Historical Marker
The King Ranch
Kingsville, Kleberg County · Texas
Erected 1977
When Richard King died in 1885, Henrietta King inherited about 500,000 acres of ranchland and $500,000 in debts. Under her own close supervision, with Robert Kleberg's help, the ranch was freed of debt, and by 1925 it had grown to 1,173,000 acres. About 1903 she offered 75,000 acres of right-of-way for the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway, and in 1904 she furnished the townsites of Kingsville and Raymondville. At her funeral in 1925 an honor guard of 200 vaqueros riding Running W quarter horses flanked the hearse, and each rider cantered once around the open grave.
What the plaque says
The King Ranch Richard King (1824-1885), a Rio Grande steamboat captain, bought two Spanish land grants on Santa Gertrudis Creek and founded the legendary King Ranch in 1853. He brought longhorn cattle from Mexico and battled droughts and cattle thieves to build a profitable ranch. Operating first in partnership with G. K. ("Legs") Lewis and later with Mifflin Kenedy and James Walworth, King became sole owner in the late 1860s. During the Civil War (1861-1865), the King Ranch was a way-station for Confederate cotton going to Mexico. Herds carrying King's famous "Running W" brand followed the cattle trails to northern markets in the 1870s. After King died, his widow Henrietta (Chamberlain) (1832-1925) named as ranch manager Robert Justus Kleberg (1853-1932), who later married her daughter Alice Gertrudis King (1862-1944). The ranch became less isolated in the early 1900s, when the railroad arrived and the town of Kingsville was settled. Constant improvement of herds by King-Kleberg descendants produced a new breed of cattle, the Santa Gertrudis, and fine quarter horses and thoroughbreds. Petroleum was discovered on ranch property in the 1930s. Today the King ranch has grown to almost one million acres in south Texas, plus holdings in other states and nations. (1977)
Where it stands
27.52032, -97.89653 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Kleberg County — steps away
- Texas A&M University-Kingsville — 1.1 mi
- First Presbyterian Church of Kingsville — 1.6 mi
- Uriah Lott — 1.7 mi