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Homesite of Albert Paul Kutzer

Boerne, Kendall County, Texas

Marker Inscription

A native of Kendall County, Albert Paul Kutzer (1871-1925) was the eldest son of German immigrants Reinhold and Pauline (Holzinger) Kutzer. A merchant and gin operator, he became one of Boerne's leading businessman. He also served as mayor from 1915 to 1920, school board president, and organizer of the Old Boerne Commercial Club. Through his public service, he was instrumental in Boerne's early growth. Kutzer and his wife, Lucie Henrietta (Schwethelm) (d. 1965), had their family home here from 1895 to 1923 in a house built for his parents in 1890. Incise on base: Sponsored by First United Methodist Church Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986 Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1986

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

The son of German immigrants who helped settle the Hill Country, Albert Paul Kutzer built a life as a Boerne merchant and cotton-gin operator around the turn of the twentieth century. As mayor, school board president, and civic organizer, he helped guide the town's early growth while raising his family in a house first built for his parents in 1890.

Why it matters

His story reflects the German immigrant families whose enterprise and civic leadership shaped the towns of the Texas Hill Country.

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Related people

  • · Albert Paul Kutzer
  • · Reinhold Kutzer
  • · Pauline Kutzer
  • · Lucie Henrietta Kutzer

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Fabra Smokehouse

Boerne, TX

German-born Julius Fabra came to the Boerne area in 1854 and, after hauling freight, opened a meat market for the local farms. His son Ludwig joined at eighteen and in 1887 built this limestone smokehouse for the store, raising a second story in 1904. The family business ran through three generations until grandson Henry retired in 1962, and today the smokehouse is all that remains of it.

Henry J. Graham Building

Boerne, TX

Built on Boerne's Main Street in the late 1800s, this modest building housed the real estate, insurance, and private banking offices of Henry J. Graham. Born in Brazil, Graham reached Boerne in the 1870s and became a community leader who served Kendall County as both tax assessor and deputy sheriff. His old office later held a succession of businesses and was moved more than once before coming to rest here in 1984.

Weyrich Building

Boerne, TX

Charles (Carl) Weyrich bought this Boerne lot in 1877 after moving from Gillespie County, working as a tinsmith and commissioning this rubble-limestone building around the time of his 1878 marriage. After he sold it in 1883, a run of grocery stores and later a residence, office, and art studio occupied it. With its stone parapet and hooded lintels, it is among the oldest commercial structures in town.

W. G. Hughes

Boerne, TX

William George 'Willy' Hughes left Kensington, London, for Texas in 1878 at nineteen to learn the sheep and wool trade, soon building herds of Oxfordshire Downs sheep southwest of Boerne and drawing his brothers to join him. The Hughes Ranch bred cattle, sheep, goats, and horses, and branched into mail delivery, a stage line, tourism, and real estate; by 1887 Willy had become a recognized authority on angora goats and mohair. He opened the Hastings post office in his ranch house in 1890, ran a Hill Country stage line, and gave land for a county school before his death in an 1902 train wreck.