Real County
Historical Museum 

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Fritz Streib, portrayed by reenactor Jonas Brice

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Fritz Streib was born September 9, 1902, one of the four children of Henry and Dovie Ann Davis Streib. Fritz grew up ranching with his dad, Henry Streib, and eventually acquired land of his own in the area of Rio Frio. Part of Fritz’s land would later become Garner State Park. Fritz was a friend to everyone and always had a story to tell. His adventurous spirit always kept things lively.

As a young child, Fritz was loved by everyone, but he was also prone to a little fun mischief. He and his sister, Gussie, were sent to boarding school in San Antonio. Fritz decided boarding school was just not his thing and ran away. No one knows how he got back to Rio Frio, but he did.
Another thing he once did, and he told me this story. Back in the day, like today, no one liked the hot, brutal Texas summers. Fritz was raised on a sheep, goat, and cattle ranch. Every ranch had a “goat shed”, a long, low barn-type shed where the goats would go during a cold rain or cold weather. The front of the shed was about 6 ft high, and the roof sloped to the back to maybe 3 or 4 ft.  The low roof kept in the heat in and kept them warm, but back to the story. Something you may never have experienced is a “blackboard” in school. It made for the most horrible experience. When you would scratch your fingernails on it, the hair on the back of your head would stand up, and you would get chill bumps from the screeching type noise that it would make. But the chill bumps always made one feel a bit cooler. Fritz realized that a cat's claws would make the same chilling noise if a cat slid down on the tin roof of the goat shed. So, he would take one of the barn cats and put them on top of the goat shed roof, and when the cat would slide down, Fritz would always get chill bumps! He said it was just like living with air conditioning!!

I knew Fritz and always enjoyed his stories. He gave me a Border Collie puppy out of his good goat herding dog named Mickie. In honor of him, we named her Fritzie. He was a lifelong rancher. He would drive through town with his horse in the back of his pickup, tied to the sideboards. Most horses would not haul like that!

Fritz loved life and people until the day he died on March 8, 1979. He is buried in the Rio Frio Cemetery.  

Fritz Streib was portrayed by Jonas Brice age 8 years old. Jonas had a fun time learning about Fritz and Fritz younger days being spent on a ranch. Jonas thinks that Fritz would spend his youth riding horses, playing outside, maybe with a ball. He also thinks that Fritz may have gotten into trouble some too because of putting the cat on top of the shed. He thinks Fritz likes funny stuff, and I can attest to that too!

Jonas really liked dressing up in the costume of a youngster back in the early 1900’s. And he enjoyed riding on the float. He enjoyed riding on the float and enjoyed everyone waving at him. He liked when people would yell at them while riding through Leakey on the float. And his brother Simon’s hat kept blowing off, and he thought that was very funny.

He said it was fun and he enjoyed playing a young cowboy.

Jonas was asked what he thought was the bravest and most memorable thing that he learned about his character, Fritz Streib. Jonas said, “He ran away from boarding school; that was pretty brave of him. I don’t think I would be brave, though. I think I would just stay there because it’s fun to learn, and I would be nervous because every time I would look behind me if there were lots of sounds, even if it was just the bushes, I would be running! And I don’t think Mom would be very happy if I did that, either.”