Stores In Somerset, Texas of the Twenties, Thirties, and Forties
Bernard Pyron
First Will Kenney Store In Somerset, About 1916.
. Patricia Kenney Anderson said it was just south of the home of Aunt
Jessie and Will Kenney. It was on the west side of Somerset Road, north
of the railroad tracts, probably in Block 29. The setting looks like a
semi-desert, and the building is typical of the Old West Small Store
with its gable roof, the store front hiding the roof in the front and
the awning or roof across the front. The Will Kenney store, though, had a
kind of front porch with a floor off the ground and steps up to it.
Here, it looks like the Old West, and is in Walter Prescott Webb's Great
Planes West, since the 98th meridian runs to the east of Wilson county.
The
Segment of the 1909 Somerset Plat Map Above Shows Block 29 Between
Fifth and Sixth Streets and On the West Side of Somerset Road, With the
Railroad Tracks Running At An Angle Below Block 29. Touchstone Street runs beside the tracks.
Above,
the Portion of the 1909 Somerset Plat Map Shows Block 43 in the
Southwest Corner of Somerset, Where the Bailey Brothers Hardware and
Feed Store Was Located.
The
old Bailey Brothers Hardware and Feed Store has that typical look of
the late 19th and early 20th century small store of the Old West, with
its gable roof, hidden in front by the store front and its awning that
runs across the entire front of the store. The Bailey Brothers store
front has a central section which rises even higher above the roof line.
See Somerset Block Number 43 above in the southwest corner of the original 1909 Plat Map. Its a small block with fewer lots than usual. Lot Number 6 in the south line of three lots is where the Bailey Brothers Store appears to be located, very close to the Somerset-Lytle Road. Across Somerset Road to the east is Block Number 44, which has more lots.
In Block 44 the real small triangular lot Number 8 and Lot Number 9, which is next to it on the east, are directly north across West Dixon Road from the northwest corner of the A.M. Pyron Homestead Tract, which is not part of original1909 Somerset. And this northwest corner is also the corner of the entire A.M. Pyron land of about 330 acres he owned at his death in 1932.
The central part of Somerset Block 44 held the A.W. Healer Lumber Yard. William Milton (Casey) Pyron took over the Healer Lumber Yard at some point probably in the fifties. I found online a June 3, 1959 deed from A.W. Healer to William Milton Pyron for lots 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the south part of Lot 7. But I remember making a desk in the lumber yard when Uncle Casey was running it, and that was in the summer of 1956.
I have not found who Healer got the lumber yard lots from so far.
But I have found the online deeds that tell the story of the ownership history of the lot and lots in Block 43 where the old Bailey Brothers Hardware and Feed store was located.
See Somerset Block Number 43 above in the southwest corner of the original 1909 Plat Map. Its a small block with fewer lots than usual. Lot Number 6 in the south line of three lots is where the Bailey Brothers Store appears to be located, very close to the Somerset-Lytle Road. Across Somerset Road to the east is Block Number 44, which has more lots.
In Block 44 the real small triangular lot Number 8 and Lot Number 9, which is next to it on the east, are directly north across West Dixon Road from the northwest corner of the A.M. Pyron Homestead Tract, which is not part of original1909 Somerset. And this northwest corner is also the corner of the entire A.M. Pyron land of about 330 acres he owned at his death in 1932.
The central part of Somerset Block 44 held the A.W. Healer Lumber Yard. William Milton (Casey) Pyron took over the Healer Lumber Yard at some point probably in the fifties. I found online a June 3, 1959 deed from A.W. Healer to William Milton Pyron for lots 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the south part of Lot 7. But I remember making a desk in the lumber yard when Uncle Casey was running it, and that was in the summer of 1956.
I have not found who Healer got the lumber yard lots from so far.
But I have found the online deeds that tell the story of the ownership history of the lot and lots in Block 43 where the old Bailey Brothers Hardware and Feed store was located.
The
excerpt above shows that on April 14, 1919 the First Townsite Company
deeded lots Number 4, 5, and 6 of Somerset Block Number 43 to L.S.
Morrison. These are the three south line of lots with Lot Number 6
fronting on Somerset Road. I don't know when the store building was
erected on Lot 6.
On
October 16, 1943 L.S. Morrison deeded Lots 4, 5 and 6 to H.W.
Caruthers. I remember that in the mid forties there was a Morrison
grocery store, smaller than the Will Kenney store, in that area, either
in Block 43 or the block to the north across the alley, which was Block
40, and I don't know the first name of the Morrison who owned the store.
My father, Blake Pyron, was the butcher at the Morrison store briefly
in the mid forties.
On
March 1, 1946 H.W. Caruthers deeded lots 1,2,3, and the south part of
lots 4, 5, and 6 in Block 43 to H.E. Bailey, who was Harry Ellwood
Bailey. I don't know now what relation Harry E. Bailey had to the
Bailey who married Hazel Bailey, an Edwards. Her husband was Robert E.
Lee Bailey, and I knew two of their younger sons, Jerry Bailey and Ted
Bailey. Ted Bailey was in the junior class when I graduated from
Somerset in 1949. Jerry Bailey graduated from Somerset in 1948.
This
is the deed from H. E. Bailey and Esther M. Bailey to Raymond E.
Gallaway and brother H. Patrick Gallaway - in September of 1969.
