Bridges: H-E-B family grew grocery business in midst of adversity

Generations ago, the dry and dusty West was seen as a lifeline for a special set of patients, specifically those seeking the dry air in the belief it would cure a variety of ailments. Charles C. Butt was one such patient. Once a successful pharmacist, contracting the dreaded tuberculosis meant he and his family had to give up everything in a desperate bid to save his life. One family’s desperation would lead to an unexpected opportunity and lead to the creation of one of Texas’s most successful grocery store chains, H-E-B.

Charles Butt was born in Mississippi in 1848. By the time he was in his 30s, he had a wife, a son, and a successful drug store in Grenada, Mississippi. After his first wife died, the new widower met Florence Thornton, a 24-year-old school teacher and college graduate in 1888. The two quickly married and moved to Memphis, where Butt opened a new drug store. The couple soon had three sons. But in 1904, the family received devastating news when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a deadly disease that slowly robbed patients of their ability to breathe. The only treatment at the time was to move to a dry, warm climate to possibly give his lungs a chance to heal.

The family left everything and moved to San Antonio. Within a few months, they moved to nearby Kerrville, a tiny community of maybe 1,600 people, a common destination for many tuberculosis patients and had even attracted a sanitorium to help these patients. With Charles Butt unable to work and four young children to feed, she had to come up with a plan quickly. She worked a series of jobs at first. In 1905, she invested $60 in a 750-square foot grocery store, initially called C. C. Butt and Co. The family would live in the rooms above the store, and she would run the business. The children were expected to do their part – cleaning, stocking, and delivering orders. Within a few decades, that $60 (nearly $2,000 in 2024 dollars) would become a multi-million dollar business. In the meantime, it kept the family fed.

Like many grocers, it was initially a credit business. And Florence Butt quickly developed a reputation for her generosity. The store became a success. Florence Butt became a respected leader in the community and at her church.

The store also became the first job for the youngest son, Howard Edward. Barely ten years old, his job was to deliver groceries across town, pulling them in his wagon. By the time he was 16, he was effectively managing the store while continuing to go to school. He graduated high school in 1914 and decided to go to California as a grape picker.

Charles Butt succumbed to tuberculosis in 1915 at age 67, and Florence Butt continued to run the store. Howard Butt would serve in the navy in World War I and returned to Kerrville in 1919 to run the store.

Success is never guaranteed and is never a straight line. Such was the case with Butt and his attempts to expand the family store. He had many ideas. In 1922, he switched the store to a self-serve grocery, then a new concept where customers picked out their own groceries instead of placing orders at the counter, which allowed the store to cut prices since they no longer had to chase after customers late on paying their bills. In 1924, he expanded the operations to include a feedstore and three other locations in nearby communities. However, all four of the new stores soon folded. In spite of the initial failures, he refused to give up.

He started a store in Del Rio in 1926. This time, the new store worked. Encouraged by his success, he quickly bought three Piggly Wiggly stores in the Rio Grande Valley, borrowing $38,000, an immense sum for the time. Florence Butt continued to serve as vice-president of the company, now called H. E. Butt Grocery Co. Howard Butt’s instincts proved to be correct, and the stores were a success. He moved the company headquarters to Harlingen and opened a canning company, Harlingen Cannery, to provide Texas-grown produce to his customers. While the Great Depression hit Texas hard, he continued to expand. In 1931, they opened their first store in Corpus Christi. By this point, the stores were pulling in $2 million per year (or $39 million in 2024 dollars). In 1938, they expanded to Austin.

The store’s name soon changed to H-E-B and opened its first store in San Antonio in 1942. H-E-B’s headquarters was moved to Corpus Christi, and also in 1942, air conditioning was added to the stores, a welcome novelty for shoppers escaping the heat. By 1944, H-E-B had 50 locations across South Texas.

By the time Florence Butt died in 1954, she saw the H-E-B stores grow to one of the most successful chains in South Texas. On the day she died at age 89, all the H-E-B stores closed for the day. Inheriting the tenacity and business sense of both parents, Howard Butt continued to build. Later in 1954, he opened a new 10,000-square foot supermarket in Kerrville. The chain expanded rapidly in the 1950s, with stores now including bakeries, butchers, and pharmacies and eventually moved its base to San Antonio.

Howard Butt died in 1991 at age 96, with his sons continuing to run what was now a family store in its third generation. The chain continued to expand. In 1997, the first store was opened in Mexico. Today, H-E-B has hundreds of locations and employs 145,000 people, making it one of the largest private employers in Texas. The store that started with a $60 investment made $38 billion annually by 2022 and gives hundreds of millions of dollars to local charities.

Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan. He holds a doctorate from the University of North Texas. Bridges can be reached by email at drkenbridges@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Bridges: H-E-B family grew grocery business amid patriarch's ailment