Buttery Company in Llano - Food or Hardware?

Llano River Bridge
Texas Hwy. 16 North in heart of city of Llano

Llano is Spanish for "plains," and the double L is pronounced as a Y. However the common pronunciation of Llano by the locals is LAN-OH. The river's north and south forks join near Junction, and from there it flows a hundred miles southeast until draining into the Colorado River.

The City of Llano sits on either side of the Llano River in the heart of Llano County. The area is part of the 1.5 billion-acre Llano Uplift, a geologic phenomenon packed with a variety of mineral deposits that took more than a billion years to form.


Llano County Courthouse

Located in the center of Llano's historic square, the courthouse was built in 1893. It is one of 68 that remain of Texas Courthouses built before 1900. (Historical Marker)



Buttery Company was founded around the year 1900 in Llano, Texas, as "Buttery and Bogusch", a partnership between the original Henry Buttery and Mr. Bogusch. Since then, we have grown to service most of Texas as well as parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico and have diversified into a lumber business, a plumbing supply outlet (Abilene, TX), a power lawn equipment distributor, an electrical supplier, and an extensive farming and ranching supplier in addition to retaining its traditional hardware business.

Initially, Buttery and Bogusch flourished by selling stock on consignment from John Webb & Company, of Austin, Texas. Unfortunately, their practice of granting customers easy credit with long payout terms caused the partnership to run out of both money and goods. After surveying the situation, Mr. Webb declared that what little inventory was left was "not worth hauling back to Austin." Henry's oldest son, Frank, then agreed to accept the partnership's debt and began operations as "J. F. Buttery".


Sources:

Photographs:

Llano River Bridge, Llano, Texas, Texas Hwy. 16 N. Digital Photograph, 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, Texas.

Llano County Courthouse, Llano, Llano County, Texas. Digital Photographs, 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, Texas.

Buttery Company, Llano, Texas, on the Square. Digital Photograph, 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, Texas.

Websites:

Buttery Company - Llano, Texas, http://www.butterycompany.com: accessed October 13, 2009.

City of Llano, s.v. "Historic Landmarks and Tourism" http://www.llanotx.com/tourism.htm:accessed October 13, 2009.