A Guide to the Martin and Hattie Kaiser Schaefer Papers, 1907-1980

Biographical Note

Born in Siegen, Westphalia, Germany, Martin Schaefer (1895-1966) worked as a baker’s apprentice before immigrating to San Antonio, Texas, in 1912, where he lived with his brother August. Shortly thereafter, he was hired as a baker in Carl Wolfmueller’s City Bakery in Kenedy. In April 1917, Schaefer married Wolfmueller’s niece, Hattie Kaiser (d. 1980), the daughter of John August Kaiser of Clifton and Karnes City. The couple had two daughters, Margaret and Lucile, and purchased the City Bakery in 1919. Martin baked while Hattie ran the front of the store, and in the 1930s, they changed the shop’s name to Schaefer’s Bakery. Frequent travelers, the Schaefers toured across the United States and Germany and Martin took hunting trips to Canada. Also owners of the Black Diamond Ranch in Karnes County, the couple sold the bakery in 1940 to concentrate on raising Hereford cattle.

Scope and Contents

Comprised of correspondence, account books, ledgers, bills and receipts, manuals, inventories, deeds, recipes, scrapbooks, and memorabilia, the Martin and Hattie Kaiser Schaefer Papers, 1907-1980 document the personal lives of the Schaefers and the business of their Kenedy, Texas, bakery and Hereford cattle ranch. The financial records, deeds, equipment manuals, and recipes chronicle the bakery’s operations from 1919 to 1940 and the Schaefers’ ranching activities. Scrapbooks and memorabilia illustrate their travel cruises to Europe in 1925, 1951, and 1959, while journals (1926-1940) detail Martin’s trips to Canada to hunt wild game.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Martin and Hattie Kaiser Schaefer Papers, 1907-1980, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s “History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project,” 2009-2011.

Detailed Description of the Collection