DEXAR COUNTY HISTORICAL COfmiSSION
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM
INTERVIErv WITH : Mrs. (Ruth) Morris Kallison
Interviewer: Frances Kallison
Date: September 13, 1977
Place : Frances Kallison's home
'\
Ruth Kallison will now give her memories of her early girlhood in San Antonio,
her memories of the San Antonio flood and World War I.
R.K.: I ' ve lived here all my life and was born in San Antonio where the
Cadillac company is now. Dallas Street . I went to Marshall Street school
an d Main Avenue Hi gh School .
San Antonio was, of course , very mu' qa smpller. Everywhere we went,
we went on the street car. That was our only transportation . We did have
jitneys during World War I . A ji tney was an open Ford and they ran like
taxi cabs except they were almost like busses. You could always get one
on a corner; you paid fi ve cents to ride almost any place you wanted to .
So _you either rode a street c ar or a jitney wherever you wanted to go .
Downtown San Antonio was the only part of San Antonio that we went to for
restaurants or entertainment of any kind. They didn't have any a t t he
outskirts that t hey have now.
One thing I remember was Harnisch and Baer. I t was an i ce cream par­lor
and so many people went there. It was really a lovely place .
F.K. : Ruth, when you speak of these p l aces like Harnisch and Baer and
i
KALLISON
other places , please try, to the best of your memory , to locate them.
So that people today would know where they were locate~ .
2.
R . K.: Schultze ' s Garden was like a beer garden; they served out of doors .
I remember they had wonderful cheese sandwiches there . I was just a child ,
but I remember those cheese sandwiches . They served beer . It was where
Frank Brothers is now. (Alamo Street)
I remember playing basket ball and we wore bloomers .
F . K. : What year, approximately, did you go to Main Avenue High School?
Please tell about your sports and other activi ties there besides basket
ball.
R.K. : .I didn't do any other sports but I was very much interested, at
that time the debate team was very popular. The boys that debated were
sort of our heroes . More so than now; football players are; then debaters
were.
San Pedro springs was a lovely place. rve used to go there to listen
to music. They had nautral springs which were very lovely . . ~used to drink
the water. They had different activitie~ . ~hey had a b eautiful lake with
swans on the lake. We went there for picnics all the time . When I was
in school, we always wal ked from Marshall Street school, which nobody would
do now, to San Pedro springs, and had our picnics .
The Electric Park was where the Traction Company is now. It was a park
with a lot of electric l i ghts and they had different amusements. We used
to walk over there and they would have a lot of vaudeville acts and shooting
galleries and different sort of activi ties at the Electric Park . And that
was a place t-.rhere ever ybody likeq to go .
When I was a very young child , my grandparents had some friends and
my husband, (who was later to be my h usband) came over to these friends
on e day and I was playing the piano, which I didn ' t play very well: That
KALLISON
was the first time he ever saw me and he talked about i t over and over
again. I must have been about t en or tw·elve years old~ He thought he
was a man : he ~tas about seventeen. He was going out with some boys to
the Electric Park, a place of amusement at that time. The young people
tven t there. I was too young to go .
3 .
F.K.: Do you remember where t he old ball park was located? Will you please
tell us what you remember about 'dorld 'Vlar I in San Antonio? Plas there
any USO or any acti vities of that type for t he sol di ers?
R. K.: Yes, there were activities just like i n r·lorld War II. l'le had USO,
something similar to USO. We had dances. I remember I went to dances and
danced _with the different soldiers at that time. I remember we had a very
good time. We were young and di dn 't even think about there was a war.
We just realized that we were having a good time.
The flood i n 1921: It rained very hard. But around where I lived .. .
I had been married j ust a very short time ... we didn't have a flood in that
area . Someone called from out of t own and said, "Are you all right?" We
said, "Of course , we ' re all right. Why ryot?"_ And they said, "There ' s
a terrible flood in San Antonio and we just heard about it." r.ve r eally
didn 't know there was a f l ood. It was very early in the morning. So we
got ready and went to t own and saw everything was inundated and covered
with water. It was a sad , tragic thing.
My fa ther was in the electrical business here in the l ater part of
the nineteenth century. He told me t hat he put the . . . all the elec tri cal
works in Beevill e . ·-He was the first one who put e l ectricity in Beeville.
