbor, a descendant of Charles Schreiner, to discuss a Texas historical marker application he is working on for a cemetery in Kerrville. While chatting, he pulled out this 1880 family photo from the Great Western Cattle Trail.

I was stunned when I read the back:

This picture is taken from on old Tin-Type photo “Schreiner and Lytle Herd” 1880.
Third man from left is Alex Crawford. 
Sixth man from left is Alex Maltsburger. [sic.  should be Maltsberger]
Seventh man from left is Will Hale.
Eighth man from left is Sebe Jones.
All these men drove “Trail Herds” for Captain Schreiner for several years. 
Original photo taken near Doan’s Store, Red River Crossing.

    Above notes drafted by Nell Schreiner Labatt

(Several of the men in the above photo also appear in this photo.)

The above Alexander Perry Maltsberger is a kinsman of mine, not real close (2nd cousin, 3x removed), but a relative nonetheless.
I'm not from around here, but occasionally I'll discover some relative who was. A while back I discovered a very distant relative, William H. Furr, who served on the Kerr County Commission in the 1940s.

The following item appeared in True West Magazine, June 1964  "Old Time Ranchmen of the Southwest":

With brand ALX, Alex Maltsberger,  was a pioneer cowboy who entered the Panhandle in 1880 as a traildriver for Schreiner, Light, and Lytle, who were some of the largest South Texas trail outfits.  In Lipscomb Co, he served as the first sheriff and worked  for the Box T.  Later he was a Cherokee Strip rancher on the John Chisholm Trail near the Cimarron.  Some of his friends were Sebe Jones, Alex Crawford, Charles Schreiner, Sam Cupp, John McQuipp and Charles Rynearson.  Sebe Jones and Alex shot it out with and captured horse thieves in South Texas.  Vigilantes took the prisoners and hung them in  a pecan tree on Turtle Creek as Sebe and Alex were on the way to Kerrville with the men.

I live in on a tributary of Turtle Creek, and like many of my neighbors have a pecan tree on our property.

Charles Schreiner is an important historical figure in the region with whom I previously had no known connection.  Because of my genealogical research I now know my relative worked for Schreiner as a young man and apparently had a close friendship. And I now have a photo of Alex.  It encourages me to keep researching. You never know where the path may lead.