DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every good Texas story needs a beginning, and this one starts with cypress trees — giant ones, standin' tall along the headwaters of the Guadalupe River, just waitin' for the right man to come along and know what to do with them. That man was Joshua D.
Brown. Born in Kentucky in 1816, he came to Texas way back in 1830, settling at Gonzales near a fellow Kentuckian by the name of James Kerr — surveyor, resident manager of Green DeWitt's Colony. Already you can tell young Joshua had a knack for landing near the right people.
He did military duty for the Republic of Texas. He married Sarah Jane Goss of Gonzales. And then, the way a man with ambition tends to do, he started lookin' west, toward the frontier, toward something new.
Somewhere along the way, Joshua D. Brown learned the art of hand-riving cypress shingles. Now that's a specific skill — splitting wood by hand into smooth, tight shingles — and when he came upon the headwaters of the Guadalupe and saw those giant cypress trees standing in abundance, something clicked.
This was the place. In 1846, he led ten shingle makers to that very spot. Ten men.
He built a camp of picket houses right there on the Guadalupe, and they got to work. Now, I won't pretend it was easy. Indian raids had a way of interrupting the operation — sometimes driving the whole crew clear back to Gonzales for safety.
But Joshua Brown was not a man who quit. He made a success of it. The first industry ever operated at what would later become the site of Kerrville.
He bought two thousand six hundred and forty acres of land with frontage on the river. Then, when the county was organized in 1856, Brown insisted — insisted — that it be named for his old friend James Kerr. The man he'd known back in Gonzales all those years before.
Some debts of friendship, it turns out, get paid in the names of counties. He donated the original townsite himself, including four acres of land set aside for public buildings and streets in Kerrsville — that's what they called it then — the county seat. And when all was said and done, Joshua D.
Brown lived out his lifetime on his ranch near that very town. He passed in 1874. His son, A.
P. Brown, served as county commissioner in 1935 and 1936. One man, ten shingle makers, a river full of cypress, and a friendship worth naming a county after.
That's how the Guadalupe headwaters got their first industry — and that's the story the marker tells.
What the marker says
(The Shingle Makers) The earliest permanent settler at this point on the Guadalupe was Joshua D. Brown (1816-74), a native of Kentucky who came to Texas in 1830 and settled at Gonzales near a fellow Kentuckian, James Kerr, surveyor and resident manager of Green DeWitt's Colony. Brown did military duty for the Republic of Texas. After marrying Sarah Jane Goss of Gonzales, he sought new opportunities on the frontier, learned the art of hand-riving cypress shingles, and found here on the Guadalupe's headwaters an abundance of giant cypress trees suitable for commercial use. In 1846, he led to this site ten shingle makers, and built a camp of picket houses in which to work. Despite Indian raids that sometimes drove the crew to Gonzales for safety, he made a success of the first industry operated at later site of Kerrville. Brown bought 2,640 acres of land with frontage on the river. When the county was organized in 1856, he insisted upon having it named for his friend, James Kerr. He donated the original townsite, including 4 acres of land for public buildings and streets in Kerrsville (as town was then called), the county seat. He lived out his lifetime on his ranch near town. A son, A. P. Brown, was county commissioner in 1935-36. (1971)