The Texana Cigar and Coffee Company in Chappell Hill deals in goods of historic proportion. Besides manufacturing the state’s newest custom-made cigars, it also showcases some of the owner’s one-of-a-kind collection of antiques. Included in that collection is the gun he recently purchased that is alleged to have been used at the Alamo.
Donny Roberts opened the cigar and gift shop on Main Street in the historic little town east of Brenham a little more than four years ago. On a road that has seen travelers passing since the days of the first stagecoaches heading west from the Gulf Coast there aren’t many businesses open to attract visitors.
“Our store has a nice mix,” Roberts says. “There’s something for everybody.” The shelves lining the walls are filled with souvenirs, knick-knacks, and Texas memorabilia with a bluebonnet theme. When a visitor wanders into the store off of U. S. 290 their senses are bombarded with the sights and smells of the shop. The scenic backroads of Washington County bring a steady stream of out-of-town folks through Chappell Hill.
The racks covering the worn pine floors are full of clothes, kitchen utensils, and postcards. On one wall is the company’s flavored coffees with names like Brazos Bottom Pecan, General Houston Hazelnut, and Texas Shortbread. “We got into coffee almost by mistake,” Roberts says. A friend had a coffee roaster for sale, and it seemed like it went well with the cigar business. The six aromatic roasts have been a popular item with locals and visitors.
The cigar business, on the other hand, was a calculated investment. A few years ago the Roberts family escaped Houston and moved to the old Texana Plantation between Chappell Hill and Washington-on-the-Brazos. The former tobacco plantation got Donnie to thinking that what Texans needed was a good $5 cigar. With name-brand cigars selling for $8 to $15 apiece, Roberts thought he could do better.
Along with a partner, he bought 37 acres of tobacco-growing land in Nicaragua and started the cigar company. The company now imports more than a million Nicaraguan hand-rolled cigars a year and sells nearly half of those over the Internet to out-of-state shoppers. “The world likes the Texas motif,” Roberts says. “Texana cigars sell good even in New York.”
A couple of years ago when the cigar boom began to fizzle out, Roberts says his business kept on growing. Along with his eight styles of cigars he also produces custom cigars for customers like Luckenbach, Texas, and area restaurants and bars. He says Texas lobbyists love to pass out his distinctive cigars. A smooth and flavorful smoke, the cigars still produce the pungent odor.
Since he moved to the rolling land between Austin and Houston, Roberts has become one of Chappell Hill’s biggest boosters. “We don’t want to be a Fredericksburg,” he says, being a bit protective of his new hometown, but then he adds: “We’ve got some of the greatest scenery in Texas around here.”
The former Air Force pilot enjoys talking about Washington County and its role as the cradle of Texas settlement. He’ll tell you how Chappell Hill was once “the Athens of Texas” with two colleges, and that the steam ships came up the Brazos River to load the cotton and other cash crops. “This was a big place in the 1850s,” Roberts says of the town, until yellow fever and the Texas Revolution decimated the population.
“We’re living history,” he says. And Texas history is one of Roberts’ vocations as a collector and dealer of historical antiques. Last summer he received a bit of notoriety when he paid $25,000 for a gun that was said to have been used at the battle of the Alamo. After the sale, several antiquities experts expressed doubt about the authenticity of the weapon, but Roberts wasn’t dissuaded.
Roberts says the gun was passed down through two families, and he knows the collector who sold the gun at auction. “Anything coming from the Alamo is hard to document. You have to have a little bit of childlike faith,” he says. “I believe that gun came from the Alamo more than I trust some of the affidavits of authenticity I have for other things.”
Roberts has a huge collection of historical items. Some of it is for sale, and some of it is in his private museum. “[Historical items] do better than stocks and bonds as an investment,” he says. “Besides, they’re nice to look at. You can touch, feel, and smell them.”
His collection includes guns that once belonged to Judge Roy Bean and Cole Younger. He didn’t say how he got hold of a cannon that was used at the Battle of Gettysburg. “Early Texas historical items are hard to find,” he says. “Texas Confederate stuff is real hard to find because there wasn’t much of it issued. Most of the soldiers from Texas provided their own equipment.”
In a glass case along a wall in the Chappell Hill shop is a small sampling of Roberts’ collection. He plans to have more items, including the Alamo gun, on display in the store after Christmas. This spring he will have an exhibit at the Chappell Hill Historical Museum of some his favorites items from his collection.
The Texana Cigar and Coffee Company is open on Main Street in Chappell Hill, Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. For information, call 888-4-CIGAR-4 or go to www.texanacigar.com.
Coming up this weekend …
For folks who say Texas has no autumn color all it will take to change their minds is a drive west of Austin toward Llano on TX 71. The evergreen hills are splashed with brilliant reds and yellows as if done by a Renaissance painter. Hurry out there before the leaves all fall, but watch out for all the photographers parked along the highway.
Country Christmas in Chappell Hill, when downtown merchants open their doors and carolers wander the streets after the parade, Dec. 9. 800/225-3695.
Merry Merchants Market around the old courthouse in Blanco includes more than 100 vendors selling a variety of pre-Christmas wares, Dec. 9. 830/833-5101.
This article appears in December 8 • 2000.
