BLACKSMITH SHOP
Behind 104 San Antonio St.

HISTORY: The old stone building located in the center of a downtown block bounded by Main Street on the west, Blanco Street on the north, San Antonio Street on the south, and a short one block street (Watts) on the side of the Kendall County Court House. It is now attached to a frame building which most recently was the "Accent:, a gift shop owned by Lois Epperson. The stone one room structure has very small windows and one door on the North, but it must have had a door on the suth as well, before it was connected to the added frame rooms.

Some spot on this small block a building was used as a saddle shop by the father of Miss Jennie Johns when he first came to Boerne about 1858. He came here a bachelor with his mother from Virginia. she had been advised to come to the San Antonio area for her health. In those days her ailment was called consumption. In San Antonio she was under the care of Dr. Ferdinand Herff who suggest they settle in boerne as the climate was known to be the "best in the United States." After a few years Joseph bought a ranch several miles West of the town and built a home which is no longer there, but the family used it for many years, adding to it and accommodating the family of Joseph Johns and his wife Katherine Rice Johns who married in 1879. Mr. Johns turned to ranching and chose this area because it was the best bear hunting in Texas.

So it seems fair to assume that the old building near the Court House was either the saddle shop or the first home of Joseph Johns and his mother, Margaret Johns.

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