Struve Family Businesses

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's how the Struve family story goes in Hale County. Fritz W. Struve came to this part of Texas in 1912, rolling in from Burnet County three years after the city itself was founded.

He didn't waste any time. First thing he did was start a grocery store, planting a flag right at the beginning of what would grow into something a whole lot bigger than groceries. By 1913 the family had hardware and implements going too, and if you know anything about a young Texas town, you know those three things, food, tools, and farm equipment, are about as close to the necessities of life as you can get.

Then in 1918, brother Ben F. Struve rode in to join the operation, and that same year dry goods got added to the list. The Struves were becoming, you might say, their own little economy.

There was even a tin shop running somewhere in there until 1923. But here's the one that really deserves a moment. In 1929, the Struve family opened a cheese factory, and it ran all the way through 1951.

Now that might not sound like headline news until you hear the number: this factory was producing an average of eighteen hundred pounds of cheese per day. Per day. The marker calls the cheese enterprise unique to the region, and standing out in a flat Texas landscape with eighteen hundred pounds of cheese rolling out every single morning, that's a fair word for it.

And in 1924, the community apparently decided that the man who had been feeding and supplying and outfitting the town since nearly its first breath ought to go ahead and run it officially. Fritz W. Struve was elected the first mayor.

He served three terms in that office. The grocery store he started in 1912 ran all the way to 1962. The hardware and implements lines don't even have a closing date on the marker.

Some things, it seems, just kept going. The Struves didn't just do business in this community. By most measures, they helped build it.

What the marker says

Fritz W. Struve (1877-1959) came here from Burnet County in 1912, 3 years after city was founded, started a grocery store; was joined by brother Ben F. (1879-1947) in 1918. Family operated wide variety of businesses vital to the early economic success of the community: grocery (1912-1962), hardware (1913- ), implements (1913- ), dry goods (1918- ), tin shop (?-1923), cheese factory (1929-1951). The cheese enterprise was unique to this region, producing an average of 1800 pounds per day. Fritz W. Struve was elected as first mayor in 1924, serving 3 terms in that office. (1972)