Finally,
the above is the October 2005 deed from the Gallaway brothers to Jupe
Mills, by Dennis A. Jupe. I don't know at what point in time the old
small Bailey Brothers Old West style store was incorporated into the
larger store that is now occupied by Jule Mills. But the part of the
Jupe building that is on the south near the Somerset-Lytle Road is that
old store building.
THE SMALL STORE OF THE OLD WEST
Fig
One Pyron Brothers Store In Somerset, About 1924, With Blake Pyron
(1889-1964) Standing In Front This is a copy made from an Ad run by
George Pyron of Pyrons Inc. The original photo is not available to me.
The
Old West small store very often had a gable roof with a front which hid
the roof at the front of the store. And usually an awning of wood or
tin went all the way across the front of the building. The store fronts
varied in height and design, but were typical of all the Old West small
stores of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
.Look at the Pyron Brothers store of the twenties. It is in the style of the Old West small store building. So is the original Bailey Brothers Hardware and Feed Store which was on the west side of Somerset Road at the south end of town. Its front has a step with a higher part of the front in the center. The old Tom Kenney store was also typical of the Old West small store building design. As far as I know the Tom Kenney store is the only authentic Old West building surviving in Somerset. Maybe someone has photos of more small Somerset store buildings of the early 20th century which were in this style, including the Tom Kenney building. The larger Will Kenney store, built in about 1931, had an awning, but I do not remember that it had the obvious front like the smaller Old West Stores.
At the intersection of Pyron Street (or Pyron Road) with Somerset Road, and across from what was the H.W. Caruthers Garage an old building existed in the early 21st century and may still be there. Its on Lot Number 7 of Block Number 36. The building has a store front and a tin covered awning. The old tin on the awning is in bad shape. And the roof is rusty. The sides of this old store building were once painted white. The store front has two windows and a door. Its across Somerset Road from El Gallo Restaurant. On the west side of Somerset Road there is some kind of building between this old store and the Somerset Baptist Church.
That old Tom Kenney store should be designated as some kind of historical structure. It may still be there because its owned by an estate.
I am not sure exactly when the Tom Kenney Store was built. But Dr. R. B Touchstone sold lots 6 and 7 to T.A. Kenney on September 19, 1922, for $1320. Maybe the building which became the Tom Kenney Store existed on lot Number 7 of the original Somerset Block 36. In 1985 Mary Kenney, Tom's daughter, sold lots 6 and 7 of Block 36 to Arthur L. Witherspoon Sr. This property is probably owned now by the Arthur L. Witherspoon estate, whose Exectrix is or was Herminia Witherspoon. Marbe she was Herminia Garcia of Somerset.
Almost all the businesses of Somerset in the forties and fifties have now been taken over by large corporations and mostly run by people who have no background in the Somerset area. Part of the old Bailey Brothers Hardware and Feed Store in Block 43, at the southwest corner of town, still exists. It was incorporated into the building now owned by Jupe Mills. Raymond E. and Partrick H. Gallaway sold a small lot there to Dennis A. Jupe in 2005, and may have sold the other lots earlier to Jupe. The old Post Office building which was the Bank Building has been demolished. The H.W. Caruthers Garage is no longer there. The drug stores that existed in the forties are not there any more.The Pyron Brothers store, like the Bailey Brothers and Tom Kenney store, another small store building typical of Old West family stores, was torn down in the mid forties. The old Will Kenney Store building was probably incorporated into the Super S Store building.
A May 2, 1922 deed from A.A. Kurz, et al to Blake Pyron, and Milton (Casey) Pyron, "for the sum of $3,250" conveyed the southern part of Lot No 9 of Block No 37, "as shown on the map or plat of said town made by R.G. Gill civil engineer." But no Bexar county Volume or Page number for the Gill plat map of Somerset is given in this deed. I found the original May 25, 1909 plat map for Somerset made by A.L.Scott, surveyor. The Somerset plat map by R.G. Gill might be a later version and might be easier to read.
Lot number 9 in Block 37 is across Somerset Road and south a bit from the Tom Kenney Store and the Old Somerset Drug Store. Since the amount paid was $3,250 in 1922, the southern part of Lot 9 must have had the building on it that became the Pyron Brothers Store of the twenties. Blake and Milton (Casey) Pyron owned the store. Most likely their father, A.M. Pyron loaned them the money to buy the store. But they went out of business in the twenties.
The southern part of Lot No 9 of Block 37 was sold to H.W. Caruthers in 1946 whose Garage was next door to the north. You can see a little of the H.W. Caruthers Garage on the left of the Pyron Brothers Store. The Pyron Brothers building was still standing in the early forties. I remember it being used for roller skating at that time and skated in it myself.
Somerset is in the West. In his 1931 book, The Great Planes, Walter Prescott Webb says that the West begins at the 98th meridian. This is not an arbitrary line, because it marks the line where the yearly rain fall begans to drop significantly. The 98th meridian runs somewhere east of San Antonio. It marks the beginning of the Great Planes, which is Webb's West. He claimed that people on the Great Planes were "lawless." A few were outlaws in the late 19th centry, but what he meant was that people of the West - the Great Planes - as a culture were more independent and self-reliant, and non-conformist. They were also more resourceful than the Eastern city dwellers. Those old West small store front buildings in the town which grew from the 1909 plat map for the First Townsite Company might symbolize that Great Planes culture Webb wrote about, which is mostly gone.
