Kerr County Stories by Lanza Teague

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 ...

Tall tales, Greek mythologies, and even a finely crafted ghost story can tell you a lot about a place in time and the people who wrote the stories.  When I was a kid, I enjoyed the tall tales featuring the giant, Paul Bunyan and his blue ox.  Later I was charmed by the tales of Casey Jones at the bat and railway man John Henry.  O nly a few years ago I learned that Kerrville has its own set of tall tales. After discovering the tales in one book, and then finding the legends repeated in other publications, I became curious about the men who were featured in the tales – most of them involved one of two men, both with the last name of Glenn.   Samuel Donnelly Glenn For example, there’s a story I found in more than one place about a Kerrville cowhand who was traveling home after a long trail ride. The cowboy stopped at a farm for some food, where the farmer’s wife agreed to feed him but said that a terrible storm was coming and that she and her family were going to take ...