The library is so fortunate to house documents and photos that tell the remarkable stories of historic Boerne.
Yes, we are celebrating our 70thanniversary of serving this wonderful town, but the town’s history is so much older! I’m going to spend a little time sharing just some of the nuggets of news from our own Dietert Historical Archives. While this collection is not typically open to the public, we are always happy to share information with anyone who is interested.
Annie Fellows Johnston
For you literary buffs out there, it may interest you to learn about one of our most famous residents. Staff member Robin Stauber, who heads the Adult Services Department, is also our de facto library archivist.
The following story comes from her.
“A writer of some renown at the turn of the 20th century, Annie Fellows Johnston became a worldwide phenomenon after Shirley Temple starred in an adaption of her book, ‘The Little Colonel.’
Her journey to Boerne was a sorrowful tale. She took up residence here around 1905 in an effort to help her stepson, John, try to recover from tuberculosis. (Boerne, at the time, was well known for its climate and health resorts.)
“While here, she used Boerne and the surrounding area as the setting for her ‘Mary Ware’ series of books, and John’s illness and personality figured largely in those books as the character of Jack Ware. John ultimately died in 1910, and Johnston returned to her home in Pee Wee Valley, Kentucky.
“An article in the San Antonio
Evening News, in 1949, quotes Johnston as saying, ‘When I hear various parts of the country boasting of their hospitality, I feel that nothing can exceed Texas hospitality. Nobody could be dearer than the friends we made in San Antonio and Boerne.’ Johnston herself died at the age of 68 in 1931.”
The library owns several copies of Miss Johnston’s books, but they can’t be checked out. We encourage you to come look at the, however, on your next visit.
Sam Woolford and Bess Carroll Woolford
A couple of decades later, a well-known couple in the world of newspaper publishing retired to our little town, but not before making a name for themselves in San Antonio.
Robin again remarks, “The biographical notes on UTSA’s special collections finding guide provide a succinct timeline for the lives of Sam and Bess Woolford. They made their way up the ranks of Texas newspapers in the 1920s and 30s, eventually finding each other at The San Antonio Light, where Bess was the major compiler of 1935 and 1936 news stories related to the Texas Centennial and Sam served as city editor in the 1940s.
“When he retired in 1950, they moved to their own little slice of heaven on the outskirts of Boerne – a little place they called Moonshine Valley. For the next few decades they wrote history books on San Antonio, and Bess wrote an extensive history on the Witte Museum. Sam kept a humor column for several decades in the San Antonio Light, and those columns were later published in a book called, ‘Tales from Moonshine Valley.’ Included in the book are anecdotes about life in a small little town outside of a big city.
“In a column from October 4, 1964, Sam writes of his adventure into town to the post office and his regret at leaving his .22 rifle back home.
‘The moon came up and I stood in the post office reading literature of late-traveling friends, postcarding from the Yellowstone, Acapulco and dear old Colorado Springs. … finally came to Roberts’ Drug Store. As I entered, everybody waved me to the phone. It seems my wife had alerted the town for me to call home immediately, as it was an emergency; and Alice Gerfers at Bigs had volunteered to help find me.’
“He learned on the subsequent call that his 5-month-old tiger cat was in a standoff with a 5-1/2-foot rattler, and he was needed at home to mediate the problem. His problem was that the standoff was taking place between the road and the house and his .22 rifle was inside. In the end, the cat was named ‘Rattles’ because, it seems, he was more than happy to take care of the problem himself.”
The library owns a copy of this book, but again it can only be found in our collection of rare books.
Digital treasure trove
Weren’t these stories interesting and entertaining? There are so many more, and you have free access to them from anywhere in the world (that has Internet service). Just visit the Portal to Texas History to read issues of the Boerne Star from 1940 to 1965.
Do you recall when newspapers would publish newsy little notes letting us know that Mabel Smith visited her friends in San Angelo for the weekend, or that Hal Johnson came home to visit his parents? These old issues tell hundreds of these little stories as well as who won Kendall County Fair queen or obituaries of the people who had passed away during those years.
In addition to the newspapers there are several books and documents that have also been digitized. If you need assistance, please reach out to Robin ([email protected]) or Caren ([email protected]) for help accessing this information.
Staying informed
You can contact us at 830-249-3053, visit us at www. boernelibrary.org and you can also track us down on our two Facebook accounts and on Instagram.
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