The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 151
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Captain Charles Schreiner
Comfort was still nothing more than a place of residence for
a little party of German pioneers who had formed a village
by banding together for protection against the Indians and
marauding bands of outlaws.
In the early 50's a small colony of soldiers of fortune from
Tennessee and Mississippi came to this section of the state.
They probably noted the inadequate supply of building ma-
terial available from the mesquite country surrounding San
Antonio, and while exploring the Guadalupe Valley, awoke
to the idea of furnishing shingles and logs to the people of
San Antonio from the huge cypress trees which lined the
Guadalupe. Consequently, a settlement was made and the corner-
stone of Kerrville and Kerr County was laid. For several
years the population of Kerrville totaled no more than ten people,
and the chief occupation was making cypress shingles to be
hauled by ox cart to San Antonio, where a ready market awaited
them.
The land on which the first shingle mill had been constructed
was owned by Joshua D. Brown, and for several years the settle-
ment was known as Brownsborough. Brown's home was located
near the present site of the government hospital at Legion. When
the county was organized in 1856, Joshua Brown caused it to
be named Kerr County for his friend James Kerr, who had been
manager of DeWitt's Colony. Likewise, this same Brown was
instrumental in having the name of the first settlement Browns-
borough changed to Kerrville, the county seat. James Kerr
had been a member of the Texas Convention in 1832 and the
Convention in 1836 which declared independence; he was also
a member of the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas. Un-
fortunately, having died in 1850, he did not live long enough
to see a county and a town named in his honor.*1
The City of Kerrville was incorporated in May, 1856. Several
years were to pass, however, before the settlement was more
than a mere hamlet; the Civil War retarded its development
considerably. When Charles Schreiner moved his residence from
Turtle Creek to the little settlement of Kerrville sometime be-
fore 1869, the town boasted a business district of two or three
saloons and a sawmill. Incidentally, Kerrville at that time was
called "Kerrsville," but in the late 60's when Captain Schreiner
was County and District Clerk, he began to drop the superfluous
1lbid.151
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/169/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.