That was , I guess, the later part of the nineteenth century . He invented
a walkie-talkie that was used by the army; he put elevators in many of
the older buildings some of which have been in use until recently. Like
the Houston building and the Moore building. He invented a nickel-in-the-slot
KALLISON 4 .
that had round records that turned automatically and played music. Jle
invented a clock that was almost like a time clock .
BLANK HERE FOR A FEW MINUTES.
My father l eft Russia, wher e he was born and where his family lived, t¥hen
he was nine years old. He went to England, first . He learned to make
tassels . He worked in a f actory where they made tassels . Then he had
an opportunity to come to this country and he came . He was self- educated .
He always seemed interested in inventing and in electrical things . My
mother came with her family . Her mother and father and small brother and
step sister. ~:Then she t·ias in Russia, she tv en t through a pogrom . Some
Gentile neighbors hid them in an attic ... the whole family in the attic .
Until all of the Russian Cossacks were gone . My father said he always
remembered the pogroms because they, the Cossacks, would take a st¥ord and
go through the feather beds and the pillovJS to see if soT:leone wasn ' t hiding
there. If the Cossacks had discovered that these Gentile people were hiding
some Jewish people in their attic, everybody in that family vrould have been
killed so the y were really very brave. My father came and settled in St .
'- .
i
Louis. Hy mot her ' s family came and also settled in St . Louis. My father
and mother met r,..;hen my mother was sixteen years old . My uncle, v.rho became
Dr. Brot-.rn later, sai d she was a very attractive young lady. My father was
about twenty-one . They got married and lived in St. J~uis, for a number of
years and in the later part of the nineteenth century, they all came to
San Antonio . . . all of my mother's family and my father's. Before that, when
they lived in St. Louis , my fa ther sent for his father who was a great srvi -
mmer and he used to sr'lim in the Nississippi River. At one time I heard that
my father ' s father sr-.ram across the Mississippi River. He was a very great
st·Jimmer. Very strong.
I was born in 1900. My brother , Leo Dubinski, was born in 1902 . In
San Antonio.
During World War I , I worked as a stenographer at Ft. Sam Houston.
KALLISON 5.
They called it then Travis Base or whatever they called it. Camp Travis.
I worked at Camp Travis when I was a young person.
REST OF TAPE IS BLANK
This i s another tape of Mrs . Morris Kallison ... there is no lead in:
F .K. : Unfortunately, we didn 't pick up the first question . So I 'm going
to repeat the firs t question. When and where were your parents married?
R.K.: They were married in St . Louis in 1888 .
F .K. : r•.rhen did they come to San Antonio?
R . K.: They came to San Antonio in 1891 .•. ' 91 in St . Louis.
F. K. : And what t'lere their names?
R.K. : .Benjamin Dubinski and Leah Brown . .. my mother ' s name was Leah Brown.
She was about eighteen and he was about twen ty-one.
F.K. : Was your mother born in the United States?
R . K. : No, they were both born in Russia.
F . K. : Do you have any idea what ages they were when they came to the
United States?
R.K.: Wel l , my father came, he said, ~h~n he was eight or nine years old.
He got to London and when he was there he learned to make tassels . Which
he could always make. He ' d shok• me sometimes ~ He never forgot the first
trade h e learned: making t ass-els . In those days , women -r-1ore tassels on
their dresses , on shawls, on hats. He learned to make beautiful tassels
and he showed me several that he made very quickly because he never forgot .
F.K.: I take it then, that he r.,as always very deft in using his hands.
R . K. : Yes , he was . -
R . K. : I think your son Jimmy has inherited that . .. the way that Jimmy can
repair, can take these old antique clocks all in pieces and put them toge-ther
again and make beaut iful restoration of these antique c l ocks .
R.K.: Yes , he can . You're probably right.
F.K.: He probably got that from your father. As I understand it, your
KALLISON
mother was a beautiful seamstress and dressmaker, was she not?
R.K.: She had a lot of imagination in the things she made.
F.K.: She could create it so beautifully.
R.K.: Yes.
F.K.: So your background is one of inventiveness and creativity, which
has been passed down to the third and fourth generations.
6.
R.K.: Gerald had really inherited my father's •.. Leo, my father ' s son and
Gerald, my father 's grandson, both inherited his unique qualities of knowing
how to do any kind of electrical work. And make things with their hands.
F.K.: Do you know when your father began to teach himself to work with
electricity and electrical appliances?
