DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Kaspar Wire Works, out in Lavaca County — and friend, this one starts with trash. Now, when barbed wire came sweeping across Texas, all that old smooth wire folks had been using got thrown aside like yesterday's biscuits. Most people looked at that discarded wire and saw nothing but a nuisance.
August Kaspar — son of a Swiss Lutheran missionary to Texas — looked at it and saw something else entirely. He salvaged some of that plain wire, sat down with what the marker calls little more than a pair of pliers and his inventive genius, and in 1895 he made himself a corn shuck basket. Just for home use.
Nothing fancy. Nothing grand. A basket.
Then a neighbor saw it. Bought it right on the spot. And that, right there, was the crack in the dam.
Soon Kaspar was disposing of his baskets as rapidly as he could make them — putting them to use in his own barn, selling them as fast as his hands could work. The demand wasn't walking toward August Kaspar. It was running.
By 1898, he went full time. Wire baskets. Horse muzzles.
A backyard shop. And you want to know what his showroom looked like? A rented wagon.
That was it. Roll up, take a look, buy a basket. The original mobile retail experience, Texas style.
Now, good things have a way of outlasting the people who start them — if the family pays attention. August's son, Arthur H. Kaspar, purchased the business in 1924.
Then in 1949, a grandson, Don G. Kaspar, joined the organization. Three generations, same wire, same name, same Lavaca County grit.
And what started as salvaged scraps grew into assembly-line manufacturing of goods shipped nationally and internationally — display racks, baskets, newspaper racks, wire shelving, and many other products. The rented wagon was long gone. In 1967, the State of Texas made it official: Kaspar Wire Works received the first annual Governor's Expansion Award, bestowed under the auspices of the Texas Industrial Commission.
The very first one. Not because they'd gotten lucky — but because a man with a pair of pliers and an eye for what other people threw away had built something that just kept on growing. They say necessity is the mother of invention.
But sometimes, all it takes is a neighbor who needs a basket.
What the marker says
Founded as outgrowth of an 1895 invention that used smooth wire discarded when barbed wire fencing was introduced in this area. August Kaspar, son of a Swiss Lutheran missionary to Texas, salvaged some of the plain wire and made a corn shuck basket for home use. A neighbor saw and bought the basket. Soon Kaspar disposed of his baskets as rapidly as he could make and put them to use in his own barn. In 1898 he began the full-time manufacture of wire baskets and horse muzzles. His backyard shop was equipped with little more than a pair of pliers and his inventive genius. A rented wagon was the original Kaspar show room. Arthur H. Kaspar, son of the founder, purchased the business in 1924. In 1949 a grandson, Don G. Kaspar, joined the organization. Kaspar Wire Works has progressed to assembly-line manufacturing of nationally and internationally distributed goods -- including display racks, baskets, newspaper racks, wire shelving and many other products. The growth and success of Kaspar Wire Works was officially recognized in 1967 by the bestowal of the first annual Governor's Expansion Award under the auspices of the Texas Industrial Commission.