When you meander past the Starbucks on Upper Balcones, you’ll find Dodge Road…named after Frederick J. Dodge, who was a Texas cattleman at the end of his life, but in the middle…well, we’ll tell you more about Detective Fred Dodge right after this.

Kendall County Roofing

Fred Dodge worked as a lawman and as an undercover agent for Wells Fargo in California, Nevada, and Arizona - protecting stagecoaches and solving train holdups.

He became a constable in Tombstone, Arizona, where he befriended the legendary Wyatt Earp. In fact, Dodge’s diaries were the basis for the book The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp, and they also documented his encounters with the Doolin and Dalton Gangs. In 1906, Dodge came to Leon Springs on vacation and fell in love with the Texas Hill Country. He purchased 2000 acres and named it Dodge Ranch. Dodge died in 1938 at the age of 84 and is buried in the Boerne Cemetery.

I’m Tom Allred with Boerne Texas History, and this is Boerne Radio 103.9FM.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Across River Road from the Dam on Cibolo Creek is a real estate business operating in The William Dietert House, … the story of the Dietert family right after this …

Kendall County Roofing

German-born William Dietert and his two brothers came to Texas in the 1850s. William built a dam on Cibolo Creek to power a saw mill and grist mill...the first business in Boerne. A cotton gin and press were added to the enterprise. Dietert signed the petition to form Kendall County and served as a Commissioner and County Judge. William Dietert’s grandson Clarence Dietert, served in World War 2, served as Mayor of Boerne and died on May 26th, 2005 at the age of 91.

I’m Tom Allred with Boerne Texas History, and this is Boerne Radio 103.9FM.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the corner of Main Street and West San Antonio, next to Main Plaza is the Hillje Music Store where you can rent musical instruments, but before 1901, on that site was Homer’s Livery Stable, where you could rent a horse and buggy for a dollar a day. The story of the present-day Carstanjen Building right after this.

Kendall County Roofing

At 705 South Main where the Lovern Law Firm calls home, it was originally the real home and mansion of Rudolph Carstanjen, one of Boerne’s first settlers from Germany by way of Rio De Janeiro. In 1901, he built the 2 story Carstanjen Building and one of the early tenants was Levyson’s Drug Store which closed in 1920. The Plaza Drug Store was next owned by Bill and Wilda Williams. In 1941 Erhard Ebner purchased the drug store, and ran it there until 1967, when Ebner’s Drug Store moved across the street.

Rudolph Carstanjen never saw the fruit from the building he built in 1901 because he died in 1902 and rests in the Boerne Cemetery.

I’m Tom Allred with Boerne Texas History and this is Boerne Radio 103.9FM.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.