.Look at the Pyron Brothers store of the twenties. It is in the style of the Old West small store building. So is the original Bailey Brothers Hardware and Feed Store which was on the west side of Somerset Road at the south end of town. Its front has a step with a higher part of the front in the center. The old Tom Kenney store was also typical of the Old West small store building design. As far as I know the Tom Kenney store is the only authentic Old West building surviving in Somerset. Maybe someone has photos of more small Somerset store buildings of the early 20th century which were in this style, including the Tom Kenney building. The larger Will Kenney store, built in about 1931, had an awning, but I do not remember that it had the obvious front like the smaller Old West Stores.
At the intersection of Pyron Street (or Pyron Road) with Somerset Road, and across from what was the H.W. Caruthers Garage an old building existed in the early 21st century and may still be there. Its on Lot Number 7 of Block Number 36. The building has a store front and a tin covered awning. The old tin on the awning is in bad shape. And the roof is rusty. The sides of this old store building were once painted white. The store front has two windows and a door. Its across Somerset Road from El Gallo Restaurant. On the west side of Somerset Road there is some kind of building between this old store and the Somerset Baptist Church.
That old Tom Kenney store should be designated as some kind of historical structure. It may still be there because its owned by an estate.
I am not sure exactly when the Tom Kenney Store was built. But Dr. R. B Touchstone sold lots 6 and 7 to T.A. Kenney on September 19, 1922, for $1320. Maybe the building which became the Tom Kenney Store existed on lot Number 7 of the original Somerset Block 36. In 1985 Mary Kenney, Tom's daughter, sold lots 6 and 7 of Block 36 to Arthur L. Witherspoon Sr. This property is probably owned now by the Arthur L. Witherspoon estate, whose Exectrix is or was Herminia Witherspoon. Marbe she was Herminia Garcia of Somerset.
Almost all the businesses of Somerset in the forties and fifties have now been taken over by large corporations and mostly run by people who have no background in the Somerset area. Part of the old Bailey Brothers Hardware and Feed Store in Block 43, at the southwest corner of town, still exists. It was incorporated into the building now owned by Jupe Mills. Raymond E. and Partrick H. Gallaway sold a small lot there to Dennis A. Jupe in 2005, and may have sold the other lots earlier to Jupe. The old Post Office building which was the Bank Building has been demolished. The H.W. Caruthers Garage is no longer there. The drug stores that existed in the forties are not there any more.The Pyron Brothers store, like the Bailey Brothers and Tom Kenney store, another small store building typical of Old West family stores, was torn down in the mid forties. The old Will Kenney Store building was probably incorporated into the Super S Store building.
A May 2, 1922 deed from A.A. Kurz, et al to Blake Pyron, and Milton (Casey) Pyron, "for the sum of $3,250" conveyed the southern part of Lot No 9 of Block No 37, "as shown on the map or plat of said town made by R.G. Gill civil engineer." But no Bexar county Volume or Page number for the Gill plat map of Somerset is given in this deed. I found the original May 25, 1909 plat map for Somerset made by A.L.Scott, surveyor. The Somerset plat map by R.G. Gill might be a later version and might be easier to read.
Lot number 9 in Block 37 is across Somerset Road and south a bit from the Tom Kenney Store and the Old Somerset Drug Store. Since the amount paid was $3,250 in 1922, the southern part of Lot 9 must have had the building on it that became the Pyron Brothers Store of the twenties. Blake and Milton (Casey) Pyron owned the store. Most likely their father, A.M. Pyron loaned them the money to buy the store. But they went out of business in the twenties.
The southern part of Lot No 9 of Block 37 was sold to H.W. Caruthers in 1946 whose Garage was next door to the north. You can see a little of the H.W. Caruthers Garage on the left of the Pyron Brothers Store. The Pyron Brothers building was still standing in the early forties. I remember it being used for roller skating at that time and skated in it myself.
Somerset is in the West. In his 1931 book, The Great Planes, Walter Prescott Webb says that the West begins at the 98th meridian. This is not an arbitrary line, because it marks the line where the yearly rain fall begans to drop significantly. The 98th meridian runs somewhere east of San Antonio. It marks the beginning of the Great Planes, which is Webb's West. He claimed that people on the Great Planes were "lawless." A few were outlaws in the late 19th centry, but what he meant was that people of the West - the Great Planes - as a culture were more independent and self-reliant, and non-conformist. They were also more resourceful than the Eastern city dwellers. Those old West small store front buildings in the town which grew from the 1909 plat map for the First Townsite Company might symbolize that Great Planes culture Webb wrote about, which is mostly gone.
Fig Two Segment of Original 1909 Somerset Plat Map Showing Blocks 36 and 37 - and Block 33, the Small Triangle
In a May 14, 1919 deed from First Townsite Company to August G. Ernst the deed says the plat of "said town, certified by A.L. Scott." August Ernest bought lots 2 and 3 of Block No 37 for $500. Using the plat map above (enlarged) lot no 2 is on Somerset Road and lot 3 is behind it, in the position where the H.W. Caruthers Garage was, and probably also the Blake and Casey Pyron store in the twenties, which was beside the Garage to the south. Block No 37 is on the east side of Somerset Road, across from the Tom Kenney Store.
