Kerrville celebrates role in H-E-B founding with Texas state historical marker

KERRVILLE — H-E-B staffers joined state and local officials Tuesday in commemorating the retail giant’s modest start here in 1905, when goods were delivered to customers in a baby carriage.

“This truly is where it all began,” Winell Herron, a company vice president, told the audience of about 100 gathered for the dedication of a Texas state historical marker outside the H-E-B store on Main Street.

The original store, opened in the downstairs portion of the family’s rented home up the street from today’s store, was called The C.C. Butt Grocery Store, after Charles C. Butt.

But the newly unveiled marker credits Florence Butt, Charles’ wife, and Howard E. Butt, their youngest son, with launching the business that now boasts current sales in excess of $23 billion annually at 370 stores in Texas and Mexico.

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With her husband sick with tuberculosis, which eventually killed him, Florence Butt initially tried to hawk groceries door-to-door in the enterprise that she began with $60.

After opening the store, the marker says, Howard E. Butt, still in school, delivered groceries in a baby carriage, “then a little red wagon, and later by horse and buggy.” He replaced the credit-and-delivery business model with a cash-and-carry system in 1921 after returning from World War I, and faced several setbacks before moving the company headquarters to Harlingen in the 1930s.

The main office moved to Corpus Chrisi before landing in San Antonio in 1985 but ties between Kerrville and the Butts remain strong, said Julie Leonard, chairman of the Kerr County Historical Commission.

“The Butt family has been generous with their successes,” she said, citing their support for the city library, community tennis courts and swimming pool and area camps the company operates.

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Greg Nichols, manager of the two local H-E-Bs, praised the county panel for its years of work in securing the state marker.

“Without their help, it would have never happened,” he said.

Also speaking Tuesday was Mayor Jack Pratt and state Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Junction, who lauded the firm.

They shared the spotlight with the Tom Moore High School color guard and band from nearby Ingram, and all 18 students from the Divide Independent School District in Mountain Home, who led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Joe Herring Jr., a longtime local newspaper columnist and history buff, said much about the Butts’ early business were omitted from the marker due to space constraints.

He called Florence Butt remarkable for showing such entrepreneurial grit in an era when women weren’t even allowed to vote and for the spirit of generosity she instilled in her family and its business.

In the wake of a 1934 hurricane, Howard E. Butt began donating 5 percent of pre-tax profits those in need, a practice that continues today.

By that time, the business had been renamed for Howard E. Butt, whose personal credo, the marker says, was, “He profits most who serves best.”

zeke@express-news.net