Kerr County Stories by Lanza Teague

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...

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...

  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....

  A photo postcard of the mill dam in Kerrville. The Kerrville Light and Ice Plant is the tall structure in the center. While today’s column does involve a bit of history, it will be a departure from what I normally write about. Earlier this week, a co-worker told me I should start my own true crime podcast. This was after I told her the sad story of Walter Dobson, a man who came to Kerrville to get married, but ended up dying a tragic death instead. The column I was planning to write wasn’t coming together, so I changed course and wrote a murder mystery instead.   Several years ago, I was researching local legends and stories of hometown murder and mayhem for a ghost tour I was developing for downtown. In the book, “Reminiscences of My Youth and Other Catastrophies,” by Merrill Doyle, I found two murderous tales from Kerrville’s past. Unfortunately, Doyle didn’t mention the names associated with either event. The only name Doyle mentioned was a man who was accused o...

The Hunt Store in 1946, when it was owned by Whit Zander and Bangs Kellogg In small towns, there is often a place that is considered the heart of the community, a place where you take visitors who want a taste of the local culture or catch up on the latest news and visit with friends. The heart of a place can be in a church, a restaurant or a community center. In Hunt, the heart of the community is an unpretentious general store that has served the community for 80 years — some people say the history goes further back. Until the flood, the Hunt Store was known as a place to meet up with friends, get a bite to eat, listen to live music, stock up on essentials, and it was the last stop for miles where western-bound motorists could fill up their gas tank. Abraham Whitlock “Whit” Zander and his wife, Sophia, came from Houston to Hunt in 1937. In 1938, Zander became the manager of the Hardin Grocery Store in Hunt, owned by A.B. “Bell” Hardin. Hardin’s store was located in a rock bu...

Sandy Hamburg   I was going to write a story about Captain Schreiner and two men — Andrew Fifer and Isaiah Blanks — who worked for him. This February marks the 118th anniversary of Schreiner’s birth and the 99th anniversary of his death. As I was researching Fifer and Blanks, two highly respected men in Kerrville’s black community, I came across the story of Sandy Hamburg, a hard-working man, known for his bright smile and friendly character. The accounts of Hamburg’s life captured my interest, and the original story was put on hold. I also feel that, with this column, I am settling a falsehood that was often told about Hamburg. It was a falsehood that stirred up the temper of a man who was known to be genial and upbeat. In 1861, there were a handful of families in Kerr County that owned slaves. Dr. Charles Ganahl, who settled in Center Point in 1856, had 21 slaves, making him the largest slave owner in Kerr County. There were at least four other slave owners in the county at that ...