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The Incident at Skull Gulch Ranch: The Story of the Courthouse Cannon

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Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on August 29, 2026 This cannon, a relic of the Civil War, stands on the eastern side of the Kerr County Courthouse A reader approached me recently and asked about a story she heard involving the cannon on the courthouse lawn. The woman heard that shortly after being installed in the court-house square, the cannon was fired in celebration and a truck parked nearby was totaled in the process. This is the second time the question has come up this year. It’s a story I had never heard before. I decided to do some digging to learn the cannon’s history and the truth behind the rumored truck destruction. The story is interesting enough to make it into a column, so here it is. The cannon once belonged to C.W. “Bill” Bocock, a master machinist and founder of Technical Instrument Company, a Houston-based business that was involved with seismographic equipment. He also had a passion for collecting and restoring classic cars. He came to Kerr County in 1952, wh...
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Ode to a Tree: Remembering Kerrville's "Postal Oak"

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  Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on July 25, 2026 The post oak in front of the Kerr Arts & Cultural Center before the July 16 Storm  If you are familiar with the old Post Office building in downtown — now home of the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center — you may have noticed a big change in the yard this week. The big, beautiful oak tree that has stood sentry in the front yard fell victim to the storm on July 16.  In the grand scheme of damage in Kerr County, the loss of a tree is minor, but the loss hit me hard all the same. For the better part of 19 years, I have worked in Kerrville’s historic Post Office building — I started here as the manager in 2007 and am now the director of the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center. I have worked other places but have recently come to the realization that KACC is my professional home, and I will be here for a while. As a local history geek, I enjoy working in and maintaining a historic downtown building, although the maintenance pre...
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From Texas Ranger to convicted murder, Henry Baker was banned from Kerrville

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 Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on July 2, 2026 Hen Baker in 1924 In last week’s column, I began the tale of Henry Harrison “Hen” Baker, a Texas Ranger and sometime deputy sheriff, who became a controversial character in Kerr County History. In spite of his early years in law enforcement, in later years, he began to take the law as a suggestion rather than the rule. . I have told you about Baker’s early years — his brave service with the Texas Rangers, his marriage to Sarah Coker and how toward the end of his life, he began “borrowing” items from his neighbors, was accused of stealing cattle and pigs from area ranches and developed a hair trigger temper that led him to face the charge of murder in the killing of Newt Merrit and the charge of attempted murder in the “cutting” of Harry Stokes. Baker was fond of telling people that you never needed to bother with lawyers when you got in trouble, all you needed was two or three good witnesses. That philosophy seemed to keep him...
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Hero or villain? The complicated life of Kerrville’s Henry Baker

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Henry Harrison "Hen" Baker, his wife Sarah Coker Baker and some of their children. A man can be revered and called a hero by some, while others call him a villain. The subject of today’s column was a complicated man of contradictions.  As one account states, “Hen Baker was at one time a Texas Ranger and part-time deputy sheriff. His experience on the right side of the law evidently didn’t make much of an impression of him for he hardened in his old age. Hen always stayed in trouble but his dry wit and sharp reasoning usually kept him out of jail." The story of Hen Baker is one that has fascinated me for years. His family still lives in Kerr County, and I am not writing this column to embarrass anyone. My intent here is to set the record straight on a complex individual — a man who died more than 90 years ago but continues to inspire debate among the older families in the western part of the county. I was meticulous in my research for this column, using not just local his...
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First sheriff takes long road to Kerr County

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Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on June 6, 2026 An early photo of San Antonio Street in Center Point. The Burney Family settled in Center Point and descendants still live there today In 1856, when the State of Texas granted a petition to form Kerr County, and Kerrville was named the county seat, there were only 10 families living in Kerrville. Today’s column is about one of those families, with emphasis on one of the members of that family, W.D.C. Burney. William Dewitt Clinton Burney, known to his friends as Dewitt, was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, on Oct. 16, 1828. He was one of six children born to Robert and Lydia McCain Burney. Dewitt’s father served as Guildford County Sheriff from 1820-26.  When Dewitt was a child, the family moved to McNary County, Tennessee. At the age of 21, DeWitt, his older brother, Robert (1833-1905) and a neighbor, Tom Saner (1826-93) decided to strike out on their own and head west. They stopped for a while in Arkansas, but wa...
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1940: A Community Banded Together to Benefit Their Kids

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Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on May 23, 2026 Carver Park, located at 820 Webster, as it looks today. The park got its start in 1940 when two women petitioned the Kerrville City Council to help them build a park so that children in the black community had a safe place to play.   Hello, readers! I apologize for my prolonged absence. Over the past several weeks, my life has been completely focused on bringing the Smithsonian to Kerrville. The traveling exhibit, “Spark! Places of Innovation” opened last week and, at long last, I have time to write again. The traveling exhibit by the Smithsonian celebrates innovations in rural areas — how small communities come together to solve a problem. There is a locally themed companion exhibit called “Small Towns, Big Ideas” that celebrates innovations in Kerr County. I thought I knew a lot about our county’s history before working on the “Small Towns” exhibit. I actually had a lot to learn. Today’s column tells a story I discovered whil...
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Bear history in mind: Tales of an exotic pet

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  Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on April 11, 2026 Today I bring you a tale that has been told many times by both historians and writers for The Kerrville Daily Times. A lot of my information comes from articles written by Bob Bennett, Nina Harwood and, most recently, Joe Herring Jr. The earliest account I found of this story was published here in 1936 — not all accounts of the story are the same, but no matter how it is told, it is one of the more interesting stories to come from Kerrville’s past and is a particular favorite of mine. Mountain Street, now Earl Garrett Street, in 1908 - where the bear made a startling entrance. From the time of the Civil War, when the Confederate Army imported camels to Camp Verde as an experiment in military transportation, Hill Country residents have been known to keep exotic animals. The first history column I wrote for The Times was the story of a woodchuck that a Kerrville woman had brought home as a souvenir of her trip to Kentucky....
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