Kellner Townsite

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Way out in the northeast part of Waller County, on land that traces back to a Stephen F. Austin grant to a man named William Cooper, there sits the ground where the first town in the whole area took root.

And the man who planted it was John G. Kellner, born 1846, died 1933, a fellow who clearly knew a good piece of country when he saw one. In 1893, Kellner platted the townsite that would carry his name.

But he didn't stop there. He donated the right of way and the station site to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, which is the kind of move that tends to put a place on the map, literally. Now, the land Kellner was working with was no ordinary spread.

His farm and ranch lands sat in the rich Brazos River watershed, and they produced rice, cattle, peanuts, and pecans. And later, as if the land had one more card to play, natural gas too. His old home still stands nearby, quiet witness to all of it.

The town itself went on living, just under a different name. Because somewhere along the way, Kellner became Brookshire. The marker doesn't say why, and I won't pretend to know.

What it does say is that a man named Kellner showed up, laid out a town, fed a railroad, worked some of the richest river-bottom country in Texas, and left his mark. Even if the sign on the post office eventually read something else.

What the marker says

(in NE part, Stephen F. Austin grant to Wm. Cooper) First town in area. Platted 1893 by John G. Kellner (1846-1933), donor, Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad right of way and station site. Kellner's rich Brazos River watershed farm and ranch lands produced rice, cattle, peanuts, pecans, and (later) natural gas. His old home is nearby. Town was renamed Brookshire.