“Footprints of Fayette County”
The March 12, 1908, issue of the La Grange Journal contained the following news brief: “Buster Brown, a liliputian, representing the Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis, was the attraction at the mercantile establishment of the Von Rosenberg-Heintze Company last Thursday.
Buster’s coming had been advertised extensively, and a regular circus crowd was at the store by four o’clock Thursday afternoon. Tige, the dog friend, was also on hand. Buster explained the object of his visit, told the history of his life and commended the Blue Ribbon school shoe. After his talk, hundreds of lapel buttons and storybooks were distributed. The advertising feature, thus illustrated, will bring good results.”
Local newspapers contained very few photographs at the time, but this recently received photograph at the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives is the perfect illustration of the crowd that gathered to see Buster Brown in person.
Buster Brown was originally a comic strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault.
Buster was a nicely dressed city boy with beautiful golden hair, but he was also a prankster. The comic strip, which included his pal, Tige the talking dog, and girlfriend, the lovely Mary Jane, became a hit and its characters were licensed to numerous companies to advertise their products. Probably the longest-lasting association was with the Brown Shoe Company (later Caleres, Inc.), which had a popular line of children’s shoes.
To promote its shoes, from 1904 to 1930, the Brown Shoe Company hired little people to perform as Buster Brown at stores and theaters throughout the United States, usually accompanied by a dog, as in La Grange.
But where was this imposing building? Part of it still exists at 245 West Travis Street, although it is difficult to recognize. The pictured building was located at that address and also, half of the current 253 West Travis address.
C. J. von Rosenberg had moved from Ellinger to La Grange and by July 31, 1890, had purchased the two-story stone building at 245 West Travis. He renovated the building and opened Rosenberg & Co. General Merchandise.
When the store was remodeled again in early 1903, carpenters and masons cut openings both upstairs and down joining C. J. von Rosenberg’s store and the two-story brick building to its west, where his older brother, Fritz, had run a saloon. We believe 1903 was also when the elaborate façade was created, in- cluding the second-floor gallery built across the exterior of both buildings, as shown in the photograph.
The January 15, 1903, issue of The Journal announced that the newly enlarged Rosenberg & Co. had consolidated with August Heintze’s Cash Department Store to form the Von Rosenberg-Heintze Mercantile Company.
The company was capitalized with $50,000, the original stockholders being Heintze, C.
J. and Dora (Meyer) von Rosenberg, Alex E. von Rosenberg, W.
L. Shaw, Armand Halff, Walter Longin, Edward von Rosenberg, O. E. Hagemann, Alfred Heintze, Julius Meyenberg and R. F. Torn.
The Von Rosenberg-Heintze Mercantile Company likely sold lots of Buster Brown Blue Ribbon shoes after this successful event.
Buster Brown did come back to La Grange twice more, on March 25, 1911, and March 9, 1912. The Fayette County Record reported a very small crowd for the 1911 event due to heavy rain.
The 1912 event wasn’t even mentioned the following week, but there were comments on excessive rains, so that appearance must have only drawn a small crowd, as well.
Sources: Buster Brown at Wikipedia.com.
Various issues of the La Grange Journal and Fayette County Record at The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory. unt.edu.Research materials in the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives, 855 S. Jefferson, La Grange, TX
