On Writing the History of Somerset, Texas

On Writing the History of Somerset, Texas

Bernard Pyron

What is interesting about the history of a small town in the South Texas Brush Country which began in 1909 is the cultures that influenced the town, the clans that were associated with it in the first half of the 20th century, their lands and the unusual characters of that part of South Bexar county, Texas.  Too much 21st century political correctness can make that history less interesting.

The fictional moral hero of chivalry - the cavalier or caballero, the
hero on horseback - goes back to the Arthurian Cycle in Geoffrey of
Monmouth's History of the Kings Britain of 1136. That early fictional
moral hero fought battles for other people, righted wrongs, stood up
for the rights of the people and rescued victims of evil people.

The mantle of the Arthurian moral hero of chivalry was cast on that
bow-legged man with the big hat and boots, and wearing that mantle
this eccentric guy of reality and legend cast a long shadow upon
American culture of the late 19th century and on until the mid 20th
century. Some cowboys wrote historical accounts of the cowboy life,
such as The Log of a Cowboy, 1903, by Andy Adams. or Reed Anthony,
Cowman 1907. Reed Anthony has, as a character in this book, John T.
Lytle, Secretary of the Texas Cattle Raisers Association. Lytle was a
Texas Trail Driver who like some others took the smaller herds of
cowmen and put them together into larger herds to go up the trail to
Kansas to sell.

The American Cowboy as reality and legend and his Cowboy Culture began
in that land of thickets known as the Brasada, the brush country
south of San Antonio. It started back in the days of the Republic of
Texas. The Anglo American settlers to Texas were able to work small
herds of cattle on foot. Initially, upon their arrival in Texas they
did not know how to handle large numbers of cattle, especially the
Mexican Longhorn cattle, on huge tracts of land. That could not be
done on foot because a cow, especially the wild Longhorns, could
easily outrun a man on foot. In Mexico, which included the state of
Tejas, converted to Texas by the American colonists, the horse was
necessary for working large numbers of Longhorns on the large open
range.

Old Somerset, Old Bexar and Somerset were towns that grew up in the Brasada at a time when the Cowboy Culture existed.  Study this history.
Look at the five main founders of Somerset in 1909 - Carl Kurz, A.M. Pyron, George Caruthers, Joe Dixon and  Dr. R.B. Touchstone - and their private corporation the First Town Site Company.  I do not know much at all about Joe Dixon, except that he lived in Atascosa county, his name is on land transaction records online in Bexar county involving the sale of lots by the First Town Site Company, and Dixon Road, which divided the Pyron land from Somerset to the north, was named for him.  An even more shadowdy figure is Payne whose name appears on Payne Road that ran north and south between the Carl Kurz land and the A.M. Pyron land south and southeast of Somerset.
Carl Kurz and A.M. Pyron owned tracts of land side by side south and southeast of what became Somerset.  The two landowners on Mudd Hollow played roles in the birth of Somerset.  Both ran cattle, and yet both were interested in farming. When I asked Billie E. Kurz McCord this year why her grandfather Carl Kurz and A.M. Pyron were interested in digging a deep water well, called an artesian well, hit oil instead and started the Somerset Oil Field, she said her grandfather was interested in Truck Farming.

A.M. Pyron promoted the agriculture part of the San Antonio Fair for years and was its Superintendent for a period of time. When I was a boy growing up on what had been grandfathers land, I remember that the  Pyron lands to the south on Somerset road  which then belonged to my Aunts Jessie,  Aunt Ida and to Uncle Casey Pyron were almost entirely in open fields, not exactly range land for cattle.

 When I told Billie Kurz McCord than I had found a land transaction involving Carl Kurz in which he identified himself as Rev. C. Kurz, she said that he was also a sort of circuit riding preacher.  Rev Carl Kurz and A.M. Pyron together formed another private corporation - the Somerset gas and Oil Company.  About all I have found on the Somerset Oil and Gas Company I found in the online Bexar County Clerk's land transaction data. There might be other sources of historical information on that company and how it related to the other oil companies of the Somerset Oil Field.
I would also be interested in someone gathering additional historical data on the stores of Somerset in that early period, of about 1910 to 1930, especially on the two Will Kenney stores in Somerset, the Tom Kenney store, still standing, the old Shannon Drug Store, beside the Tom Kenny store to the south, the original Bailey Brothers Hardware and Feed Store, the Kohler Pickle factory, and the Pyron Brothers Staple and Fancy Groceries.  Many of these old Somerset stores were of the small Old West type architecture - with gable roofs, fairly narrow store space, the usual front and the awning over the sidewalk.  What I know about these stores is from memory and what I found out from the online Bexar county Clerk's Office data. There are probably other sources of historical information on these old stores.

I have vague memories of businesses in Somerset long gone, such as a black smith's shop at the northwest edge of Somerset with brush land across the road back in the thirties.
At the time Old Bexar was in existence cotton was grown in the area. There was a cotton gin in Old Bexar, and my grandfather A.M. Pyron was part of a private corporation that ran a cotton gin in Somerset later. According to old photos of Somerset there was once a hotel in Somerset.

But - I see that the December issue of the Somerset Historical Society Newsletter that the Society had John Akin give a talk to them on the Somerset Masonic Lodge.  I looked for John Akin on the Internet and did not find him for sure.
The Freemasons are a secret society.  According to Albert Pike in his book Morals and Dogma, 1871, Freemasonry's doctrines and rituals are influenced by the Kaballa.  Freemasonry is an occult society and though apparently  the Blue Lodge of the Freemasons is not given all the doctrines of the Society, it too is a secret society..  It is a secret society and it is best to leave it as that and not bring it into the town history.
On the other hand, the history of the Catholic Churches at the Somerset Road-Medina River crossing, at Old Bexar and in Somerset are valuable for the history of Somerset.  The history of the Somerset Baptist Church goes back to its beginnings in the area of Mann’s Crossing  at the intersection of Old Pearsall Road and the Medina River, then at Old Somerset in northern Atascosa county, at Old Bexar and finally in Somerset.  This history, including its mention of individuals who were church members is valuable for the history of Somerset.