Edgar Alfred Grist, DVM

Grist worked on the safety of what reached the table as much as on animals. He joined the State Health Department's Food and Drug Division in 1940, and as state veterinarian he investigated illegal rural slaughter sites. He is credited as the first federal poultry inspector, served as an Extension veterinarian for Texas A&M and as a vice president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, and founded the Comal Cooperative Creamery, later Ol' Bossy Dairy. As New Braunfels' chief meat inspector from 1955 he taught the public about psittacosis and brucellosis. The marker stands on private property.

What the plaque says

Edgar Alfred Grist, DVM Raised in Austin and having received a degree in veterinary medicine from Texas A&M college in 1937, Dr. Edgar Alfred Grist (1915-1994) served the community of New Braunfels and Comal County in many ways throughout the mid-twentieth century. Grist was the first licensed veterinarian in the county and could often be found on-site at farms, checking on animals and educating farmers on disease prevention and good nutrition. He met Elizabeth Ann (Betty) Wille (1919-2007) in 1937 when she brought her sister's dog into his newly opened practice at 637 W. San Antonio Street. After receiving a scholarship to study sanitation, he began working for the Texas State Health Department Food and Drug Division. In 1943, he was elected Texas State Veterinarian. In this position, and as the city meat inspector, he enforced sanitary practices on local slaughterhouses, which were often sources of sickness due to lack of regulation. In 1949, Dr. Grist bought 20.3 acres at 727 N. Live Oak Ave. and built the New Braunfels Veterinary Hospital, opening his practice in 1950. In the 1950s, he battled rabies and anthrax outbreaks in the county and continued to educate community members on healthy practices. After receiving a letter in which his son, John, described German village festivals with sausage, beer, and dancing, Dr. Grist had the idea to replicate the festival in New Braunfels, a prolific sausage making area. "Wurstfest" was a one-day event in 1961 but has grown to a multiple day event benefitting the local economy and numerous charities. In the 1970s, Dr. Grist retired from veterinary medicine and became the county sanitarian. His last decades were filled with civic work. His legacy lives on not only in the community but throughout the entire state. (2022)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sophienburg Museum and Archives — 1.3 mi
  The hilltop where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels raised the Adelsverein's headquarters in 1845, now the museum and archive of the German colony that became New Braunfels.
• Gruene Historic District — 3.9 mi
  A cotton town on the Guadalupe that the boll weevil emptied, rescued in the 1970s by a kayaking architecture student, with a dance hall that says it has never closed.
• Natural Bridge Caverns — 12 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.
• Spring Lake and the Meadows Center — 19 mi
  The headsprings of the San Marcos River, among the longest-inhabited places in North America, once an amusement park with a swimming pig and now seen from glass-bottom boats.

More markers nearby

• West End Park and Dance Hall — 0.5 mi
• Carl Heinrich Guenther — 0.8 mi
• First United Methodist Church — 1.1 mi
• New Braunfels Academy — 1.1 mi