SCHREINER, GUSTAVE FREDERICK (1866-1962). Gustave Frederick (Fritz) Schreiner, rancher, game commissioner, and philanthropist, son of Mary Magdalena (Enderle) and Charles Armand Schreiner,qv was born on March 3, 1866, in the Turtle Creek community near Kerrville, Texas. He attended public schools in Kerrville and Comfort and the English-German school in San Antonio. In 1884-85 he attended Von Lycker's Business College in New York City. He participated in cattle drives in 1889 and 1890 and managed the Schreiner Land and Livestock Company from 1887 until 1962. He was known as the "dean of hill country ranchers" and the "father of Kerrville." Schreiner was appointed to the Texas Game and Fish Commission for a four-year term by Governor Daniel James Moody, Jr.,qv and reappointed to the next four-year term by Governor Ross S. Sterling.qv Schreiner did much to foster plans for the conservation of wildlife. He was cited by the commission as being primarily responsible for the preservation of the deer population in the Hill Countryqv of Texas. He was also a leading thoroughbred horse breeder. He added to the Schreiner family philanthropic traditions established by his father. He gave approximately $500,000 toward the operation and building of Schreiner Institute (now Schreiner University) and left an estate valued at approximately $2.5 million to provide a continuing income for that institution after his death. He served on the board of trustees of Schreiner Institute from 1923 until 1962. On February 15, 1892, Schreiner was married to Hulda Rummel in San Antonio. He died on May 31, 1962, in Kerrville.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bob Bennett, Kerr County, Texas, 1856-1956 (San Antonio: Naylor, 1956; bicentennial ed., rev. by Clara Watkins: Kerr County, Texas, 1856-1976, Kerrville, Texas: Hill Country Preservation Society, 1975). Kerrville Daily Times, June 1, 1962. Kerrville Mountain Sun, June 6, 1962. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Joe R. Baulch
