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.

The Carriage House behind 425 Water Street

Until June of this year a small two-story building known as "The Carriage House" sat behind the Kerr Regional History Center at 425 Water Street. That small building is probably as old as the house in front, erected in 1914. This summer the building was removed as part of a "campus improvement" plan.The lower floor had suffered considerable water damage, but the upper floor had beautiful, fine-quality woodwork well worth keeping.

The Carriage House

The lower floor was removed and the upper floor, which was a self-contained apartment, moved to a lot in Ingram, the new owner hoping to sell it to someone who appreciated the quality of the building and materials.

Many people have talked about the beautiful woodwork on the second floor.  This week I was loaned some photos of the building taken several years ago.
It was indeed beautiful inside. I commend the purchaser for removing the house instead of tearing it down.

Prepared for moving

The interior woodwork

Another view of the woodwork

720 Water Street

This commercial building was a 1948 addition to the Schreiner store.  Erected by J. G. Rosson, the architect was Bartlett Cocke of San Antonio.
The report on this new project appeared in the February 19, 1948, Kerrville Mountain Sun.
"A Ladies Ready to Wear structure will be built on Water Street, adjoining the present store, completely filling the 47 foot space now used as a parking lot.  This building will be 100 feet deep, and will be of one story construction.  It will have the same type of architecture as the present building with cut stone top and a thoroughly modern front."

The aforementioned parking lot was laid on top of the old rails for the spur line that ran to the wool warehouse.  In April 1948, while it was under construction, the adjoining wool warehouse was destroyed by fire. The warehouse was rebuilt, but that must have added an interesting twist to the new construction.
At the same time this building was going up the grocery store on Earl Garrett was enlarged adding, according to the newspaper, "36 feet at the side, and made 20 feet longer." The total space for the expanded grocery was 8000 square feet.
Read about the Schreiner Cash and Carry Grocery here.  
On the day the expanded grocery opened in August 1948 there was a live radio broadcast from a Fredericksburg station as well as food giveaways.

I never had the opportunity to shop at Schreiner's, but I was told that this was always the Ladies' Ready to Wear department until the store closed a few years ago.
 

Bear on the Loose

This is one of those stories that's just worth sharing.
On September 1, 1896, Henke Bros. City Meat Market opened at 816 Water Street. They had purchased the business from Karger Bros.  With the business came a pet black bear who was chained outside the back door.  He managed to get loose and went for a stroll, first checking out the rear door of a drug store next door.  The owner pulled out his shotgun and took potshots at the bear.  Enraged, the creature ran down Mountain Street (now Earl Garrett Street) chasing everyone off the street before turning into the Chas. Schreiner store.

Here is the story as told by the September 2, 1936, Kerrville Times on the 40th anniversary of the event: Bear Invades Store in City And Is Slain
Excitement Rampant in Kerrville--in Good Year 1896

On September 1, 1896, the staccato bark of carbines and the roar of shotguns disturbed the calm of Kerrville, then a ... town of some 1,200 souls.  The big excitement was created by a black bear that "went on the loose", and among other overt acts, disrupted a red-hot argument over the McKinley-Bryan presidential campaign, then in full swing.
The thrilling events of that day 40 years ago were particularly impressed upon the mind of A. W. Henke.  The young man on that very day has entered the business field in Kerrville, buying the City Meat Market from Karger Bros.  Among the appurtenances in the market transfer was one pet black bear.  The bear was kept chained n the rear of the shop.  Dissatisfaction over his new ownership, the crisp autumn air, or something else, brought an atavistic mood to bruin; in some manner he broke his leash and started out for a stroll.
The free bear nosed around the rear door of a drug store, operated by W. E. Stewart where the Rock Drug Store now is located.  Stewart took a pot shot with his shotgun, sending the animal into a rage.  The bear darted out into Mountain Street, now Earl Garrett Street, clearing that thoroughfare of all pedestrians and frightened horses tied to hitching racks.
Next the berserk bear dashed into the side door of Captain Chas. Schreiner's store and gave a ferocious growl ...
Employees of the store hastily armed themselves with guns and ammunition from the store's stock and the bombardment opened.  Up and down Water Street people thought the Schreiner Bank was being rustled by bandits.  The bank then was in a small rock building on the present site of Schreine'rs dry goods department. 
Volley after volley from rifles and shotguns riddled ... valises and derby hats on the counter, while dishpans were converted into sieves by buckshot before the bear slumped on the floor; dead.
Reminiscing Monday on the fortieth anniversary ... A. W. Henke recalled that his newly acquired pet bear was butchered and retailed for over the counter for 12 1/2 cents a pound--the best bear meat ever to be sold in West Texas.

Concerning the same event, L. A. Schreiner, who was a boy at the time, was watching the Italian stonemasons work on the exterior of the Chas. Schreiner mansion, his family home, when the bear got loose. Some sixty years later, remembering the event he recalled the bear "got loose, and came lumbering down the street and pandemonium ensued.  The terrified Italians climbed the trees like monkeys."

Schreiner Cash and Carry Grocery

What we think of as the Schreiner Store building is actually several buildings erected over many years.  This art deco building at 214 Earl Garrett, now home to Schreiner Goods, was erected in 1936 for the Schreiner cash and carry grocery.
Schreiner's original cash and carry grocery, which opened in 1926, was in the basement of the building at the corner of Water and Earl Garrett Streets.  In 1926 the cash and carry grocery was a fairly new concept.  Prior to the development of "cash and carry", customers used to call in or deliver their grocery orders to the store, the groceries would be charged to the customer's account, and then delivered later in the day.  As cars became more common, stores moved to a cash and carry concept, whereby customers would select groceries from the shelves themselves, pay cash, rather than on credit, in order to save money and then carry their groceries home themselves.  When the Schreiner grocery department closed in 1963, the hardware department moved in. The department store closed in 2007.