Kerr County was carved from the Hill Country in 1856

The Texas Legislature created Kerr County on January 26, 1856, from land in the Bexar Land District. It was named for James Kerr, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists. The first Anglo settlers arrived around 1846 when Joshua D. Brown led a small group to the Guadalupe River to set up a shingle-making camp. That camp eventually grew into Kerrville, which became the county seat.

German immigrants settled the area in significant numbers by the 1860s and contributed to the county's mills, ranches, and trade. By the 1880s, a San Antonio railway reached Kerrville, spurring further growth. The county seat covers 1,107 square miles of the Edwards Plateau, roughly 50 miles northwest of San Antonio.