Max and Anna Stool

Stool reached Del Rio three years before the Galveston Movement began steering Jewish immigrants to the interior. From 1907 to 1914 the Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau landed about 10,000 Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and eastern Europe at Galveston, by ship from Bremen, and sent them on to towns between the Mississippi and the Rockies. Rabbi Henry Cohen met almost every ship. Within Texas the bureau aimed at Tyler, Texarkana, Marshall and Palestine, where the half-price rail fare from Galveston was four or five dollars. By 1913 merchants worried about competition, and the movement ended in 1914.

What the plaque says

Max and Anna Stool 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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 0.4 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• San Felipe Creek — 0.8 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Val Verde Winery — 0.8 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 9.2 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• Canal System of Del Rio — steps away
• Val Verde County Courthouse Square — steps away
• Camp Hudson, C.S.A. — steps away
• Old Del Rio High School — 0.2 mi