Kerr County
Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Formed from Bexar County - Created January 26, 1856 - Organized March 22, 1856. Named in honor of James Kerr, 1790-1850; the first American settler on the Guadalupe River; general manager of DeWitt's Colony; signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence; member of the Third Texas Congress. County Seat, Kerrsville (afterwards Kerrville), 1856-1860; Comfort, 1860-1862; Kerrville, since.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Carved from sprawling Bexar County and organized in the spring of 1856, Kerr County took its name from James Kerr (1790–1850), a pivotal figure in early Anglo-Texas settlement. Kerr was the first American settler on the Guadalupe River, general manager of DeWitt's Colony, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and a congressman of the young republic. The county seat bounced between Kerrsville, Comfort, and finally Kerrville as the region took shape.
Why it matters
The county's founding honors one of the empresario-era pioneers whose colonizing work laid the groundwork for the Republic of Texas and its statehood.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Texas counties were first drawn, Bexar County was enormous, stretching across a vast area west and north of San Antonio. As settlers moved into the Hill Country in the 1840s and 1850s, the Texas Legislature began carving new counties out of it so local people could have courts and government closer to home.
Kerr County was one of those. It was created in January 1856 and organized that March. Texas had been a state for about a decade by then, and the limestone hills and spring-fed rivers west of San Antonio were drawing new residents. Many were German immigrants who had begun arriving in the Hill Country in the 1840s.
This was still frontier country. Settlements were small and far apart, and the land had long been home and hunting ground to Native peoples, including Comanche and Apache groups. The new county was organized in a region where the question of who controlled the land was not yet settled.
People & events
The county is named for James Kerr, born in 1790 and dead in 1850, a figure from the earliest days of Anglo settlement in Texas. The marker calls him the first American settler on the Guadalupe River. He was also general manager of DeWitt's Colony, one of the empresario colonies through which Mexico brought settlers into Texas in the 1820s.
Kerr went on to play a part in the revolution and the republic. The marker records him as a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and a member of the Third Texas Congress. It was fitting to name a county on the upper Guadalupe after the man who first settled that river's lower valley.
The county seat moved around. It began at Kerrsville, the town's early name, moved to Comfort in 1860, and returned in 1862 to Kerrville, where it has stayed. Comfort had been founded in the 1850s by German settlers, so the brief move reflects how much the German communities of the Hill Country shaped the county's early years.
Its place in the American story
Kerr County's founding connects to one of the most distinctive chapters in American expansion. Texas was not settled directly by the United States. It was settled first under Mexican colonization programs like DeWitt's, then through a revolution and a decade as an independent republic, and only then through annexation. James Kerr's career spans that whole sequence.
The county also represents a common pattern in American settlement. Huge frontier jurisdictions were divided again and again as the population grew. Each new county brought a courthouse, records and local government, the everyday tools that turned a frontier into a settled place.
The back-and-forth over the county seat shows another piece of the American story: the mix of peoples who settled the West. Anglo-American settlers and European immigrants were building side by side in the Texas Hill Country, sometimes cooperating and sometimes competing over the shape of their shared community.
If you visit
Kerrville sits on the Guadalupe River in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, and the setting is a big part of the appeal. Clear water, cypress-lined banks and limestone hills show why settlers were drawn up this valley.
After reading the marker, spend some time along the river and in the older parts of town. It's worth thinking about the county's long reach, from James Kerr's early days on the lower Guadalupe to the German towns that shaped this part of Texas.
Kerrville makes a natural base for a Hill Country road trip. It's easy to pair with a drive to nearby Comfort, the county's onetime seat, and to other German-founded towns in the region. For families, the river and scenery make the history lesson go down easily.
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
- · James Kerr
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
James Kerr
Kerrville, TX
James Kerr, a Kentucky-born veteran of the War of 1812 and former Missouri legislator, came to Texas in 1825 as surveyor general of Green DeWitt's colony and a member of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred." He selected the site of Gonzales and named it for the governor of Coahuila, endured the deaths of his first wife and children, and spent decades as a surveyor, Texas Ranger major, and delegate to the conventions that steered Texas toward independence. In 1856 pioneer Joshua Brown gave land here so that Kerr County would bear his old friend's name.
Early Settlers of Kerr County
Kerrville, TX
Kentucky-born Joshua D. Brown came to Texas in 1830, did military duty for the Republic, and in 1846 led ten shingle makers to the cypress-rich headwaters of the Guadalupe, building a camp of picket houses to hand-rive shingles despite the danger of Indian raids. His shingle trade was the first industry on the site of Kerrville; Brown bought 2,640 acres, donated the townsite, and insisted the county be named for his friend, surveyor James Kerr.
Kerrville
Kerrville, TX
Formally created in 1856 and named for Republic of Texas soldier James Kerr, Kerr County drew its first settlers — among them San Jacinto veteran Joshua D. Brown, who donated land for the public square and helped name the seat Kerrsville (the "s" later dropped). Anglo-American pioneers and German immigrants built the town into an important cattle-raising and shipping point by the 1870s. Incorporated in 1889 with Joseph A. Tivy as its first mayor, Kerrville soon added waterworks, electricity, and a fire department, growing into a hub of ranching, medicine, and tourism.
First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville
Kerrville, TX
Presbyterians in the Hill Country town of Kerrville first worshipped in a shared Union Church before organizing their own congregation in 1888. A modest wooden church gave way in 1923 to the present Beaux Arts sanctuary, distinguished by a two-story entry with Doric columns, a classical pediment, and tall arched stained-glass windows. The building reflects the growing prosperity and architectural ambition of small Texas towns in the early twentieth century.