(The Center Square) - Most Americans may not know that metal grocery carts, metal racks that dispense newspapers nationwide, or the decorative wire baskets now commonplace in big box stores were invented and produced by an entrepreneur in rural Texas.
A company that began making wire baskets in 1898 has adapted through several generations surviving the Great Depression, steel shortages, oil embargoes, multiple wars, recessions, technological changes, political turmoil marked by national protests and assassinations, and an unprecedented border crisis whose county sheriff is leading on border security efforts working with an Operation Lone Star Task Force.
As Texas celebrates its 190th anniversary of independence this year, Texans in a rural part of the state continue to set a standard for entrepreneurship, public service and philanthropy that’s endured for more than 125 years. They’re also bucking the trend of rural communities losing residents in a county where cattle outnumber residents three to one.
In 1898, Kaspar Wire Works was founded in Shiner, Texas, by August Kaspar, a native Texan and son of a Swiss German immigrant and Lutheran missionary. With the advent of barbed wire, farmers and ranchers were tearing out miles of wire fencing. Kaspar used the wire to solve a problem: He made wire baskets for local farmers and ranchers to carry produce, initially selling them for $1 a piece.
Kaspar later developed new tools to mass produce and refine the baskets. By the 1920s, the company expanded by selling baskets to swimming resorts and manufactured wire hangers and hanging wire baskets in a new manufacturing plant. By the 1930s, Kaspar Wire Works began mounting the baskets to wheeled contraptions - inventing the grocery cart.
By World War II, the company supported the war effort by making thousands of deep fry baskets, baskets for sterilizing and egg washing and 200,000 metal ammunition box handles for the U.S. military. It also suffered losses as the U.S. War Department barred manufacturing of most consumer products. In the 1950s, new inventions led to the creation of bottle racks for soft drink manufacturers and a high-capacity coin-controlled newspaper rack.
In the 1940s and 1950s, cotton farming was in a crisis, ranching was declining, and many small businesses were failing in rural Texas. But the Kaspars remained committed to skilled jobs training and kept hiring local residents contributing to the local economy.
“If workers stay, their families stay, contributing to local economy, school enrollment, real estate and housing and a thriving community,” Arthur Kaspar’s great-grandson, Jason Kaspar, told The Center Square. He runs Kaspar Companies as its CEO.
By the 1980s, the company expanded to produce 90% of USA Today’s newspaper Sho-Racks, putting Kaspar and Shiner on the national map.
“We do business the Texas way. That means something,” Kaspar said. This includes hiring and manufacturing products locally and meeting customer needs in the quintessential Texas (and international) markets: trucks, guns, horses and gold.
Kaspar Companies manufactures truck beds through Bedrock Truck Beds, weapons products through Horizon Firearms and is applying lessons learned to other industries, like working with carbon fiber to improve saddles. “We’re always adapting and committed to versatility,” Kasparsaid.
Kaspar Companies acquired Circle Y Saddles, a leading saddle brand where saddles and other products are handmade in Yoakum, the leather capital of Texas. It also acquired Tex Tan (Texas Tanning and Manufacturing Company), one of the earliest pioneers in American saddle making, founded in 1919 by the Welhausen family. Other companies include Tucker Trail, another saddle, tack and outdoor gear company, and Reinsman, which sells performance gear for horses.
In 2011, Jason Kaspar also co-founded Texas Precious Metals with Tarek Saab, one of the largest online retailers of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion in the country. Also headquartered in Shiner, it’s become a leader in the precious metals industry, having processed more than $4 billion in client transactions and shipped tens of thousands of orders nationwide. Last year, it became an accredited affiliate member of the London Bullion Market Association, which sets the benchmark spot prices for precious metals.
TPM also owns and operates Texas Precious Metals Depository, the largest depository in Texas, which serves retail and institutional customers nationwide. TPM has also designed unique gold and silver non-legal tender medallions, including celebrating Texas independence. Four coins in its Texas Revolution series commemorate the battles of Gonzales, Goliad, the Alamo and San Jacinto.
“Texas exudes trust,” Kaspar explained. “Tens of thousands of customers have entrusted us with their life savings in gold and silver. Customers from all over the world are buying our products that connect to that trust with a history of more than 125 years in the community.”
Even though Kaspar and other company leaders have lived in large cities, it was important to them to safeguard the rural way of life and continue the company legacy committed to faith, family and versatility, he said. Kaspar Companies now employs nearly 500 people in several counties, including an Old 300, Old Gonzales 18 and Immortal 32 descendant whose mother works for the sheriff’s office, The Center Square exclusively reported.
The company provides skills training, an Uncommon Career Experience Program, and financially supports multiple local and international causes, including through the Don G. Kaspar Foundation, named after Jason Kaspar’s grandfather.
“Faith, family and giving back to our community is not only a way of life but part of our company’s ethos,” Kaspar explained. “It’s a way of living and a way of respecting people. It means I’m not going to cheat or lie for that lost dollar. It’s a way we conduct ourselves and hold each other accountable for treating others fairly. The capital we’ve been blessed with and the money we make is not our own. We are stewards of these resources.”