The Shannon Drug Store of the Twenties, Thirties and Early Forties In Somerset
Enlarging this little part of the 1909 Somerset Plat Map makes the lot numbers hard to read. But at the top of Block 36 you can read the numbers, 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7. The last lot, number 7, is the lot located where Pyron Street runs into Somerset Road. Block 37 across Somerset Road is where the H.W Caruthers and Pyron Brothers buildings were in the twenties, thirties and early forties.
I looked under R.B. Touchstone in the online Bexar county land transactions and found that on May 21, 1921 Dr R.B. Touchstone deeded to A.E. Shannon part of lots 6 and 7 of Block 36, in Somerset, "said subdivision of 28 feet fronting on Pyron Street and 100 feet fronting on alley between 7th and 8th streets."
In an August 1, 1922 record apparently involving a loan to A.E. Shannon by the Lytle State Bank it says the 28 feet off the south part of lots 6 and 7 of Block 36 is "...the property upon which is located the Shannon Drug Company building" including "the soda fountain and all appurtances..."
I remember that the Shannon Drug Store was near, or right next to, the Tom Kenney store and was on the south of it. Apparently in the twenties, thirties and forties the Tom Kenney store and the Shannon Drug Store were on the same lot fronting on Pyron Street, which intersects Somerset Road there at an angle, so that lot 7 of Block 36 also fronts on Somerset Road.
Then, on January 28, 1947 A.E. Shannon, Annette Shannon Gunn, Wilson Shannon, and Norma Ruth Shannon deededthe south 28 feet of lots 6 and 7 of Block 36 to T.A. Kenney. I don't know when the Shannon Drug Store building was torn down, leaving the Tom Kenney Store on lot 7.
There was a boy named Wilson Shannon shown in the class photo of the Somerset Sixth Grade in 1933, a class that included Preston Edwards, Cecil Miller, his future wife, Ruth Pyron, my older sister, Louise Pyron, my brother George's future wife, Ruby Nell Kurz, grand daughter of Carl Kurz, Louise Peterson, daughter of Robert Peterson, long time Somerset Barber - and Wilson Shannon, apparently son of A.E. Shannon of the Shannon Drug Store.
On http://www.dossmanfh.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=485199 they say that "Dr. Edwards was born in the Atascosa, Texas, on December 20, 1920, the son of Jefferson Davis (Bodie) Edwards and May Pearl (Briggs) Edwards." This is the Preston Edwards (Thomas Preston Edwards) of the Somerset Sixth Grade Class of 1933, who lived to be 90. He got his MD degree in 1950.
I remember two other establishments in Somerset Block Number 36, the Robert Peterson Barber Shop and the George L. Wideman Law Office and Justice of the Peace Court. George L. Wideman, a local man, was Justice of the Peace in the fifties, the "law south of the Medina."
On April 10, 1950 Samuel Peterson, Trustee, deeded to George L. Wideman the north 70 feet of lots 12, 13, 14 of Block 36. Lot 14 fronts on Somerset Road. There is an alley between Lot 7, where the Tom Kenney Store is and probably also the Shannon Drug Store, and Lot 14 on the south where the George L. Widedman Law Office was later located.
I have not found an online deed involving the Robert Peterson Barber Shop. Robert Peterson was a Somerset area man for many years. He and his family lived on Jackel Road, where the John McCain and Frank McCulloch families lived. I remember that the Peterson Barber Shop was south of the Tom Kenney Store and the Shannon Drug Store.
The Old Somerset Bank Building and the Will Kenney-Pyron's Store-Super S- Lowe's Building In Block 37
The First Townsite Company on May 14, 1919, for $500, deeded lots number 2 and 3 in Block Number 37 of Somerset to August F. Ernst. Lots 2 and 3 are on the northwest corner of Block 37, and lot 2 is a triangle fronting on Somerset Road. The very northwest corner of Lot 3 is also on Somerset Road. The triangle shaped lots are caused by the angle at which Somerset Road crosses the grid layout of Somerset. Block Number 37 is immediately south of Block Number 33, on the east side of Somerset Road, and the original building built in about 1931 which was the Will Kenney Store, sat on Lot 33. In the forties there was a space between the Kenney Store and the Old Bank Building, and also an empty space between the Bank Building, then the Post Office, and the H.W. Caruthers Garage, also in Block 37.
On August 27, 1920 August F. Ernst was deeded Lot 5 in Block 37 for $250. Lot 5 is in the middle of the north part of Block 37.
Then, on November 5, 1920 a deed from August F. Ernst transferred a part of Lot 3 of Block 37 to the First State Bank of Somerset - for $200. The following language in the deed is a little ambiguous, and says "It being the intention to hereby convey all of that tract of land which is situated a bank building which is to be occupiued by the grantee, with the exception of an undivided one half interest in the south wall of said building title to which the grantor retains for the purpose of using said south wall as the north wall of any building which he, his heirs, or assigns may erect on the property." Apparently August Ernst retained the south part of Lot 3, and deeded the north part to the Bank.
There are stories about more than one robbery of the First State Bank of Somerset and about embezzlement of its funds by a bank officer. A newspaper article, San Antonio Light, October 20, 1933, Page 19, says one of the robberies of the Somerset State Bank was on July 20, 1933. Page 10 of San Antonio Express, October 14, 1936 writes about Garland Owens, former Somerset First State Bank cashier, being charged with embezzlement.
