Historical Markers in Shiner, Texas

Masonic Lodge Building · 1967

Moved to this site, 1889, by David Kokernot, the builder. Given to Methodist church and Masonic Lodge. First local Sunday School was held here. In 1914 church was relocated. Entire hall is now owned by Masons. Recorded…

Shiner · 1969

Originated as German-Czech community of Half Moon, located west of present town. When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad came through in 1887, citizens moved to rail line, where H. B. Shiner, Victoria landowner,…

Kaspar Wire Works · 1970

Founded as outgrowth of an 1895 invention that used smooth wire discarded when barbed wire fencing was introduced in this area. August Kaspar, son of a Swiss Lutheran missionary to Texas, salvaged some of the plain wire…

William Green House · 1970

William Green and wife India, pioneers from Kentucky, bought this land and erected a house here in 1853. Style is typical of era, with central "dog trot" hall dividing two main rooms. William Green, Jr., and wife Julia,…

Spoetzl Brewery · 1971

Built by the Shiner Brewing Association, a stock company of local men. Sold in April 1915 to Kosmas Spoetzl (1873-1950), native of Bavaria and former operator of a brewery in Cairo, Egypt. This plant remained open in…

Welhausen Park Bandstand · 1976

Built in 1913 on land donated by Confederate veteran and local leader Capt. Charles Welhausen (1835-1916), this bandstand has been a center of cultural and social events in Shiner. Funds for construction were raised by…

Shiner Opera House · 1979

William Wendtland (1856-1951) and Louis Wagener (1855-1936) built this structure in 1895. William Koch (1857-1928) enlarged the building with a rear addition in 1915. "The Opera House Saloon" and later other businesses…

Herder Half Moon Place · 1982

This Greek revival home (200 yards north) was built in the 1880s by George Herder (1818-1887), veteran of the Texas Revolution and pioneer farmer and rancher in the Half Moon community. A son, William (d. 1940), later…

Shiner-Welhausen Homestead · 1989

Henry B. Shiner purchased this land in 1875 for his cattle raising enterprise. In 1887, when the railroad was built through the area, he donated land for a townsite, which was later named in his honor. Although the…

Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church · 1990

Early German and Czech settlers in this area of Lavaca County attended Catholic worship services in private homes or at churches in Hallettsville or Moulton until 1890, when a new mission was established in Shiner by…

Captain Charles Welhausen · 1992

(September 2, 1835 - November 3, 1916) A native of Hanover, Germany, Charles Welhausen immigrated to Texas with his parents, arriving at the Port of Galveston in 1843. They settled first at Cat Spring in Austin County,…

First Methodist Church of Shiner · 1994

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Shiner, Texas, was organized on November 1, 1887, in the office of L. P. Amsler, Shiner's first mayor. The Rev. C. C. Armstrong presided over the first service. In 1889 local…

Site of Evergreen School · 1994

School trustees Ernest Meyer, W. M. Krause and Otto Henkhaus purchased two acres here from August and Anna Seifert in 1897. The two-room frame Evergreen schoolhouse was built at this site and in 1903 an additional two…

Saint Ludmila's Academy · 1997

The first Catholic school in Shiner was built in 1896 by Scherbohm and Mewes, contractors. The two story French style frame building housed two classrooms, a dining room and kitchen on the first floor, and a residence…

Ponton Family · 1998

Virginians William (1772-1834) and Isabella (Moreland) Ponton came to Texas in 1829 from Missouri. With them were their children Andrew, Sarah Ann, and Mary Jane and son-in-law James Patrick. Their son Joel Ponton…

First National Bank of Shiner · 2001

In 1891, one year after Shiner was incorporated, Confederate captain and local rancher Charles Welhausen established a private bank for the growing railroad town. Welhausen served as first president, with E. F. Wolters,…

Shiner Brethren Cemetery · 2002

Shiner Brethren Cemetery established 1890. Historic Texas Cemetery-2002

Shiner Brethren Church · 2002

Shiner Brethren Church Emigrants from Bohemia and Moravia, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, came to the Vlastenec area, about four miles south of Shiner, in the mid-1880s. Most came from rural areas and were of the…

Shiner Cemetery · 2002

Shiner Cemetery established 1891 Historic Texas Cemetery-2002

Site of Bunjes School · 2005

On June 25, 1886, H.J. Strunk, a resident of Colorado County, Texas, sold five acres of land for use as a school and cemetery to the Shinerville School community, originally named for area landowner H.B. Shiner.…

United Evangelical Lutheran Dr. Martin Luther Church · 2008

Members of this historic church helped spread Lutheranism through Lavaca and surrounding counties. For acculturated German Texans and for new arrivals, the Lutheran Church also served as the focal point of educational…

Cotton Industry in Shiner · 2010

Barbed wire, the railroad, and Germans and Czechs desiring to own small family farms combined to make cotton king in Lavaca County. From 1892 to 1971, cotton ginning, the cottonseed oil industry, and cotton export by…

Half Moon · 2011

THE COMMUNITY OF HALF MOON WAS FIRST MENTIONED IN A 1689 ACCOUNT FROM GOV. ALONSO DE LEON’S EXPEDITION WHEN THE GROUP ENCOUNTERED A NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE THAT CALLED HALF MOON THEIR HOME. THE AREA WAS KNOWN AS HALF MOON…

Sarah Creath McSherry Hibbens Stinnett Howard · 2011

SARAH HOWARD SUFFERED MUCH AT THE SAVAGERY OF THE TEXAS WILDERNESS. BORN IN ILLINOIS, SARAH CAME TO TEXAS WITH HER HUSBAND, JOHN McSHERRY, IN 1828. THE NEXT YEAR, JOHN WAS KILLED NEAR THEIR HOME BY INDIANS. SARAH LATER…

Shiner Colored Cemetery · 2011

In February 1898, Nathan Austin, J. H. Hannah, Paul Mitchell and William O’Neal, trustees of the Shiner Colored Cemetery Association, bought 1.2 acres from Adolph and Emilie Hohertz for $100. They established a burial…

SPJST Shiner Cemetery · 2012

Czech-Texans and members of the Lodge Texasky Mir No. 10 Shiner established this cemetery on April 14, 1906 to provide a burial place for SPJST (Slovanska Podporujici Jednota Statu Texas) members and their families.…

Sulphur Park · 2016

In the summer of 1930, farmer/rancher and large landowner Jake Kurtz set aside four acres of his property on the west side of the newly-paved Texas State Highway 95 between Shiner and Moulton to build a large concrete…

Sunken Garden Dance Platform · 2018

The Patek Orchestras · 2019

Bluecher Park and Dance Hall · 2019