R.K.: No, I really don't know. But he opened an electrical shop at the
corner of Houston and St. Nary ' s street tvhere Hertzberg's Jewelry Store
is today, when he came to San Antonio.
F. K.: I know from his advertisements in the City Directory ... his first
advertisement appears in the Ci t y Directory of 1892-3 . He probably arrived
in 1891 too late to be included in the l?91 ~ity Directory. I know from
his adverti sements that he advertised that he could repair any electrical
appliance or he could wire any house or set up any electrical circuit.
-rvould you like t o comment on that?
R.K.: : I think he could because he did . He actually taught himself to do
these things and he worked in places where they had electrical appliances
and he learned all that. He kneh' hot., to do it . He put in eleva tors, he
put in electric systems. He was the first one in Beeville to put in elec­tric
light.
F.K.: You told me that when the Frost National Bank built the first
building, on the corner of St. Mary ' s and Houston streets, which later
KALLISON 7.
became the old Houston building in 1909; you told me your fa ther installed
the elevator in that building.
R.K.: Yes, he did.
F.K.: How long did that elevator run?
R . K. : In 1909 my father put the elevator in the first Frost National Bank
building which was on the corner of Houston street and South Main. Later,
the Frost Bank moved to Main Plaza and the old building was called the
Houston building. The elevator ran from 1909 until about 1970 . .. that same
elevator that my father put in . And later the Frost National Bank bought
that property in about 1970 in the same location where they had it first,
they are no"'· .. they have their offices now. They moved to Main Plaza in
1922.
F . K.: Your father was installing elevators and lighting systems but was
he at this early date , prior to 1910, prior to T·lorld r·Tar I, was he manu-facturing
anything?
R.K.: I really don 't know. But he started his factory right after World
~
War I ... the factory that he has at this [pint ..
F . K.: Your father opened up a battery factory . Isn ' t that correct?
R.K. : Yes.
F.K.: At that time , was your brother Leo affiliated with him in the battery
manufacturing business that early?
R.K.: Yes, he was.
F.K.: About 1918 or 1919?
R.K.: Yes.
F.K.: That early, your brother Leo was working with your father . And they
were manufacturing batteries. Where was the pl ant located?
R.K.: That was on San Pedro Avenue; I think it was right across from where
they r epair batteries.
KALLISON 8.
F.K.: Will you tell us where this original plant near Romano Plaza on
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San Pedro was located?
R.K.: It was located across the street they have now where they have the
repair batteries.
F.K.: At what point did they move the battery plant, where they were manu-,
facturing batteries across the street, in what is now the place where they
repair batteries? Do you remember?
R.K.: No, I don't .
F.K.: Make a guess . In 1942, according to this newspaper account, they
moved their main plant to Fratt, Texas . Will you tell us what use the old
location was put to?
R.K.: They repaired batteries and my father did some armature winding and
different kinds of work of that type .
F . K.: If your .battery breaks down and you need service , you call the office
on San Pedro.
R.K.: That's right .
F.K. : So they not only repair batterie;-put ~hey service batteries.
R.K.: Right.
F.K.: Would you like to tell us about some of your father ' s inventions.
Before he went in to the manufacture of batteries. You say that your father
invented numerous items which are in use today and very likely other men
invented and~perfected these appliances or gadgets but your father invented
and perfected them on his own. Would you tell us what some of these were.
R . K.: He had the phonograph which was a cylinder ... twelve cylinders . .. that
went around and around. It was an automatic phonograph . He invented a
walkie talkie. He invented the nickel in the slot .•. put a nickel in the
slot and it would play music or could be used for anything that a slot
machine uses the nickels for. He also invented a part of the Burroughs
KALLISON 9.
Adding Machine. ftfy brother checked on it to find out whether that part
was still in use and they are still using the part on the adding machine
that my father invented. Of course, he did not get paid for it .. . I don't
know how much· he got paid but it was very little. My brother had a very
acute business acumen and he was able to take over and help my father .
Did very much for him. Whereas my father was not so good at business ... he
was good at inventing things and all kinds of . .. My brother was a very good
business man and he knew how to further the battery business.
F. K.: So it was your brother who expanded the business and opened up
branch offices in other Texas cities.
R.K. : .That's right.
F.K.: What were some of the cities?
R.K.: In Houston and Dallas and New Orleans.
