By 1890 Kerrville was the leading wool market in Texas, and the trade was built by Charles Schreiner from his store and his wool warehouses. Schreiner, born in Riquewihr, France, in 1838, opened his Kerrville store on what is now Earl Garrett Street on Christmas Eve 1869. Ranchers across the Edwards Plateau sent their clips to his warehouse, and he sold them to eastern buyers on commission, a cut of every pound. Schreiner also agreed to take mohair, the fleece of the Angora goat, on the same basis as wool. That gave Hill Country ranchers a market for goats on the plateau's brushy uplands, and Texas went on to produce about 90 percent of the nation's mohair, peaking in 1965 at more than 31 million pounds. Kerrville came to be called the mohair center of the world. The railroad reached Kerrville in 1887, with a spur running down to the Schreiner complex, and a Schreiner wool warehouse went up on Water Street in 1894. When A. C. Schreiner and D. H. Comparette started the town's telephone exchange in 1896, the first line connected two Schreiner wool warehouses. The Water Street warehouse was sold to Gus Lehmann in 1937, who cut off its front six feet and turned it into a store. San Angelo overtook Kerrville as the leading wool and mohair market in the 20th century, and of the 1894 warehouse only a single wall remains.
Getting there
30.0461, -99.1410
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