Letters to Alice: Birth of the Kleberg-King Ranch Dynasty

Dynasty

141 1887–2011 ing the summer, they would come in from La Puerta on the Tex-Mex Railroad, be met at the station, and then be taken by carriage to their grandmother’s Corpus Christi home. The house was near the Presbyterian church where they attended Sunday school, and for the remainder of each Sunday they were expected to remain quiet and rather inactive . Their Uncle Bob (Robert Kleberg Sr.) made their visits a time of fun and treasured memories. He would wake them up early and take them to North Beach to swim in the saltwater surf and play in the warm, wet sand. Sometimes he would take them to visit a nearby farm and pick sweet figs. The highlight of the summer was a trip to Colorado Springs, where the entire family would stay at the Antlers Hotel. Grandmother Henrietta always traveled in a private car.15 By the turn of the century Robert and Alice’s children were thirteen , eleven, seven, four, and two years old. They all grew to adulthood spending their time both at the rancho and in Corpus Christi. As the nineteenth century came to an end, the Robert Kleberg family was firmly established as one of Texas’ most prominent families, and the new century presented the opportunity for them to step onto the national and world stage. Dynasty The TweNTieTh ceNTury brought fame, prosperity, and a new, dynamic generation of Klebergs. In the ten years between Captain King’s death in 1885 and 1895, Robert Kleberg worked hard to consolidate the ranch properties, adding valuable pieces of land with the expert assistance of Jim Wells, who joined the law firm of Kleberg and Stayton. Together they handled most of the ranch’s business transactions .16 During that period, not only had the ranch’s debts been paid but it had also survived a severe drought, falling cattle prices, and the panic of 1893. In recognition of Robert Kleberg’s leadership, on January 21, 1895, Henrietta gave him full and complete power of attorney for all her legal and financial matters. It was a testimony to his hard work, and it secured his place in the ranch’s future.17 142 Epilogue In addition to the debts, the drought, and the bad economic conditions in the country, Robert had struggled with numerous other problems. The native grasses that covered the range when Captain King had bought the land had greatly diminished and been replaced by thickets of mesquite, huisache, and brushy trees, drastically reducing the productivity of the land. The mesquite spread across the landscape when horses ate the mesquite bean pods, which then passed through the animals’ digestive systems as they ranged across the land. Even a lack of grassfires allowed the spread of the tangled undergrowth . Robert took up the challenge of clearing the brush by first sending out groups of laborers to chop and clear the brush. Eventually the ranch tried a managed burn program and then went to clearing the land with a specially adapted plow and tractor.18 The biggest problem facing the ranch was the lack of water. Robert Kleberg began to study the subject of deep artesian water wells and was determined to try to establish them on the rancho. In October 1898 he read about a deep well drilling machine in Nebraska, and he teamed up with T. L. Herring to bring one to Texas.They started drilling in the spring of 1899, and on June 6, at the depth of 532 feet, the drill reached pure, drinkable water. Word was sent to Robert at ranch headquarters, and he raced to the well with tears flowing down his cheeks. He knew that a new era of ranching had been brought to the Wild Horse Desert.19 He soon installed windmills and tanks. Robert knew water was the key to developing the entire Rio Grande Valley. Now, with access to water, he could entice the railroads to come, and towns would follow.20 With the water problem finally solved, Henrietta King and Robert Kleberg moved quickly to secure both the railroad and the town they had dreamed of. Robert first went to his friend Benjamin Franklin Yoakum.21 Yoakum in turn went to the undaunted Uriah Lott, who once again was able to crisscross prairie land with miles of railroad tracks. The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway was incorporated , with its charter issued on January 12, 1903. The incorporators were Robert J. Kleberg Sr., A. E...