F.K.: But the manufacture of the batteries took place in San Antonio at
Fratt, Texas. But before that, when I first met you all, they were still
manufacturing batteries down at the San Pedro plant . Which is now a dis­tribution
center and a center for repai;'pf b~tteries and installation of
batteries in automobiles . How long were they at the Fratt plant?
R.K.: From 1942 to about 1978. Then they moved to a very large industrial
area on the south side of town, which is much larger than the Fratt plant
though they still use the Fratt plant for some things. For their manu­facturing
and for all of their distribution and everything else is in the
new plant.
F.K.: That's a multi·acre plant, isn't it?
they have?
Do you know how many employes
·R.K. : I couldn't say because I have no idea; not the faintest idea.
F.K.: Do you know how many batteries a day they turn out?
R.K.: I don't know that either .
Y.ALLISON
F.K.: Do you know to what foreign countries they ship their batteries?
R.K.: No, I don't.
10.
F.K.: We've been talking about this industry but I don't think we have
mentioned the name. What was the name of your father and your brother's
first battery manufacturing operation?
R.K.: The . Reliable battery manufactured by the Standard Electric Company.
F.K.: And what is the name of the industry today?
R .K. ·: Standard Industries.
F.K . . : As I understand it, Standard Industries now not only manufactures
batteries but they also manufacture a fiber glass insulating plate for
batteries.
R.K.: Yes, they do.
F.K.: And when did they begin to do that?
R.K.: That was some time ago.
F.K.: What other product does S tandard Industries produce today?
R.K.: In 1950 they perfected a fiber g l ass insulator for batteries which
lengthened the battery's life. In 195B:}they took over the manufacture
of the fiber glass.
F.K.: Tell us a little bit about your brother, Leo, in addition to his
handling the business affairs of the battery manufacture operation. I
understand that he, too, was very wise concerning electrical matters.
R ._K. :' Yes, he understood just like my f.ather . My brother was self taught.
He learned by reading and by working in the business. He l earned every
thing he knew. He studied to take an exam for electrical engineering when
he was not well ... he was sick for a while after an appendectomy ... and he
studied engineering and he passed the engineering course and he was an
engineer •••
F.K. He proudly wore on his watch chain, as I recall, the emblem of mem-
KALLISON 11.
bership in the Texas Electrical Engineering Society .
R . K.: Yes. He was self t aught; took the examination in order to pass the
time pleasantly and interestingly while he was recuperating from an appen ­dectomy
.
You were born in San Antonio in 1900. Is that correct?
R .K.: Yes .
F . K. : Tel l us about some of your earliest memories . You tell me that
you do not remember the horse and buggy days; that by the time you remem­ber
anything, people were driving autom6biles instead of buggies.
Is that true?
R . K. : That is true . I remember some carriages. I r emember going in a
carriage '!<lith my mother and a relative of hers, cousin, ~ve went to Bracken­ridge
Park and fed the deer . I remember that . And I remember the first
automobiles that were here . They were Fords. They were touring car types.
If it started to rain, we had to jump out very quickly and put up the rain
curtains that had little isinglass vlindo~''S so that you could see out of them.
Of course , San Antonio was small and all:1t he .activities were downtown.
Downtown was where the river is and where the stores were. We didn 't have
stores in the neighborhoods like we do now. We'd have small , little grocery
stores but that ' s about all . Everything else was in town. I remember going
to town to have ice cream sodas and to , maybe a restaurant; to a movie .• . I
remember when I was in high school was the first time I saw a movie. A
regular movie: . They had those little short comedies before t hen.
F.K.: Remember the.name of the first movie you saw?
R .K.: No .
F . K.: Who was in it? Who were the actors?
R . K.: It seems to me Mary Pickford probably.
F.K.: Do you remember the name of the theater and where was it located?
KALLISON 12.
R.K. : The Majestic. Where the Majestic is now.
F.K.: It would not have been the same building.
R . K.: No, that ' s right. It was over where the Stowers Furniture company
was, on Main Avenue.
F.K. : I think the archtvay is still standing that led into that theater
here in 1979 . There ' s still an archway by the old Stowers Building that
led into the foyer of that old Majestic Theater. When I married Perry
in 1931, there was s t ill a motion picture house in there but I don't remem-ber
the name of it. Do you?
R . K.: I thought it was the Majestic. I thought it was always called the
Majestic .
F.K.: No . It was called something else. Let ' s get back to your recall-ections
of Brackenridge Park. Were the deer just roaming in the Park or
were they fenced in or how were t hey contained?
