Kerrville Telephone Company

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Two men, A.C. Schriner and D.H.

Comparette, Sr., started the Kerrville telephone exchange in 1896. No lawyers in the room, no contract changing hands. Just a handshake and a thousand dollars.

That was the whole foundation. And on that foundation, they built something that would last more than a century. The first connection they ever made was between two Schreiner wool warehouses.

Not a grand civic announcement, not a call to the governor. Wool warehouses. But word travels fast in a small town, and other businesses started lining up for service before long.

Then in 1898, the ambition got bigger. Lines went out from Kerrville to Rocksprings, to Harper, to Junction, and to Medina. That is a lot of wire stretched across a lot of Texas Hill Country.

And here is a detail worth savoring: many of the local ranches along those lines served as toll stations. Ranchers out there in the cedar and the caliche, acting as nodes in a communications network. That practice didn't fade out until the 1950s.

The company itself got formally incorporated in 1907, becoming the Kerrville Telephone Company. And it kept going, family owned and operated, one of the few such companies in the entire state of Texas, functioning for over a century. All of it tracing back to a handshake and a thousand dollars in 1896.

What the marker says

A.C. Schriner and D.H. Comparette, Sr., started the Kerrville telephone exchange in 1896 with a handshake and $1,000. The first connection was between two Schreiner wool warehouses, and other businesses soon applied for service. In 1898, lines were extended from Kerrville to Rocksprings, Harper, Junction, and Medina. Many local ranches served as toll stations, a practice that continued until the 1950s. Incorporated in 1907, the Kerrville Telephone Company functioned for over a century as one of the few family owned and operated telephone companies in Texas. (1996)