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STUPL, ANTONÍN (1834–1917). Antonín Stupl, portrait photographer, was born in Mnichovo Hradiste, Bohemia in 1834. He trained as a tinsmith before coming to the United States with his family in 1852. After arriving in Galveston on December 1 of that year they traveled to Cat Spring in Austin County, where they joined a friend who had settled there six months previously. Stupl helped on the family farm until the Civil War, when he and his three brothers were forced to join the Twentieth Regiment of Texas Infantry. They helped to defend Galveston from Union forces for two years. The Stupl brothers and several other Czechs subsequently deserted the Confederate Army while on leave. Although they were captured, they later succeeded in eluding Confederate forces and found refuge in Austin County until the end of the war. After the war Stupl farmed with his family until 1870, when he traveled to Bohemia to study photography for a year. Upon his return to the United States he helped on the family farm until one of his brothers died, at which time he established a photography studio in Brenham. Between 1872 and 1883 he lived in Industry, where he was a very successful portrait photographer. He worked primarily in the inexpensive tintype medium and supplemented his income by raising and selling tobacco and making cigars. In 1882 he married a young woman named Anna, a native of Germany who immigrated to the United States in 1867. They had two sons. In later years Stupl moved to Houston, where he died on January 21, 1917.

Amerikán Národní Kalendár, 1892. Albert J. Blaha, Sr., "Anton Stupl," in Czechs in Grey and Blue, Too!, comp. and ed. Jody Feldtman Wright (San Antonio, 1988). Ann and James Lindemann, eds., Historical Accounts of Industry, Texas (New Ulm, Texas, 1986).
Kendall Curlee

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Handbook of Texas Online, Kendall Curlee, "Stupl, Antonin," accessed February 27, 2017,
