James Kapp

San Antonio furniture-store owner and founding investor; the Three Rivers Glass Company’s first president upon incorporation in May 1922, with Charles Tips serving as secretary/treasurer under him — a detail most popular retellings, including the historical marker text, omit in treating Tips as having run the company from the start.

Tips’ memoir supplies the business by name — Kapp “owned the Household Furniture Company, in San Antonio” [ev-0075] — where Tips’ 1973 speech says only “a large Furniture Store in San Antonio” [ev-0041].

Confirmed by an April 6, 1922 Manufacturers Record officer listing (“James Kepp, Prest.”) [ev-0040] and independently by Michael David Smith’s 1989 book, which spells the name “Kapp.” [ev-0039] Tips did not become president until a 1929 stock transaction with W. L. Moody III. Name spelling varies (Kapp/Kepp) across the two corroborating sources, and the Bottle Research Group’s 2019 chapter uses a third variant, “James Knapp” [ev-0042] — all referring to the same person.

See Also

• A. H. Morton — fellow officer in the April 1922 incorporation notice