In the late thirties and forties the Somerset Post Office was in the north part of the old bank building while a smll restaurant was in the south part. When I was in the second and third grades, and maybe later, my mother would give me one Indian Head nickel to buy a large hamburger and a glass of milk for my noon lunch at that restaurant. The meat for the hamburger came from the Will Kenney store meat section, run by Blake Pyron, Uncle Will's butcher.
On the site http://www.texasescapes.com/SouthTexasTowns/Somerset-Texas.htm there is a photo of he Old Somerset Bank Building and he Super S Grocery Store next door to the north. This photo was taken before the Old Bank Building, which became the Post Office, was demolished.
The Will Kenney Store, Pyron's Store, Pyron's Inc, Super S and Lowe's
On July 21, 1913 First Townsite Company deeded lots 11, 12 and 13 a triangular lot west of lot 11, all in Block 33 to John J. Kenney. I don't know who John J. Kenney was. And so far I have not found an online deed in which Will Kenney became the owner of these lots in Block 33. The Will Kenney store was there from about 1931 until 1948 when Blake and George Pyron took it over.
In August of 1969 George Pyron changed Pyron's Store, or Pyron's Stores, the chain, to Pyrons Inc. .Mass Marketing took over Pyrons Inc store in Somerset in the early eighties. An August 28, 1982 lease is online in which Pyrons Inc leased the store to Mass Marketing, which is Super S Foods, headquartered in San Antonio.
At some point in recent years Pay and Save, which is Lowe's, bought out Super S Foods in Somerset. I have not found that online transaction. .Lowe's is a company headquartered in Littlefield, Texas, up in the Panhandle. It is a grocery outfit. It is the same company as Pay and Save, as far as I can tell. Both companies have the same address and phone number. Lowe's now owns much or most of Block No 37, and much of Block 33, in Somerset, which was owned by 327 Somerset LTD, until March of 2013. The corporation, 327 Somerset LTD, had been deeded in 2007 the real estate in Somerset Blocks 33 and 37 which was owned by Pyrons Inc.
Block 37 is the block across from what was the Tom Kenney Store. I don't know whether Lowe's owns the building where El Gallo Restaurant is located. But apparently Lowe's was deeded lots number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Block 37 in March of 2013. Lowe's was also deeded lots number 11, 12, and 13 in Block No 33. The Lowe's store building is on one of these lots in Block 33, probably the one with the tax number 175006, which is appraised at $260,000. Lot Number 11 fronts on Somerset Road.
Other Somerset Businesses of the Twenties and Later
For some reason the first Block at the Northwest corner of town is numbered Block 8. Does anyone remember the old Kohler and Sons Pickle Company, which was up in the northwest part of Somerset? I have a vague memory of a Somerset Blacksmith's Shop near the northwest edge of town...
There was also the old Saloon, that was across from the Will Kenney Store and was there when Pyron's Store existed. I don't remember what the Saloon building looked like. Was it a Western type Saloon building with those swinging partial doors? I don't remember. I think the building sat at an angle to Somerset Road.
Certain Somerset men frequented the Saloon. Women usually did not go into it. I heard that the day in 1942 when Jessie James was killed in the coal mine at Old Bexar by George Leonard, word was soon spread to those who were in the Saloon. There was a Somerset Jessie James, first cousin to Luther James, the coyote hunter and father of Bill James, long the school Superintendent. The James family goes back to the days of the Old Bexar settlement two miles west of Somerset.
In the forties, and probably earlier, Mr. Custans, delivered ice to homes and stores in Somerset. He operated his ice business out of his house which was right across the railroad tracks from the Will Kenney Store. His first name or that of his son was Ralph, though I remember that his son was called "Hotshot." When my sister's husband, Jerry Bush, was to be sent to Europe in World War II I made up a code that he could use to tell us which country he ended up in, because they were not allowed to say that in letters home. One code sentence was "Does Mr Custans still deliver ice?" I don't remember which country that stood for. But Jerry was afraid to keep the code and threw it away.
In a May 14, 1919 deed from First Townsite Company to August G. Ernst the deed says the plat of "said town, certified by A.L. Scott." August Ernest bought lots 2 and 3 of Block No 37 for $500. Using the plat map above (enlarged) lot no 2 is on Somerset Road and lot 3 is behind it, in the position where the H.W. Caruthers Garage was, and probably also the Blake and Casey Pyron store in the twenties, which was beside the Garage to the south. Block No 37 is on the east side of Somerset Road, across from the Tom Kenney Store.
The Shannon Drug Store of the Twenties, Thirties and Early Forties In Somerset
Enlarging this little part of the 1909 Somerset Plat Map makes the lot numbers hard to read. But at the top of Block 36 you can read the numbers, 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7. The last lot, number 7, is the lot located where Pyron Street runs into Somerset Road. Block 37 across Somerset Road is where the H.W Caruthers and Pyron Brothers buildings were in the twenties, thirties and early forties.
I looked under R.B. Touchstone in the online Bexar county land transactions and found that on May 21, 1921 Dr R.B. Touchstone deeded to A.E. Shannon part of lots 6 and 7 of Block 36, in Somerset, "said subdivision of 28 feet fronting on Pyron Street and 100 feet fronting on alley between 7th and 8th streets."
