The Schreiner Family

Charles Schreiner (1838-1927) settled in San Antonio, Texas, in September of 1852 when his father, Gustav Adolph Schreiner, moved the family from their Reichenstien castle at Riguewihr in the Vosges Mountains of upper Alsace, France.

Upon the death of his father three weeks after arriving in Texas, fourteen-year-old Charles became the head of the family, assuming responsibility for his mother, Charlotte, and four brothers.

Charles Schreiner served in the Texas Rangers from 1854- 1857. During that time, he also purchased a ranch property in Kerr County and married Mary Magdalena Enderle. Their family eventually included five sons (Aime Charles, Gustav Frederick, Louis Albert, Charles Armand, and Walter Richard) and three daughters (Caroline Marie, Frances Hellen, and Emilie Louise).

After serving in the Confederate Army for three and a half years during the Civil War, Captain Schreiner rejoined his family in Texas in 1865. Just a few years later he started the mercantile business that would culminate into one the largest mercantile banking empires of its time in the Southwest.

Schreiner Mercantile

Faltin & Schreiner was the name of the original store that Captain Schreiner started with his partner, August Fatlin, in 1869. It did not become Schreiner General Merchandise until 1878, when he bought out Fatlin’s interest in the store. During this period, he built the St. Charles Hotel (1875) along with three other stores: a cotton gin, a flour mill, and an artesian well.

In addition to the original store, his commercial endeavors expanded to include banking, wool commissioning, extensive cattle ranching and driving, and various mill operations. He also strove to modernize services in Kerrville, drilling artesian wells to supply water and building Kerrville’s first electric light and power plant. In 1879, Schreiner established Kerrville’s first bank.

Learn more about the history of the Schreiner Mansion here.

Read more about Alfred Giles and the architecture of the Schreiner Mansion here.