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)• FREDERICKSBURG STANDARD, WED., Ma¥ II, itflSillWl'kf /, lt;■ k •■ ,.Xr ***■'• v.-2e^.* jmt lt;• /•MEMBERS OF THE GILEKffPIK COUNTY Sheriff’s Department occupying offices in the new Ijiw Enforcement Building to be dedicated this Sunday afternoon are, seated left to right, Administrator James Allred, Sheriff Hugo Klaerner and Chief Deputy David Nehr Standing, are IJeputy Sheriffs Victor Harper, left, and Kenneth Grobe Not pictured is Deputy Sheriff JimWendel. Standard PhotoAlfred 'Smokey’ Klaerner-LegendContinued from page 1, see. 1living, Mrs, Urnis Grenwelgeand Mrs Karl Vick Deceased are Mrs. Hugo Weirich, Mrs.Hubert Zesch and Mrs Glenn Bearrs.Alfred Klaerner was elected Sheriff and Tax Collector of Gillespie county in 1918 when the county was below 10.000 population. The 1020 census revealed the countv had passedit fthe magic mark at which theSheriff’s and tax offices were to U* separatedThat year he ran for CountyTax Collector but was defeated by August M. Jung, a former deputy in tin* office. Klaerner again ran for Sheriff in the fall o! 1024 and was elected in a three-man race, holding the office for an additional 1H years when he voluntarily retired after a total of 20 years in tlu* of liceA brother of Alfred Klaerner, the late John Klaerner, served (iillespie county as Sheriff from 10(H) until 1010If Judge Hoy Bean was the “Law West of the Pecos, ” Klaerner was “the north and south of the Pedernaies It was a time of law enforcement Indore deterrent forces kept an officer from practical enforcing It may not have been legal to administer a few llard slaps to a wayward youngster but it brought home many good lessons and saved the family from paying a line for which the money might have to be deducted from the family food hillOne of Klaerner s close “shaves” with a criminal was the chase ot a man accused of burglarizing a warehouse in Llano ol high priced merchandise This man shot at the sheriff and a deputy and in-fhcited a leg wound on the deputy Klaerner then shot through the rear window of the culprit s car, breaking the rearview mirror with the bullet.This brought the run away out ol the car and to surrender When Sheriff Klaerner checked his car he found the burglar’s bullet had hit the old model gas tank cap, implanted just ahead ol the windshield, was deflected instead of possibly inflicting a mortal wound on either Sheriff Klaerner or the deupty, if it had plowed through the windshield as intended.Bank robliery was a big deal during the “depression” years and one such occasion could have caused the lives of a number of local citizens if the transmission on the* Sheriff’s car had not gone outHenry Molberg, driver of the car. toils the story. He was on his way to go fishing when he met Sheriff Klaerner at a filling station at the curve on Highway 87 on South Heights. The Sheriff told him a bank had been robU'd at San Marcos and the roblHTs we re headed this way in a black Buick car.Such a car came up the road, which Klaerner and Molberg followed to a stop at a filling station where a check showedihe\ were not involved in»lawlessness.Soon after, Harvey Striegler, who Molberg remembers worked in the County Agent’s office, in the same building as the Sheriff's office, excitedly came to tell them that the bank robbers had been sighted on their wav here via tin* oldWr\ 7 '('enter Point road.Sheriff Klaerner immediately made plans to block the road where it ran into the KerrviUe road, get behind the large pecan trees and demand surrender by the robbers after shooting a hole through their radiator To the best of Moiberg’s memory,Deupties Hugo Crenwelge, Otto Meurcr and Game Warden Adolph Heep were added to their force. Heep’s car was also added to check on additional roadsBe Sure To Play TheKNAFWhat’s I n The Can ContestRegisterAt The Following PlacesOf Businessf**11National Building CenterStehling Bros.Winn's Variety StoreDooley’s 5-10*25c Store*§Haus Of Shoesf4t«ItItri MusicSunset Village Groc.Gibson’s Discount CenterKuntnr Fried ChickenPeach TreeThe tarimt correct guess at each location wins. In a tio a drawing will he hdd to determine the winnerthat location.•ffarKNAF - 910-KCKNAF-FM • 101.1 MCCO N STA B LK HKNRY SCIICCII, who was the late Sheriff Alfred Klaerner’s chief side kick in law enforcement liack in the 1920’s. Schuch too isdeceased.Klaerner was armed with a Model ;to Remington rifle. He asked Molberg to drive the car.Hurrying out to the plaflned rendezvous, they met the bank robbers roaring past them on the hill just this side of Live Oak ( reek. The Buick touring car had its curtains on the car and was moving at high speed. Klaerner calk'd on Molberg to give immediate chase but in making the turn on the hill the transmission was damaged.While regretted at the time, this possibly saved the group’s life as they could have been mowed down by gunfire had they followed the Buick and fired on the same. They followed the clouds of dust the car left, taking curves onnarrow roads at breakneckspeeds. Whoever was driving knew the Hill Country well as they left San Marcos on littletraveled roads, crossed intervening and Gillespie county on generally unfamiliarby wavs. Thev hit small lanes» * *which even county natives knew little about.The Sheriff’s Posse followed as best as possible, finding they had gone* to Harper, from there to Doss and presumably wereon the way to Mason where officers were alerted. The Harper-Doss Koad at that time had about 16 gates and the outlaws opened and closed each one to delay the officers as much as possible Apparently the last trace of them was the finding of empty gasoline cans on a rural road in Mason county where they apparently continued seeking out the back roads to travel in their flight.They escaped with their sizeable bank loot but it was not through lack of courage that they were not apprehended as they came through Sheriff Klaerner’s “Law of the Pedernaies” domain.Another close call on the Sheriff’s life oeeured as he visited a rural home and had glass spattered all over himself as he looked into a second story window to find the citizen who fired rifle shots through the window at the Sheriff.Sheriff Klaerner was in office during much of the Prohibition era and had many problemswith illicit stills and “bootleggers. ' Typical of his handling of such cases was a complaint that a man had a heavy stock of “booze” and was selling the same. Klaerner knew that to send the man to thepenitentiary would be a hard blow to the family so he carefully went to the place, knocked off the locks, poured out the bootleg liquor and ofcourse never heard a complaint from the alleged culprit whohad learned his lesson and leftQuoIniFourPresid have widow, use at t on thlt; Washir Theviksculpt (I pink ^ used a walkw. granite Texas. 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Newspaper Details
Fredericksburg Standard
Fredericksburg, Texas, US
Wed, May 14, 1975
Page 18
Full Page
Clipped by
Butt-Holdsworth M.
Texas, USA 01 Jul 2018
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