A COTULLA ORIGINAL · ESTABLISHED 1946
Ben’s.
A town under one hat.
Boots, brush-country clothes, and the people who gave them character. Ben’s Western Wear belonged to the everyday life of Cotulla.
Remembering a local landmark. Ben’s Western Wear and its Texas Hat Museum are closed.
Made for the brush country.
Ben Ludeman established the store in 1946. Its stock reflected the surrounding country: work boots, mohair socks, and clothing made for thorny brush and demanding weather. This was a place for people whose work and recreation took them beyond town.
Stewart Martin, Ludeman’s nephew, took over in the 1980s with his wife, Jill. Stewart died in 2006, and Jill continued the business. Through hunting seasons and the arrival of oilfield work, Ben’s kept adapting to the people who needed it.
Store history and the 2017 retirement announcement
A museum built one hat at a time.
The Texas Hat Museum began in the early 1990s when a customer left an old hat with Stewart. He hung it on the wall. More followed, and he added their owners’ names. The boot room became a record of local lives, told through worn felt, sweatbands, and familiar shapes.
Ranchers and vaqueros shared the display with George Strait, Nolan Ryan, Dolph Briscoe, and Rick Perry. The famous names drew attention, but the collection’s heart was the working community around Cotulla.
Stewart also wrote about the people behind the hats, including Jules Hillje and Texas Ranger Jack Van Cleve. His homemade catalogs used local cowboys as models. Ben’s preserved the character of the people who walked through its doors.
Texas Highways: Hats Off to Ben’s, July 2014 · See the historical hat collection photographs
The town changed. Ben’s changed with it.
A 2012 Texas Observer visit found boots, hats, shirts, and camouflage filling the shop. Jill described the shift from seasonal hunting customers to oilfield workers. Steel-toe boots and workwear became increasingly important as the Eagle Ford boom reshaped the local economy.
The Texas Observer: A Black Gold Rush in Cotulla
The doors closed. The story stayed.
A retirement sale began in October 2017. Reporting at the time said the hats would be returned to their owners or next of kin. DowntownTX records Ben’s tenure as 1946–2018. The museum is a part of Cotulla’s history, rather than a current visitor attraction.
The building received another chapter in 2024. Leighton Storey restored the former Gaddis Pharmacy property, revealing its penny-tile floor, wood entrance details, and upper windows. La Salle Western Wear, operated by Sandra Seidel, began sales that June. It is a separate business carrying Western retail back into the building.
Retirement and plans for the hats · DowntownTX property history · Frio-Nueces Current: Back to Front, July 2024