Old Rancho Davis

Rio Grande City began as Hilaria de la Garza's land. María Hilaria de la Garza inherited Porción 80, the old Carnestolendas ranch settled about 1763 and granted in 1767. She married Henry Clay Davis on April 21, 1846, and they named the place Rancho Davis. He later transferred most of his remaining land, about four porciones, to her. They had twelve children, and six died young. Davis opened a steamboat landing, laid out the town and became Starr County's first clerk in August 1848. He died in 1866 after a hunting accident.

What the plaque says

Old Rancho Davis Home of Henry Clay Davis, a Kentuckian; came to Texas in 1939. Served with Taylor's army in 1846. Married into the Garza family, pioneer settlers and large landowners in the region. Around his home Rio Grande City grew up. Steamboats from Brownsville made the town a trading center. Ringgold Barracks was established nearby in 1848. Rio Grande City, the county seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Roma Historic District — 12 mi
  A bluff-top Rio Grande steamboat port, now a National Historic Landmark District where Heinrich Portscheller's molded brick and walled stone compounds face Ciudad Miguel Alemán across the river.
• Falcon State Park — 24 mi
  A 576-acre state park at the foot of the Falcon International Reservoir, made by the dam Presidents Eisenhower and Ruiz Cortines dedicated in 1953, known for bass fishing, camping and brush-country birds.
• Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — 30 mi
  A 587-acre stand of Rio Grande woodland near Mission, once part of a Spanish porción, given to the state by the Bentsen family in 1944 and now headquarters of the World Birding Center.

More markers nearby

• Rio Grande City, C.S.A. — steps away
• Site of Cortina Battle — steps away
• Starr County — steps away
• The Rev. Gustav Gollbach, O.M.I. — steps away