Gus F. Schreiner Home
Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1883 wealthy rancher and banker Charles Schreiner bought this land. His son Gus F. (1866-1962) later acquired the property. In 1901 Gus and his wife Huldah (Rummel) (1872-1943) erected the first floor of this house, called "Cedarcrest". "Mr. Gus" operated Schreiner Land and Livestock Co. and served on Texas Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission. This farm, active for 60 years, had corn fields, horse pastures, a garden, fruit trees, stables and a smokehouse. With the addition of a second story and extensive remodeling in 1916 and 1919, the house became a showplace and center of social activities. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This ranch home reflects the wealth and reach of the Schreiner family, who dominated the Texas Hill Country's ranching and banking. Charles Schreiner bought the land in 1883, and his son Gus F. Schreiner built the first floor of "Cedarcrest" in 1901 while running Schreiner Land and Livestock Co. and serving on the state's Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission. With a second story and remodeling in 1916 and 1919, the working farm's house became a social showplace.
Why it matters
The Schreiner enterprises shaped the economy of the Texas Hill Country, and their homestead illustrates how ranching fortunes built the region's leading families.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Charles Schreiner bought this land in 1883, the Texas Hill Country was changing fast. The limestone hills and spring-fed rivers around Kerrville had been frontier country only a generation earlier. By the 1880s they were becoming ranch country, filled with cattle, sheep and goats. Kerrville sat on the Guadalupe River and became a trading center for ranchers across a wide stretch of rugged land.
The Hill Country's thin soils suited grazing better than big-scale farming, so livestock became the backbone of the local economy. Wool and mohair from the region's flocks passed through Kerrville's merchants, and the people who could buy, store, finance and ship those goods did very well. The Schreiner name became closely tied to that trade, along with the stores, lending and ranching that grew up around it.
By 1901, when Gus and Huldah Schreiner built the first floor of their house, Texas was entering the Progressive Era. Railroads, banks and state agencies were reaching into places that had once been isolated. The remodeling of 1916 and 1919 came as the United States went through World War I. Through all of it, a Hill Country family could still build a house that was both a working farm and a place to see and be seen.
People & events
The story starts with Charles Schreiner, whom the marker calls a wealthy rancher and banker. He bought this ground in 1883, at a time when his businesses were helping shape Kerrville itself. Families like his often held land in and around town as well as out on the range. That land could become homesteads for their children as the next generation came of age.
That is what happened here. His son, Gus F. Schreiner, born in 1866, eventually took over the property. In 1901 he and his wife, Huldah Rummel Schreiner, put up the first floor of a house they called Cedarcrest. The name suits the Hill Country, where cedar (the local name for Ashe juniper) covers the hillsides. Locals knew Gus as Mr. Gus. He ran Schreiner Land and Livestock Company and served on the Texas Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission, the state body then responsible for Texas wildlife and fisheries.
Cedarcrest was a real working place for about 60 years. It had corn fields and horse pastures, a garden and fruit trees, stables for the animals and a smokehouse for curing meat. Then the house grew. A second story and major remodeling in 1916 and 1919 turned it into a local showplace and a center of social life. Huldah died in 1943. Gus lived to 1962, long enough to see the Hill Country he grew up in change almost beyond recognition.
Its place in the American story
Cedarcrest shows a pattern found all over the American West. A first generation built a fortune in land, livestock and trade, and the second generation turned it into lasting institutions and comfortable homes. Frontier money often became civic money, spent on houses, social life and public service that shaped a town's character for decades.
Gus Schreiner's seat on the Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission also ties this house to a bigger national story. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Americans began to realize that fish and game were not endless. States set up agencies to manage wildlife, and ranchers and landowners were often at the table. Their view of the land came from living and working on it every day.
Finally, the farm itself, with its corn, orchards, stables and smokehouse, is a reminder of how self-sufficient even well-off households once were. Before refrigeration and supermarkets, a prosperous family still grew, raised and preserved much of its own food. Cedarcrest held both worlds at once: a working farmstead and a social showplace.
If you visit
As you approach, look at the house's two stories. The inscription tells you they were built at different times: the first floor in 1901 and the second added during the remodeling of 1916 and 1919. Try to imagine the building before its upper floor, then picture it as the lively social hub it later became.
Also picture the land around it as it once was. Corn fields, horse pastures, fruit trees and a smokehouse all belonged to this property. Much of Kerrville has since grown up around old farmsteads like this one. Standing here, you are in a place that was half country estate and half working farm. Be respectful of the site and any private property nearby.
Kerrville makes a great base for a Hill Country road trip. The Guadalupe River runs through town, and the surrounding hills are full of winding drives, small towns and more markers about the ranching families who settled the region. If you are tracing the Schreiner story, keep an eye out for the family name around town. It turns up again and again, a sign of how deeply one family shaped this place.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Charles Schreiner
- · Gus F. Schreiner
- · Huldah Rummel Schreiner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Comparette Home
Kerrville, TX
Built in 1890 in Kerrville's Tivy Addition, this Victorian house passed through several hands during the Texas Hill Country's Gilded Age growth, including the prominent physician Dr. R. H. P. Wright. It is best known for D. H. Comparette, a civic leader who organized and managed the Kerrville Telephone Company, whose family held the home for more than seventy years. One of Dr. Wright's daughters married future Texas Governor Coke Stevenson, tying the house to the state's political history.
Christian Dietert Mill
Kerrville, TX
German millwright Christian Dietert, who had already built mills at Comfort and Fredericksburg, settled here in 1857 and—with young miller Balthasar Lich—raised a mill and dam on the Guadalupe to serve the pioneers of the settlement then called Kerrsville. The operation ground crops and cut lumber for area homes, fueling the town's growth before Captain Charles Schreiner bought and enlarged it.
Kerrville Telephone Company
Kerrville, TX
In 1896, A. C. Schriner and D. H. Comparette sealed a deal with a handshake and $1,000 to start Kerrville's telephone exchange, first linking two wool warehouses before other businesses clamored to join. Within two years lines stretched to Rocksprings, Harper, Junction, and Medina, with remote ranches serving as toll stations well into the 1950s. Incorporated in 1907, the family-run company operated for more than a century.
Masonic Building
Kerrville, TX
Built of locally quarried limestone, this late Italianate building went up after Charles Schreiner formed the Kerrville Masonic Company in 1890, its façade dressed with arched openings, stone quoins, and a pressed-metal cornice. Kerrville Lodge No. 697 met on the second floor until 1927, when it moved out and leased the space to the Odd Fellows. The ground floor served the town in turn as post office, C.C. Butt Grocery, and Texas Power and Light, and the property stayed in the Schreiner family until 1959.