Welfare is
believed to have been established in 1866, although
exact documentation is not available. The town started
to flourish when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass
Railroad operated freight and passenger service from
San Antonio with connections to Fredericksburg and
Kerrville. Mail service by stagecoach was operated
as erly as 1847. The walls of the Stagecoach Stop
and its smokehouse are still standing with gun turrets
for fighting robbers and Indians, intact. The town
of Welfare also had a gristmill, cotton gin, and several
homes, a saloon, hotel, general store, post office
and schoolhouse. The original store and post office,
a two-story structure, burned down in 1916 and was
rebuilt that same year. From 1921 to 1978, Perry J.
Laas and wife Alma operated the store and post office.
In 1978 the store closed and had remained so until
November of 1998, twenty years later, when Gabriele
Meissner McCormick and David Lawhorn reopened the
doors.
Welfare
Postmasters
Gottfried Knoepfli was
the first postmaster of Welfare from 1886-1887. He
was followed by Charles Beseler, Willie Rust, Emil
Sueltenfuss, Adolph Rheinhardt, Mrs. Otto Poehnert,
Pul Hein and Perry Laas Jr.
