Max and Anna Stool
Del Rio, Val Verde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Jewish merchant Max Stool (d. 1972) emigrated to the U.S. from an area of Russia once part of Poland. Settling first in Chicago, he came to Del Rio in 1904 while on a train trip to California and decided to stay. He sold wares as a peddler and soon opened a department store known as "The Guarantee." His wife, Anna (Ratner) (d. 1934), also a native of Russia, joined him in the business, and together they bought land and built commercial structures, persuading national chain stores to locate in the developing downtown. The story of Jewish immigrants Max and Anna Stool, whose home was located here, reflects hard work, entrepreneurship and commitment to the quality of life in their adopted hometown. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around the turn of the 20th century, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe fanned out across small-town America, often starting as peddlers before opening dry-goods and department stores that anchored growing Main Streets. Max Stool, who had fled an area of Russia once part of Poland, stumbled into Del Rio in 1904 on a westbound train and never left, building 'The Guarantee' department store with his wife Anna. Together they bought land, put up commercial buildings, and coaxed national chains into the young downtown.
Why it matters
The Stools embody the immigrant-merchant story that helped build countless American downtowns, showing how newcomers on the Texas borderlands turned peddler's packs into lasting civic institutions.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
At the turn of the twentieth century, waves of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe left lands of poverty and persecution and made their way to the United States. Many did not stay in the big port cities but pushed inland and outward, into the small towns of a still-growing country, where a hardworking newcomer could carve out a place for himself as a merchant.
The pattern was remarkably consistent across America: an immigrant would start as a peddler, carrying goods on his back or in a wagon to farms and settlements, and then, once he had saved enough, open a store. Those dry-goods and department stores became anchors of Main Streets everywhere, and the families who ran them often became pillars of their communities.
Del Rio sat on the Texas borderlands, a young town near the Rio Grande that was still very much taking shape in these years. On a growing frontier like this, a determined merchant could do more than run a store — he could help build the downtown itself, shaping the very place he had chosen to call home.
People & events
Max Stool was a Jewish merchant who emigrated from an area of Russia that had once been part of Poland. He settled first in Chicago, and the turning point in his story is almost accidental: in 1904, while traveling by train toward California, he passed through Del Rio, Texas — and decided to stay. A chance stop on a westbound journey became a life's home.
He began the classic immigrant way, selling wares as a peddler, and soon opened a department store he called "The Guarantee." His wife, Anna Ratner Stool, also a native of Russia, joined him in the business, and together they built something far larger than a single shop. They bought land and put up commercial buildings, and they worked to persuade national chain stores to locate in Del Rio's developing downtown — an effort that helped turn a frontier main street into a real commercial center.
Their home once stood on this spot, which is why the marker remembers them here. Anna died in 1934 and Max in 1972, but the story the marker preserves is one of a partnership: two immigrants from Russia who arrived with little and, through hard work and enterprise, tied their own success to the growth and quality of life of their adopted hometown.
Its place in the American story
The Stools embody one of the most important and least celebrated engines of American growth: the immigrant merchant who helped build a town's downtown. From a peddler's pack to a department store to whole commercial buildings, their trajectory was repeated in countless communities, and together those stories built much of Main Street America.
Their effort to attract national chain stores to Del Rio captures a real turning point in American commercial life. In the early twentieth century, downtowns everywhere were transforming from clusters of local shops into modern shopping districts anchored by recognizable chains. That an immigrant couple on the Texas border was actively courting that change shows how local boosters, not just distant corporations, shaped the way America came to shop.
The Stools' story also belongs to the larger history of Jewish immigrants in the American South and West, who so often became the merchants of small towns far from the big cities. Arriving on the borderlands with little more than ambition, they invested not only in their own fortunes but in the civic life and quality of their community — a pattern of newcomers building lasting institutions that lies close to the heart of the American story.
If you visit
The home that once stood here is the reason for the marker, so come to stand where a family's American story took root rather than to tour a building. The real monument to Max and Anna Stool is the downtown around you — the commercial heart of Del Rio that they helped build up, storefront by storefront.
As you explore, look at the older commercial buildings of the town's center and imagine the couple's role in raising structures like them and in coaxing national stores to set up shop. A department store called "The Guarantee," now vanished into history, once anchored a merchant family's presence here; picture it as you walk the streets they worked to develop.
Del Rio's setting near the Rio Grande gives the visit an added resonance. This is a borderlands town, a meeting place of cultures and journeys, and the Stools' tale — of immigrants from distant Russia who stepped off a train and chose to stay — fits it perfectly. Make this stop part of exploring the town's downtown, and let it remind you that even a chance decision, made on a passing train, can help build a community that lasts.
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
- · Max Stool
- · Anna Ratner Stool
Themes & tags
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