In an August 1, 1922 record apparently involving a loan to A.E. Shannon by the Lytle State Bank it says the 28 feet off the south part of lots 6 and 7 of Block 36 is "...the property upon which is located the Shannon Drug Company building" including "the soda fountain and all appurtances..."
I remember that the Shannon Drug Store was near, or right next to, the Tom Kenney store and was on the south of it. Apparently in the twenties, thirties and forties the Tom Kenney store and the Shannon Drug Store were on the same lot fronting on Pyron Street, which intersects Somerset Road there at an angle, so that lot 7 of Block 36 also fronts on Somerset Road.
Then, on January 28, 1947 A.E. Shannon, Annette Shannon Gunn, Wilson Shannon, and Norma Ruth Shannon deededthe south 28 feet of lots 6 and 7 of Block 36 to T.A. Kenney. I don't know when the Shannon Drug Store building was torn down, leaving the Tom Kenney Store on lot 7.
There was a boy named Wilson Shannon shown in the class photo of the Somerset Sixth Grade in 1933, a class that included Preston Edwards, Cecil Miller, his future wife, Ruth Pyron, my older sister, Louise Pyron, my brother George's future wife, Ruby Nell Kurz, grand daughter of Carl Kurz, Louise Peterson, daughter of Robert Peterson, long time Somerset Barber - and Wilson Shannon, apparently son of A.E. Shannon of the Shannon Drug Store.
On http://www.dossmanfh.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=485199 they say that "Dr. Edwards was born in the Atascosa, Texas, on December 20, 1920, the son of Jefferson Davis (Bodie) Edwards and May Pearl (Briggs) Edwards." This is the Preston Edwards (Thomas Preston Edwards) of the Somerset Sixth Grade Class of 1933, who lived to be 90. He got his MD degree in 1950.
I remember two other establishments in Somerset Block Number 36, the Robert Peterson Barber Shop and the George L. Wideman Law Office and Justice of the Peace Court. George L. Wideman, a local man, was Justice of the Peace in the fifties, the "law south of the Medina."
On April 10, 1950 Samuel Peterson, Trustee, deeded to George L. Wideman the north 70 feet of lots 12, 13, 14 of Block 36. Lot 14 fronts on Somerset Road. There is an alley between Lot 7, where the Tom Kenney Store is and probably also the Shannon Drug Store, and Lot 14 on the south where the George L. Widedman Law Office was later located.
I have not found an online deed involving the Robert Peterson Barber Shop. Robert Peterson was a Somerset area man for many years. He and his family lived on Jackel Road, where the John McCain and Frank McCulloch families lived. I remember that the Peterson Barber Shop was south of the Tom Kenney Store and the Shannon Drug Store.
The Old Somerset Bank Building and the Will Kenney-Pyron's Store-Super S- Lowe's Building In Block 37
The First Townsite Company on May 14, 1919, for $500, deeded lots number 2 and 3 in Block Number 37 of Somerset to August F. Ernst. Lots 2 and 3 are on the northwest corner of Block 37, and lot 2 is a triangle fronting on Somerset Road. The very northwest corner of Lot 3 is also on Somerset Road. The triangle shaped lots are caused by the angle at which Somerset Road crosses the grid layout of Somerset. Block Number 37 is immediately south of Block Number 33, on the east side of Somerset Road, and the original building built in about 1931 which was the Will Kenney Store, sat on Lot 33. In the forties there was a space between the Kenney Store and the Old Bank Building, and also an empty space between the Bank Building, then the Post Office, and the H.W. Caruthers Garage, also in Block 37.
On August 27, 1920 August F. Ernst was deeded Lot 5 in Block 37 for $250. Lot 5 is in the middle of the north part of Block 37.
Then, on November 5, 1920 a deed from August F. Ernst transferred a part of Lot 3 of Block 37 to the First State Bank of Somerset - for $200. The following language in the deed is a little ambiguous, and says "It being the intention to hereby convey all of that tract of land which is situated a bank building which is to be occupiued by the grantee, with the exception of an undivided one half interest in the south wall of said building title to which the grantor retains for the purpose of using said south wall as the north wall of any building which he, his heirs, or assigns may erect on the property." Apparently August Ernst retained the south part of Lot 3, and deeded the north part to the Bank.
There are stories about more than one robbery of the First State Bank of Somerset and about embezzlement of its funds by a bank officer. A newspaper article, San Antonio Light, October 20, 1933, Page 19, says one of the robberies of the Somerset State Bank was on July 20, 1933. Page 10 of San Antonio Express, October 14, 1936 writes about Garland Owens, former Somerset First State Bank cashier, being charged with embezzlement.
In the late thirties and forties the Somerset Post Office was in the north part of the old bank building while a smll restaurant was in the south part. When I was in the second and third grades, and maybe later, my mother would give me one Indian Head nickel to buy a large hamburger and a glass of milk for my noon lunch at that restaurant. The meat for the hamburger came from the Will Kenney store meat section, run by Blake Pyron, Uncle Will's butcher.
On the site http://www.texasescapes.com/SouthTexasTowns/Somerset-Texas.htm there is a photo of he Old Somerset Bank Building and he Super S Grocery Store next door to the north. This photo was taken before the Old Bank Building, which became the Post Office, was demolished.
