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Start at the beginning
A scene from the south fork of the Guadalupe River, Kerr County, December 2014To really understand the story of Kerr County, you have to start with the land.This part of Texas has been attracting...
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How to make cypress shingles
Click image to enlargeI got a new app -- thought you might like the result.
View ArticleWhy did you move to Kerr County?
If you look back at the reason you moved to our community, you might find similarities to the reasons people have been coming here for thousands of years.Some came for opportunity; others for health;...
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A solitary rider
The first settler to view the land where Kerrville would eventually be built was a solitary shingle maker on horseback, who first scouted the area in the mid-1840s.I have tried to imagine that ride and...
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A newly found image of Kerrville -- 1920s
Click on image to enlargeKerrville, mid 1920s, taken from south of the river, looking eastThis photo was on a postcard I have in my collection -- titled "Thompson Sanatorium." That's the sanatorium in...
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1860 Kerr County, by the numbers
Enumeration of the Slave inhabitants of Kerr County, summer of 1860.Click on image to enlargeIn the summer of 1860, just four years after Kerr County was created, Theodore Weidenfeld collected...
View ArticleOnly Five One-Room Cabins in Kerrville
The first houses in Kerrville were fairly primitive.Kerrville got its real start in 1856, when Kerr County was formed. Joshua Brown offered land for the county seat at the very first commissioners...
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Kerr County's African-American heritage deep and proud
Click on image to enlargeA very rare photograph of Kerrville's Cabbage Hill SchoolPhoto from the Ralph and Irene Harmon collection, Logan Library Special Collections, Schreiner UniversityKerr county,...
View ArticleNot North vs. South in Kerr County
I've enjoyed the radio series about the American Civil War on Texas Public Radio, which are sponsored by Schreiner University. "This week in the Civil War" has been a feature on the station since March...
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Home for 100 years
The Meeker Place, KerrvilleThis property has been held by one family since 1915It isn't often one family owns a piece of property for a century. Rural land sometimes stays in one family for that long,...
View ArticleGone too soon
Many of us were reminded this week how fragile life can be. Life is suspended by a thin cord, easily broken.Thursday’s edition of this newspaper carried two obituaries, side by side, of two of our...
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Historic Kerr Gardens
As the days grow warmer, and the trees have start to bud, I begin to wonder about historic gardens here in Kerr County, how they used to be planted, and what types of plants people chose back in the...
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The Comedy and Tragedy of the Arcadia
The Arcadia Theater as it appeared in the early 1930s.Photo courtesy of Bryant Saner.With the Arcadia Theater in the news this week, I thought it might be useful to share the old girl's history here...
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A Peek at Kerrville in 1905
A booklet by J. E. GrinsteadClick on image to enlargeJ. E. Grinstead was a newspaperman who arrived in Kerrville in 1899, seeking health for his wife who suffered from tuberculosis. Though his wife...
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Is this a photo of Chester Nimitz?
Recently I came across a photograph of a young Chester Nimitz in an email sent by a friend, and it reminded me of one another friend found in a scrapbook of photographs about the St. Charles...
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A Kerrville church for many congregations
Kerrville's Union Church, at its current location.Photo courtesy of the Kerr County Historical CommissionAlthough Joshua Brown and his crew of shingle makers arrived in our area in 1846, settling here...
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Then and Now: Water Street in the early 1900s
Recently I gave a presentation at the Schreiner Mansion, where I paired historic photographs with snaps I'd taken that day with my phone. I did this because I realized most people haven't studied area...
View ArticleThe case of the missing model
I have in my collection of Kerrville and Kerr County historical items an odd assortment of items, ranging from thousands of photographs, to oddities such as an early telephone switchboard or the...
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Then and Now: Kerrville's Secor Hospital
Recently I gave a presentation at the Schreiner Mansion, where I paired historic photographs with snaps I'd taken that day with my phone. I did this because I realized most people haven't studied area...
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How the City of Kerrville Began
Capt. Joseph A. Tivy,Kerrville's first mayorSince the Kerrville city council and city manager have been front page news over the past few weeks, I thought it might be a good time to revisit the history...
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