R.K.: They were fenced in but there were a lot of them.
F.K. : And you could go into this fenced-in area .. .
,_
R . K. : No, you stood on the outside and qhre~pieces of bread or whatever
it was.
F.K.: Was there a zoo in Brackenridge in those days?
R. K. : I don 't remember a zoo. If they had, it tv as a small one.
F.K.: Do you remember when the modern Brackenridge Zoo was opened?
R . K.: No, I don't remember that. I guess it was shortly after World War I
but I couldn ' t say defin_i tel y.
F .K.: You attended·-the public. schools of San Antonio. From which high
school did you graduate?
R.K.: I graduated in New York at a high school. But I almost finished
here. Where Fox High School is now.
F . K. : That was the old Main Avenue High School. Your family moved to
KALLISON 13.
New York and you lived in New York a short time. About how long did you
all live in New York?
R.K. : I t hink it was two or three years; maybe it was four years .
F.K.: And it. was when your father and mother returned to San Antonio that
your father decided to open the battery plant. Is that correct?
R.K. : Yes.
F.K.: That would have been in 191B ... around in there .
R . K.: Yes , that's right.
F.K. : Even though you lived in New York for a few years, you did attend
old Main Avenue High School ... on Main avenue where Fox Tech is today.
What were some of the recreational features for young teen-agers in those
days?
R.K. : I remember that I loved to play basket-ball. We wore bloomers in
those days and played basket-ball . They played tennis but I was never
good at it so I didn ' t care for it very much . We took long rvalks; we rode
on bicycles ... where people take cars now, we used to do bicycles. r-ve
walked all the r"'ay to school; it was quitp a (j.istance. It was interesting
to me ·at the time, they had debating societies. The boys used to debate .
Some of our well known lawyers, were later well known , were debating at
that time.
F . K. : You say you walked to school and it was quite a di s tance. Where
dig your famil y live?
R .K.: They lived off of West Laurel street. It ' s called Duffield Street
now. From West Laurel street to Fox High School is quite a distance . We
walked to and from school ever y day .
F.K.: No child would walk it eoday. They would either ride the bus down
Main Avenue or they would have mama chauffeur them and pick them up .
R . K. : Absolut ely. But we walked.
KALLISON 14.
F.K.: What do you remember about the 1921 flood?
R.K. : I remember I was married just about a year. I didn't even know there
was a flood until I was awakened by some of my friends 1vho tolri me there
had been a t errible flood .during the night and that all of down town
San Antonio was under water . I remember going with some fri ends to town
and seeing the water rush into the buildings and a lot o f the buildings
were ruined. Many people lost everything . The water went in and destroyed
all their supplies and they were not insured against it. It was a very
terrible thing for a lot of people .
F. K. : Do you remember the rain that brought on the flood? The storm?
R . K.: . I did not realize . . . (there was a rain) . .. it was heavy enough to be
a flood. San Antonio was not prepared. We did not have the protection
that we needed for a flood.
F.K. : You say that during rvorld War I , you rvere a secretary out at Ft.
Sam Houston. Do you r emember anything unusual or exciting about t hat?
R . K. : I remember when t he war was over, I got into a truck with some of
my cousins and we drove all t he v1ay dor~ 'jl!ous.ton street and Commerce street
and all the downtown streets and everybody was waving flags and screaming
and hugging each other . I don't remember anything like that; it was the only
time . Even after rvorld r-Tar II, we didn ' t have so much excitement.
END OF INTERVIEW
.. ..~
KALLISON ,1•1RS .1·\0RRI S (RUTH)
Biog rap hica1,1~5
Early 20th century San Antoni o:
Brackenridge Park,12, down town,
11, El ectric Park,2, flood 1921,
3,14,Harnisch and Baer,l, movies,
11,12, San Pedro Springs,2 ,
Schultze 's Garden 2, Sports and
recreation,2,13,World War !,3,14,
Family:5-7,battery factory,7,8,1 0
Standard Industries,9,l0
INDEX
A small slice of life in San Antonio in the early 1900's.
\1 .
Kallison's father, a Russian immigrant, was skilled in electrical
work and invented the walkie-talkie, nickel - in-the-s lot record
player and the time clock among others. He installed the first
electric works in Beeville and the first elevator in the Frost
National Bank. He started a battery factory after World War I which
has grown into the successful Standard Industries .