The Will Kenney Store, Pyron's Store, Pyron's Inc, Super S and Lowe's
On July 21, 1913 First Townsite Company deeded lots 11, 12 and 13 a triangular lot west of lot 11, all in Block 33 to John J. Kenney. I don't know who John J. Kenney was. And so far I have not found an online deed in which Will Kenney became the owner of these lots in Block 33. The Will Kenney store was there from about 1931 until 1948 when Blake and George Pyron took it over.
In August of 1969 George Pyron changed Pyron's Store, or Pyron's Stores, the chain, to Pyrons Inc. .Mass Marketing took over Pyrons Inc store in Somerset in the early eighties. An August 28, 1982 lease is online in which Pyrons Inc leased the store to Mass Marketing, which is Super S Foods, headquartered in San Antonio.
At some point in recent years Pay and Save, which is Lowe's, bought out Super S Foods in Somerset. I have not found that online transaction. .Lowe's is a company headquartered in Littlefield, Texas, up in the Panhandle. It is a grocery outfit. It is the same company as Pay and Save, as far as I can tell. Both companies have the same address and phone number. Lowe's now owns much or most of Block No 37, and much of Block 33, in Somerset, which was owned by 327 Somerset LTD, until March of 2013. The corporation, 327 Somerset LTD, had been deeded in 2007 the real estate in Somerset Blocks 33 and 37 which was owned by Pyrons Inc.
Block 37 is the block across from what was the Tom Kenney Store. I don't know whether Lowe's owns the building where El Gallo Restaurant is located. But apparently Lowe's was deeded lots number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Block 37 in March of 2013. Lowe's was also deeded lots number 11, 12, and 13 in Block No 33. The Lowe's store building is on one of these lots in Block 33, probably the one with the tax number 175006, which is appraised at $260,000. Lot Number 11 fronts on Somerset Road.
Other Somerset Businesses of the Twenties and Later
For some reason the first Block at the Northwest corner of town is numbered Block 8. Does anyone remember the old Kohler and Sons Pickle Company, which was up in the northwest part of Somerset? I have a vague memory of a Somerset Blacksmith's Shop near the northwest edge of town...
There was also the old Saloon, that was across from the Will Kenney Store and was there when Pyron's Store existed. I don't remember what the Saloon building looked like. Was it a Western type Saloon building with those swinging partial doors? I don't remember. I think the building sat at an angle to Somerset Road.
Certain Somerset men frequented the Saloon. Women usually did not go into it. I heard that the day in 1942 when Jessie James was killed in the coal mine at Old Bexar by George Leonard, word was soon spread to those who were in the Saloon. There was a Somerset Jessie James, first cousin to Luther James, the coyote hunter and father of Bill James, long the school Superintendent. The James family goes back to the days of the Old Bexar settlement two miles west of Somerset.
In the forties, and probably earlier, Mr. Custans, delivered ice to homes and stores in Somerset. He operated his ice business out of his house which was right across the railroad tracks from the Will Kenney Store. His first name or that of his son was Ralph, though I remember that his son was called "Hotshot." When my sister's husband, Jerry Bush, was to be sent to Europe in World War II I made up a code that he could use to tell us which country he ended up in, because they were not allowed to say that in letters home. One code sentence was "Does Mr Custans still deliver ice?" I don't remember which country that stood for. But Jerry was afraid to keep the code and threw it away.
More History of Somerset Businesses, By Terry Ritchey
My sister Louise sent me a copy of a map of Somerset stores made by Terry Ritchey and given in January of 2000 to my other sister Mary who was visiting him and his wife Betty. The map is not dated for the time these Somerset businesses existed. But there are businesses on Ritchey's map which existed before my memory, which does not go back farther than the late thirties. Ritchie was born in the late twenties.
The Campbell Lumber Company, with Bodie Edwards as it manager, is on his map in Somerset Block Number 25 which is on the west side of Somerset Road between Fifth street on the south and Fourth Street on the north. Its the block just north of where Will and Jessie Kenney lived, where the first Kenney store was located and also the Catholic Church.
He shows a Black Smith's shop on or near the corner of Somerset Road and Sixth Street, the street that runs in front of the School with the football field on its north.
Bumgarden's Machine Shop, later Pioneer Oil Sales, is on the opposite corner of Somerset Road and Sixth Street, just over the railroad tracks from the second Will Kenney store, the brick building.
The Kohler Pickle Factory is listed south of the railroad tracts, and back west of Somerset Road. I remember it in the late thirties as being almost on the edge of town. The Chaviz Meat Market, in about the position of the Saloon, is across from the Will Kenney store. Somewhere west of the Chiviz or Chivez Market is a Carpenter Shop, with a Cafe in back belonging to F. Burerra, or F. Bererra..
Ritchey calls the Will Kenney store the Sweany's Company Red and White (new store)
Then, south of the Will Kenney Red and White Store is the Somerset Bank, and the old Post office and Cafe. Either in the bank building or between it and the later H.W. Caruthers Garage is the Peterson and Wilhelm Barber Shop. I remember the Peterson Barber shop being on the west side of Somerset Road in the block with the Tom Kenney Store, the Shannon Drug Store and the Telephone Office.
What became the H.W. Caruthers Garage is listed as The Ford Motor Company of Paul Kurz, and next to it on the south is listed Pyron Grocery, which is the Pyron Bothers Grocery Store, owned by Blake and Milton (Casey) Pyron.
