Hofmann Dry Goods Company

One of Mason's first stores was a picket building where W. C. Lewis sold ammunition, groceries and whiskey to troops and settlers. James E. Ranck opened a second store about 1860 and worked so hard to draw settlers that he was called the father of Mason; with Ben F. Gooch he bought 5,000 acres to lease to cotton sharecroppers. After the Civil War, when beef was so cheap that cattle were killed for their hides, Ranck's store became a center of the hide trade. Ranck and John Lemburg also built a mill and gin on Comanche Creek.

What the plaque says

Hofmann Dry Goods Company Founded by brothers-in-law William Hofmann and Ernest H. Bogusch, Hofmann and Ernest H. Bogusch, Hofmann and Company opened for business in August 1890, providing the citizens of Mason and the surrounding communities with a central supply and trading source. The name of the store changed to Hofman Dry Goods Company in 1903. In addition to selling general merchandise, it became a commodities brokerage firm and a popular downtown gathering place. An important part of Mason's economic and social history, the store has remained in the Hofmann family. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Mason — steps away
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 14 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area — 30 mi
  A dome of pink granite north of Fredericksburg that rises some 385 feet above Sandy Creek, creaks as it cools at night, and has drawn people for thousands of years.

More markers nearby

• The Commercial Bank — steps away
• Methodism in Mason County — steps away
• Fort Mason and Camp Llano, C.S.A. — steps away
• Mason National Bank — steps away