History

The rockcrusher was at one time located in the Cibolo Creek across from the public utilities of the City of Schertz. This was destroyed in 1913 when the Cibolo Creek had its biggest flood recorded. It flooded many people out of their homes.

The first church in Schertz is the present day United Methodist Church on First Street. One of the oldest business buildings, the red brick building on Main Street, was built by Mr. Willie Schertz. It is now a plumbing and hardware store and Masonic meeting place. It was the first merchantile store. On the site of the present day Schertz Bank, a two story hotel, a five room hospital and drug store complex was built in 1909. The hotel was built by Mr. Henry Ebert. A Dr. Watson was the resident doctor. This doctor used two methods of transportation to see his patients, a horse drawn hack for good roads and horse back for emergencies in bad weather and long distances. In 1917 another red brick hospital on Main Street was built by Dr. C. M.Cotham and Miss Cora Karbach, a nurse. It served the surrounding communities for many years. It now is an old apartment house.

The first bank was chartered in 1913 and to the best of my memory one of the first bankers was a Mr. Glass. He also organized what was called the National Home Guard During World War I. They drilled at night in the second story of the building that at the present time is the Masonic Lodge meeting place. As a small boy, I can still visualize the old training rifles in their closet. At the same time this place was also a dance hall. At times the crowds were so large that when they danced the floor shook and for this reason the dances were discontinued there.

The present day Blake's Restaurat was Beck's Food Store and before that was Gerlich and Schulz, and at one time housed the post office for a while. A bakery, barber shop, cafe, butcher shops, filling stations were among the old establishments. Also in 1913 the first telephone service was the Farmer's Rural Telephone Exchange: composed of share holders. This was a way of communicating in
case of emergencies. Five long rings being the signal for people to listen in. Not to many years back the Bell Telephone Company bought out the share holders, and established the present day system.

Randolph Air Force Base was I guess, the biggest boom to Schertz in the late 20's, although it changed the lives of many people. A lot of farm land was bought as the air force needed 2000 acres for the air academy. There were 3 sites considered. The present site was chosen because after research, the site here showed the fog was less in the area and lifted earlier in the day, and meant more flying time. All of this boosted the economy not only for Schertz and surrounding communities but also the areas of New Braunfels, Seguin, and San Antonio.

The dedication of the West Point of the Air was in 1930. There were thousands of people present at the ceremonies with hundreds of air craft flying over.

The V.F.W. of Schertz was chartered in 1946. This organization has been very active. It served as the only place for the people to come together to enjoy themselves and for other organizations to have functions of their own. For which the whole community is grateful.

Our first fire protection was from the Randolph Field Fire Department. As time went on some Schertz business people and some of its citizens started to organize a fire department. The first business meeting of the Schertz Fire Department was February 8, 1956. Our first Fire Chief was Archie Woodward and the fire truck was stored in the old Schertz garage. Soon a fire station and city hall combination was built. The Schertz library is now in this building. Schertz was incorporated as a City by the State if Texas in 1958.

Last but not least, us not forget and pay tribute to our pioneer farm families who really made all this happen. Without them there would not have been any of this!