H-E-B
Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Charles C. Butt, his wife, Florence (Thornton), and their children moved to San Antonio from Memphis, Tennessee, in 1904. The following year they moved to Kerrville, where Florence invested $60 to open the C. C. Butt Grocery Store on November 26, 1905. Located on Main Street, the store was on the first floor of the building and the family lived above. The youngest son, Howard E. Butt, started in the family business delivering groceries in a baby carriage, then a little red wagon, and later by horse and buggy. He managed the store while finishing school, graduating as valedictorian of Tivy High School in 1914. Taking over store operations after serving in World War I, Howard E. Butt’s vision for the company resulted in widespread growth. In 1921, he implemented a cash-and-carry system rather than the traditional credit and delivery method. Early attempts to add stores in the hill country failed, but the business successfully added locations in the Rio Grande Valley under the name H. E. Butt Grocery Company, moving headquarters to Harlingen and later Corpus Christi. In 1936, the company acquired the Harlingen canning company to provide “Texas-grown, Texas-packed goods.” In the 1930s and 1940s, H-E-B opened stores in the larger cities of Corpus Christi, Austin, and San Antonio. Howard E. Butt, Sr., had a personal credo, “he profits most who serves best,” and following his mother’s example, he and his wife, Mary Elizabeth (Holdsworth) Butt, involved themselves in philanthropic giving and charitable activities across the state of Texas. Headquartered in San Antonio since 1985, H-E-B is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States and the largest private employer in Texas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1905 Florence Butt invested $60 to open the C. C. Butt Grocery Store on Main Street in Kerrville, living with her family above the shop. Her youngest son, Howard E. Butt, delivered groceries as a boy and, after returning from World War I, transformed the business with a cash-and-carry model and expansion into the Rio Grande Valley. From those hill-country beginnings grew H-E-B, today one of the largest privately held companies in the United States and the biggest private employer in Texas.
Why it matters
The store's rise from a single family shop to a statewide institution is a classic American entrepreneurial story, tied to a family credo of service and philanthropy still felt across Texas.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
At the turn of the twentieth century, small-town America shopped at the corner grocery. These were credit-and-delivery businesses: the grocer knew every family, ran a tab, and sent goods to the door. It was personal and trusting, but it was also a hard way to make a living, with thin margins and money tied up in unpaid accounts. Into that world, in 1905, a family newly arrived in the Texas Hill Country opened a modest store.
Kerrville then was a small town in a beautiful but out-of-the-way stretch of Central Texas, ringed by hills and drawing people who came for its healthful climate as much as its commerce. A grocery on Main Street, with the family living above the shop, was exactly the kind of enterprise that anchored such a town — close to its customers and woven into daily life.
The decades that followed would bring sweeping change to American retail. The old credit-and-delivery model gave way to "cash-and-carry," self-service, and eventually the modern grocery chain. This marker sits at the very beginning of one family's journey through that transformation.
People & events
The story starts with Florence Butt. After she, her husband Charles, and their children moved from Memphis to Texas, she invested sixty dollars in 1905 to open the C. C. Butt Grocery Store on Kerrville's Main Street, with the family living on the floor above. It was a small beginning by any measure — a single store, a tiny stake, a family business in a hill-country town.
Her youngest son, Howard E. Butt, grew up inside it. He started by delivering groceries as a boy — first in a baby carriage, then a little red wagon, later by horse and buggy — and managed the store while finishing school, graduating as valedictorian of Tivy High School in 1914. After serving in World War I, he took over the store's operations and began to reimagine the business. In 1921 he introduced a cash-and-carry system in place of the old credit-and-delivery way of doing things.
Expansion did not come easily. Early efforts to add stores in the Hill Country failed, but the business found firmer ground in the Rio Grande Valley, operating as the H. E. Butt Grocery Company and moving its headquarters first to Harlingen and then to Corpus Christi. In 1936 it bought a Harlingen canning company to offer "Texas-grown, Texas-packed goods," and through the 1930s and 1940s it opened stores in the larger cities of Corpus Christi, Austin, and San Antonio. Howard lived by a personal credo — "he profits most who serves best" — and, following his mother's example, he and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, gave generously to charitable causes across Texas.
Its place in the American story
This is one of the great American entrepreneurial stories, and its shape is familiar precisely because it is so classic: a single family store, opened on a tiny investment, grows over generations into a giant. What began as a sixty-dollar shop in a small Texas town became, in time, one of the largest privately held companies in the United States and the biggest private employer in its state.
It also traces the modernization of how Americans buy their food. The shift Howard Butt made in 1921 — from credit and delivery to cash-and-carry — was part of a nationwide revolution in retailing that lowered prices, changed the relationship between store and customer, and laid the groundwork for the supermarkets that would come to define twentieth-century shopping.
And it carries a thread of civic responsibility that runs through much of American business history. A founder's mother helped set the tone with community involvement; a son built a credo of service into the company's identity; and the family tied its commercial success to philanthropy across the state. It's a reminder that some of the country's biggest enterprises still trace their values back to a family living above a corner store.
If you visit
Come to Kerrville and set your imagination on Main Street, where it all began — a first-floor grocery with a family living above it, and a small boy hauling deliveries in a red wagon. The town remains a welcoming Hill Country stop, and standing here it's easy to feel how far a single modest store could travel.
As you read the marker, hold onto the scale of the numbers: a sixty-dollar investment in 1905 at one end, and at the other a company that grew into one of the largest privately held businesses in the country. Few markers let you stand at the exact starting line of something so large.
Kerrville sits in a scenic part of Central Texas that's well worth a leisurely visit, and this marker makes a satisfying stop for anyone who likes a good origin story. Think of it as the first chapter — the corner store where a family credo of service quietly set everything in motion.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Florence Butt
- · Charles C. Butt
- · Howard E. Butt
Themes & tags
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