Harry’s Department store is a San Saba landmark. It’s also an inspirational story of success during the lean years in a small Hill Country town. And it’s part of the story of a remarkable man named Harry Shapiro.

       Harry was born in Brady, where his parents were attending a rodeo, in 1921. His mother died shortly thereafter, and Ike Shapiro, a Lithuanian immigrant who owned a small dry goods store in Coleman, raised his son under very difficult conditions.

       Harry Shapiro was serving in the U.S. Army during World War II when his father moved to San Saba and opened another small dry goods store there. Harry returned from military duty with a new wife (Beatrice Kaplan, of Atlanta) and went to work in his father’s store. Being one of very few Jewish families in the Hill Country, the Shapiros maintained their membership in the Temple Beth-El fellowship in Austin.

       San Saba in the late 1940s was a thriving agricultural town with a population of more than 3,000, but the Shapiros’ store (called “The Leader” or “Leader Dry Goods”) was just a small business, and times were quite lean for the young shopkeeper. That didn’t keep Harry Shapiro from making a very good impression on the people of San Saba. When his father died after a short illness in 1951, Harry took over management of the store, and became an influential leader as well as a popular personality (“My father was one of the most civic-minded men in San Saba,” says son Howard Shapiro, a Plano attorney whose wife is State Senator Florence Shapiro). A cursory look through 1952 issues of the San Saba News reveals that Shapiro served as county chairman for the Salvation Army’s annual fund drive (the first ever in San Saba County), the finance chairman of the Civic Improvement League (in charge of raising money for a municipal swimming pool at Mill Creek Pond) and the “big gifts” chairman for the Boy Scouts Fund Drive. That December, he was nominated for director of the local Jaycees.

       He also began to grow the small business he had inherited, advertising aggressively in both the local newspapers -- nurse’s uniforms for $7.95 (March 13, 1952), the Easter Collection (full page ad, March 20), Gene Autry blue jeans for $1.68 and khaki pants for $2.79 (April 3), Vicki Vaughn dresses for $6.95 (4/24) and 100% nylon sport shirts for $4.95 (5/1). He also offered a $40 Caxton hat as a prize for the holder of the best average in the county’s calf tie-down competition.

       That was the year that weather began to seriously damage agriculture in a prolonged drought that changed Hill Country history. While there was a lot of rain in 1952, it came in two furious onslaughts; most of the year was very hot and very dry. The San Saba River rose 27 feet in a springtime flood, but by the end of an extremely hot August (average highs: 105 degrees), most crops were damaged and the Colorado River was not flowing at all. One old-timer, who had kept records since 1885, said it was the worst summer he had ever seen.

       On September 11, parts of San Saba County received 22 inches of rain, and the river rose 37 feet in the worst flood since 1938. That marked the beginning of the terrible drought of the 1950s, probably the worst economic disaster ever suffered by the city of San Saba.

       The store, by now re-named Harry’s, survived and even prospered during these worst of times. Shapiro expanded his San Saba store and opened a shoe store in Lampasas, meanwhile continuing his involvement with almost every civic project in San Saba. He was elected president of the San Saba Chamber of Commerce on January 10, 1957. He and his wife, Beatrice, raised two sons and a daughter in San Saba.

       Then another disaster struck. The drought ended with a deluge in May of 1957, and Sulphur Creek swept through downtown Lampasas. The water pushed in the front door and windows of Shapiro’s shoe store, piling the damaged fixtures and merchandise against the back wall. Shapiro sold what little was left of the business and opened a fabric store across the street from his dry goods store in San Saba. His public service continued unabated, and he was elected mayor of San Saba, serving in that position from 1958 to 1962. He served as Central Texas campaign chairman for Lyndon Johnson’s presidential run in 1964. And, in ad in the January 9, 1964 edition of the San Saba News, he offered genuine Wrangler jeans on sale for $2.98 a pair (regularly $3.98).

       At Christmas time in 1969, Shapiro hired a young student named David Parker as temporary help. Parker impressed Shapiro enough so that, when Shapiro needed full-time help the next April, he called and offered Parker the job. In 1971, Shapiro purchased the old Corner Drug Store next door (expanding Harry’s to the corner of Highways 190 and 16, San Saba’s main intersection), turning it into Harry’s Boot Store. The boot store featured handmade water buffalo boots from the famous Raymondville bootmaker, Abraham Rios, for only $49.98! He also expanded the other direction, purchasing Lynn Ward’s San Saba Hardware store, a building famous for its “weather wall,” where Ward recorded interesting weather events for decades. That part of the wall has been preserved, and is still visible today, although the rest of the building has been nicely restored.

       In 1973, Shapiro sent Parker to study the operations of a discount western store in Lott, Texas. A day after Parker returned with his report, Harry’s became Harry’s Discount Western Wear. Business boomed as customers discovered that Harry’s had the lowest prices in Texas. Some customers would even fly in from around the state. “We’d pick them up at the airport,” Parker recalls, “and bring them here to shop.”

       Longtime San Saba resident Tom Shires recalls that, when he was living in Oklahoma City, he would just call Harry’s and have new Wranglers shipped to his son in New Orleans. He was just one of many loyal customers.

       The “Urban Cowboy” era, from 1977 to 1979 was the all-time high, and during those years, Harry’s sold more Wrangler’s jeans than any other retailer in Texas, although the population in San Saba had dipped to 2,847 by the 1980 census. In the meantime, Shapiro had gone into several business ventures in partnership with Reuben Senterfitt, who served two terms as Speaker of the House in the Texas legislature. He received the Bonds for Israel 30^th Anniversary Leadership Award in 1978 (“He was a very strong supporter of Israel,” says his son, Howard). He also served for several years (1967-73 and 1977-82) on the board of the Lower Colorado River Authority (he was appointed chairman twice by two different governors, John Connally and Dolph Briscoe. He was chosen to co-ordinate Mark White’s campaign for governor in San Saba County in 1982. He served on the Board of Directors of the Heart O’ Texas Savings and Loan Association. He enjoyed hunting, fishing ranching and, according to his son, Howard, “he traveled the world.”

       All those endeavors were ended abruptly by Harry Shapiro’s sudden death, at age 60, in 1982. The whole town mourned his passing; the LCRA dedicated a new office building to his memory on January 19, 1983, and a local artist named Ronald McGuffin painted a mural on the wall of Harry’s Boot Store as a tribute to Harry Shapiro. An era in San Saba was over.

       But Harry’s Department Store continued, under the management of Mrs. Shapiro and long-time employees David Parker and Lorena Terry. The two employees and their spouses formed a partnership in 1986 to purchase the store from Shapiro’s estate, and continued the traditions of personal service, great selection and low price that had made Harry’s such a success. David Parker followed in Harry Shapiro’s footsteps, serving 13 years on the San Saba city council – six of those years as mayor. Harry’s remained the most visible business icon in San Saba.

       In January of 2008, Harry’s was sold to partners Ken Jordan (he is now the mayor of San Saba) and Clay Nettleship (he is the vice-chairman of the LCRA). Already they have made a huge difference in the look and atmosphere of downtown San Saba by their beautiful renovation of Harry's Department Store. It looks like Harry’s will continue to play an important part in San Saba’s future.

By John Hallowell

John Hallowell is the past editor of several Hill Country publications. He has been exploring the Texas Hill Country for almost 20 years.