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Waring & Welfare

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Waring

Waring today is a very small town seemingly far from the hustle and bustle of traffic on IH 10, which is about five miles to it's west. It is twelve miles north of Boerne and seven miles south of Comfort. Today it has a population of less than 70. It was created in 1887 to coincide with the arrival of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass railroad. The post office was moved from a nearby town on the other side of the Guadalupe river to the new town almost immediately.

Waring's population grew to 150 and stayed at this level until 1914, when it swelled to over 300. During this time it had a hotel, a boarding house, two general stores, a lumberyard and a quarry, plus corn and grist mills and a cotton gin. The railroad was essential to the success of these enterprises and the depot was busy place, bringing in people and goods, as well as being the means by which products of the town could be shipped out to San Antonio and beyond. Otto Beseler was the first agent in 1888. He was the son of the Beselers of Welfare, about four miles to the south. Waring ranked a depot of some size and the town grew just to the east of the tracks.

By the 1950s, the towns population had dwindled to around 100, though it still retains its post office. Today there is just one store and two businesses. Train service ended in 1970. For a while the old depot became a tractor dealership. Its current owner uses it for general purpose storage and work building. He is very knowledgeable about its history. The building original foundations collapsed after 100 years and the building fell forward about three feet. New foundation pilings were constructed to support it. The old building is otherwise in sound shape and remains very close to its original appearance. It has the names of many Waring railroad agents painted on the interior walls.

Welfare

Welfare, just four miles to the south of Waring never rated a depot as such but the Beseler family, who owned a store and were big railroad supporters, built a large wooden warehouse near the tracks and the S.A. & A.P. was happy to provide service. The town swelled to around 275 people around 1900 but that number fell to around 25 by as early as 1925. Today there is not much left except the old railroad right of way and the old Beselr general store which now serves as a Barbecue restaurant. After the wooden warehouse burned down it was replaced by a metal structure.

For more images, taken from the very last train to Kerrville in 1971, click
•Last train to Kerrville•

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