Home of Col. Sam Robertson

The plaque calls this house a fortress against bandits. The people killed near Brownsville in October 1915 were Hispanic and accused of wrecking a train. The Lynching in Texas project names Manuel Ybarra, Trinidad Ybarra, Santiago Salas and Severo Garcia, shot and hanged on October 19, plus two unidentified victims, and newspapers counted ten dead. Angel Rivera had been shot at Harlingen on September 10. The Handbook says San Benito was a National Guard base in 1915 and 1916 and that the area saw numerous murders and lynchings.

What the plaque says

Home of Col. Sam Robertson San Benito was begun in 1904 by Sam A. Robertson (1867-1938). A wealthy civil engineer and builder, he saw farming potential in the valley. He became Sheriff and first Postmaster. He built irrigation canals and a railroad network that connected farms with produce markets. He started a Padre Island development and Del Mar, a recreational area at Boca Chica. In 1911 Robertson and his wife Adele built this house. With thick walls and high windows, it served as a fortress against marauding bandits from across the border. In 1945 the house was sold to John T. Lomax. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park — 13 mi
  A flat coastal prairie north of Brownsville where Taylor's army and Arista's Army of the North fought the first major battle of the Mexican War on May 8, 1846, now interpreted from both sides.
• Stillman House Museum — 18 mi
  The 1850 Greek Revival house of Charles Stillman, who laid out Brownsville in 1848 beside the army's Fort Brown, and for a century the home of the Treviño family.
• Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge — 19 mi
  A coastal refuge set up in 1946 for wintering redhead ducks, with 417 bird species recorded and, by the Fish and Wildlife Service's account, the largest ocelot population in the United States.
• Port Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site — 26 mi
  A 72-foot brick tower finished in 1852 for the Brazos Santiago shipping lane, dark from 1905 until a reproduction lens was lit in 2022, and the only Texas lighthouse open to the public.

More markers nearby

• Spiderweb Railroad — 0.3 mi
• San Benito — 0.3 mi
• Baldemar "Freddy Fender" Garza Huerta — 0.4 mi
• Joe Callandret School — 0.6 mi