A Timeline of Lockhart Barbecue

The Texas Legislature designated Lockhart, Texas as the “Barbecue Capital of Texas.” That, you probably knew along with the fact that it is home to five barbecue joints. Kreuz Market, one of Texas’s oldest, opened all the way back in 1900, while Mad Jack’s BBQ Shack is just two years old. Black’s Barbecue, Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Q, and Smitty’s Market all opened in between, but plenty more has happened on the barbecue scene in this town of just over 13,000. Here’s a full timeline:

1875 Jesse Swearingen opened a meat market in Lockhart. An article in the Lockhart Post-Register on 06/12/1930 says “S. B. Swearingen, son of Jesse Swearingen, was perhaps the first man in Lockhart to begin the regular sale of barbecued meats…”

1900 Charles Kreuz bought the market from the Swearingens on January 17th for $200 and named it Kreuz Market

1911 Charles Kreuz sold the market to his sons Theodore, Will, and Alvin. The business was renamed “Kreuz Brothers Co.”

1911 Will Kreuz sold his share of Kreuz Market to Hugo Prove, husband of Amelia Kreuz

1924 The metal building that held the market was torn down and a brick building at 208 S. Commerce St., which Smitty’s Market now occupies, was built.

1929 Charles Kreuz Jr. left the business in Lockhart to open Kreuz Market in Luling. They bought and existing meat market owned by Q. P. Stanger on April 4th

1932 Northside Grocery & Market, the precursor to Black’s Barbecue, opened for business

1936 Black’s Barbecue moved out of Northside Grocery & Market into its own building across the street, in its current location at 215 N Main St.

1942 Charles Kreuz Jr. died on February 16th. He was 45. The Luling location of Kreuz Market subsequently closed.

1948 The market was sold to long time employee and butcher Edgar Schmidt who changed the name back to Kreuz Market. In a 12/16/1948 article announcing the change it was mentioned that Charles Kreuz built the existing brick pits. “Even in his time, the practice of digging trenches in the ground to barbecue meat began to be abandoned and a Kreuz wagon and later truck delivered the hot barbecue of beef, mutton, pork, sausage, and chickens to picnic grounds and other gatherings.”