About 70 miles north of San Antonio, along I-10, lies the town of Kerrville, home of the fighting Tivy Antlers High School.
“Kerrville is named after James Kerr, a major in the Texas Revolution, and friend of settler-founder Joshua Brown [see wall mural,] who settled in the area to start a shingle-making camp.”
“Archeological evidence suggests that humans dwelled in the area known as Kerrville as early as 10,000 years ago. The early modern residents were successful shinglemakers whose mercantile business became a hub that served the middle and upper Hill Country area in the late 1840s. One of the earliest shinglemakers was Joshua D. Brown. With his family, Joshua Brown had led several other families on an exploration of the Guadalupe Valley. These early pioneers organized their settlements near a bluff just north of the Guadalupe River in the eastern half of today’s county. The settlement was referred to as “Brownsborough”, but after the area was formally platted in 1856 by James Kerr, a major in the Texas Revolution, the settlement was formally known as “Kerrville” and maintained a county seat with Texas.”
“Starting in 1857, a German master-miller named Christian Dietert and millwright Balthasar Lich started a large grist and saw mill on the bluff. This mill established a permanent source of power and protection from floods, and became the most extensive operation of its kind in the Hill Country area west of New Braunfels and San Antonio. ” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerrville,_Texas
Using this link, learn more about the history of Kerrville through the city’s very extensive murals celebrating that history.
