Kerrville
Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Kerr County was formally created on January 26, 1856, and named for Republic of Texas soldier and pioneer James Kerr. Among the first settlers in the area was Joshua D. Brown, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. Brown was instrumental in naming the county for his friend James Kerr. The new county seat was named Kerrsville in May 1856 when Brown donated four acres of land for a public square. (The "S" was later dropped.) Early Kerrville settlers included Anglo-American pioneers and German immigrants. The area became an important cattle raising and shipping point in the 1870s. In an election held on September 7, 1889, the citizens of Kerrville voted to incorporate the city, and a mayor and five aldermen were elected later that month. Joseph A. Tivy served as first mayor. The town continued to grow. A city marshal was soon hired and a volunteer fire department was established in 1891. Also in the 1890s city water works and electric service were instituted. By the mid-20th century agriculture, medical services, and tourism had become the major economic concerns of the city. (1989)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Kerrville's rise mixes the frontier cattle economy with the German immigrant settlement that gave the Texas Hill Country its distinctive character.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Kerr
- · Joshua D. Brown
- · Joseph A. Tivy
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Spanish Trail
Kerrville, TX
The Old Spanish Trail threaded through the Hill Country from San Antonio past Bandera Pass, Camp Verde, and Kerrville, a route used for centuries by Comanches and Lipan Apaches. In 1732 Spanish forces under Juan Antonio Bustillo y Cebalos fought the Apaches at Bandera Pass, and over following decades soldiers, missionaries, and adventurers followed the trail toward the San Sabá country and its rumored silver. By the 1850s Camp Verde and Camp Ives anchored military patrols along the same ancient path.
Great Western Cattle Trail
Kerrville, TX
Founded by rancher John T. Lytle in 1874, the Great Western Cattle Trail became the main artery driving Texas cattle to northern markets, stretching more than 2,000 miles toward Canada. Entering Kerr County at Bandera Pass and crossing the Guadalupe at Kerrville, it turned the town into a hub for trail outfitters centered on Charles A. Schreiner's mercantile. By 1886 railroads, overgrazing, barbed wire, and oversupply had ended the great drives.
Old Ingram
Ingram, TX
Settlers reached this Hill Country valley before the Civil War, but the town took shape in 1879 when the Rev. J. C. W. Ingram, a Church of Christ minister from California, bought land here and opened a general store and post office. A community grew around the store and thrived for fifty years as a commercial center, until a new highway in the 1930s pulled businesses away and the original townsite was abandoned. Today Old Ingram lives on as an arts colony of studios and galleries.
One Mile to Ruins of Camp Verde
Camp Verde, TX
Established by the U.S. Army in 1855, this frontier post became the headquarters of one of the nineteenth century's most unusual experiments: a herd of camels imported at the urging of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to test overland transport across the arid Southwest. The scheme proved impractical, and the post changed hands with the times — surrendered to the Confederacy in 1861, reoccupied by the U.S. Army in 1865, and abandoned in 1869.