Here is something interesting; Ritchie shows two buildings side by side for the Tom Kenney Store and the Shannon Drug Store. I had a question about whether these two stores were in different buildings or in the same building at different times. Ritchie shows a Telephone Office just south of the Shannon Drug Store, which I now remember being there. It might have become the George L. Wideman Law and Justice of the Peace office, the Law South of the Medina. All these businesses were in Somerset Block Number 36, probably in Lots 7 and 14 facing the intersection of Pyron Street and Somerset Road, across from the Paul Kurz Ford Motor Company.
On the east side of Somerset Road in Block 40 he shows the Lone Star Ice House of Livingston. Somerset Road intersects Pyron Street to form another sort of triangle there. This ice house must have existed before my memory kicks in. In the late thirties and during World War II we had ice delivered by Mr Custans who operated out of his house across the railroad tracts from the Will Kenney store. We got electricity by the early forties, but did not have an electric refrigerator until sometime later.
Then on the east side of Somerset Road south of the Ice House is shown the Masonic Lodge. The Smith Hotel is across the road. That was also before my time.
At the corner of Somerset Road, on the east side, and Dixon Road, at the south end of town, he shows Fowler's Garage, which I do remember. Across Somerset Road from Fowler's Garage is the Morrison Store, later Bailey Brothers, at the southwest corner of the Somerset of the 1909 Plat Map, at the corner of Somerset Road and Dixon Road. The northwest corner of the A.M. Pyron land, which is the intersection of West Dixon Road with Somerset Road, a small tract owned by Blake Pyron after about 1945, was across Dixon Road from Fowler's Garage.
My sister Louise sent me a copy of a map of Somerset stores made by Terry Ritchey and given in January of 2000 to my other sister Mary who was visiting him and his wife Betty. The map is not dated for the time these Somerset businesses existed. But there are businesses on Ritchey's map which existed before my memory, which does not go back farther than the late thirties. Ritchie was born in the late twenties.
The Campbell Lumber Company, with Bodie Edwards as it manager, is on his map in Somerset Block Number 25 which is on the west side of Somerset Road between Fifth street on the south and Fourth Street on the north. Its the block just north of where Will and Jessie Kenney lived, where the first Kenney store was located and also the Catholic Church.
He shows a Black Smith's shop on or near the corner of Somerset Road and Sixth Street, the street that runs in front of the School with the football field on its north.
Bumgarden's Machine Shop, later Pioneer Oil Sales, is on the opposite corner of Somerset Road and Sixth Street, just over the railroad tracks from the second Will Kenney store, the brick building.
The Kohler Pickle Factory is listed south of the railroad tracts, and back west of Somerset Road. I remember it in the late thirties as being almost on the edge of town. The Chaviz Meat Market, in about the position of the Saloon, is across from the Will Kenney store. Somewhere west of the Chiviz or Chivez Market is a Carpenter Shop, with a Cafe in back belonging to F. Burerra, or F. Bererra..
Ritchey calls the Will Kenney store the Sweany's Company Red and White (new store)
Then, south of the Will Kenney Red and White Store is the Somerset Bank, and the old Post office and Cafe. Either in the bank building or between it and the later H.W. Caruthers Garage is the Peterson and Wilhelm Barber Shop. I remember the Peterson Barber shop being on the west side of Somerset Road in the block with the Tom Kenney Store, the Shannon Drug Store and the Telephone Office.
What became the H.W. Caruthers Garage is listed as The Ford Motor Company of Paul Kurz, and next to it on the south is listed Pyron Grocery, which is the Pyron Bothers Grocery Store, owned by Blake and Milton (Casey) Pyron.
Here is something interesting; Ritchie shows two buildings side by side for the Tom Kenney Store and the Shannon Drug Store. I had a question about whether these two stores were in different buildings or in the same building at different times. Ritchie shows a Telephone Office just south of the Shannon Drug Store, which I now remember being there. It might have become the George L. Wideman Law and Justice of the Peace office, the Law South of the Medina. All these businesses were in Somerset Block Number 36, probably in Lots 7 and 14 facing the intersection of Pyron Street and Somerset Road, across from the Paul Kurz Ford Motor Company.
On the east side of Somerset Road in Block 40 he shows the Lone Star Ice House of Livingston. Somerset Road intersects Pyron Street to form another sort of triangle there. This ice house must have existed before my memory kicks in. In the late thirties and during World War II we had ice delivered by Mr Custans who operated out of his house across the railroad tracts from the Will Kenney store. We got electricity by the early forties, but did not have an electric refrigerator until sometime later.
Then on the east side of Somerset Road south of the Ice House is shown the Masonic Lodge. The Smith Hotel is across the road. That was also before my time.
At the corner of Somerset Road, on the east side, and Dixon Road, at the south end of town, he shows Fowler's Garage, which I do remember. Across Somerset Road from Fowler's Garage is the Morrison Store, later Bailey Brothers, at the southwest corner of the Somerset of the 1909 Plat Map, at the corner of Somerset Road and Dixon Road. The northwest corner of the A.M. Pyron land, which is the intersection of West Dixon Road with Somerset Road, a small tract owned by Blake Pyron after about 1945, was across Dixon Road from Fowler's Garage.
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