Kerrville

Kerrville changed its government after incorporating, adopting a commission in 1917, a city manager in 1928 and a home-rule charter in 1942. From 1,423 people in 1900 the town grew to 5,572 in 1940, 15,276 in 1980 and 20,425 in 2000. Much of the growth came from retirees and young professionals, even as many young adults raised there moved away. By the mid-1990s the Wall Street Journal counted Kerrville among the wealthiest small towns in America, and tourism was bringing well over half a million visitors a year.

What the plaque says

Kerrville 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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Schreiner Mansion — steps away
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Treue der Union Monument — 15 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 19 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Frontier Times Museum — 22 mi
  A museum built of fossils, petrified wood and cave formations in Bandera, holding a printer-historian's collection of frontier relics and oddities.

More markers nearby

• The Pampell Opera House — steps away
• Early Settlers of Kerr County — steps away
• Kerr County — steps away
• James Kerr — steps away