One insider remarked that the patron saint of King Ranch was no longer the Santa Gertrudis or the Santa Cruz, but Saint Augustine. Famous for covering more land than the state of Rhode Island, Texas' legendary King Ranch has placed the King family at No. The five children pledged to stay together for twenty years after the incorporation, but since then the descendants of two of them have left the ranch. The only one who looked a little out of place in those photos, with his great curlicue mustache resembling the Running W brand, was Tio Kleberg. They kept clapping, perhaps because they were not sure what else to do at such an awkward moment. 8 spot on the newest list that shows the biggest landowners in the United States. King Ranch Heirs. These two meet tragic ends at the start of the Dutton's Westward Expansion, however. Offers may be subject to change without notice. The Texas Fever Tick created significant problems for the marketing of cattle from South Texas. Before her death in 1925, Henrietta King had donated land and funds toward the construction of churches, libraries, and school projects (creating an oasis of community development) in this previously untamed land. 1882: King's attorney dies. 8 on a Land Report study listing the top U.S. landowners. This was his last King Ranch roundup. Richard King and his wife, Henrietta, founded the King Ranch. That young lawyers name was Robert Justus Kleberg, and he married Alice in 1886, during the year after Captain Kings death in 1885. When Hunt suggested that the ranch didnt need to buy trucks with air conditioning or power locks on the doors, Tio bristled, telling him, These trucks are the cowboys offices! According to one source at the ranch, after Hunt asked Tio why there wasnt a higher percentage of weaned cattle on the ranch, an exasperated Tio went to his cattle managers and told them that Hunt just didnt understand South Texas. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. At all ranches, the beef prices keep going down, and the costs of producing the beef keep going up, which means we have to think and act in a more efficient way.. When Henrietta King died in 1925, the ranchs 1.2 million acres were divided among her heirs. Tio believed, says Leroy G. Denman, Jr., who was the ranch attorney for almost fifty years, that anybody who works for King Ranch ought to work like he does, which is from four a.m. until midnight, seven days a week, and that if you dont have that kind of dedication, you dont have any business here., In fact, considering how much work there was to be done that Friday, Tios 21-member staff was perplexed that he would call a meeting. Life on the range becomes the same ancient contest, man against cow, that requires the same ancient equipmentchaps, spurs, ropesand depends on tenacious cowboys probing the thickets for cattle and skillfully steering them toward the pens. He believed the family had an obligation to take care of the Kineos. When their fathers health declined in the early twentieth century, two of the five children born to Robert J. and Alice King Kleberg assumed responsibility for the ranch. In the last years of his life, Kleberg suffered a debilitating stroke that seemed to lock up his mind. Various Kleberg descendants have made names for themselves in the public sector. It was also at this time that King Ranch acquired the prized Thoroughbred stallions that went on to produce, among others, ASSAULT, 1946 winner of the prestigious Triple Crown, and MIDDLEGROUND, the 1950 winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. Another became a champion equestrian rider in Florida. His widow is left. He died of stomach cancer at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio on April 14, 1885, at age 60. King Ranch claims not only a large piece of Texas history but the cattle history as well. 3 min read. Robert Grunnah, a principal at the Texas land specialty firm Novus Realty Advisors, told Bloomberg in July 2021 that if Waggoner Ranch is worth $725 million, King Ranch is worth $1.1 billion. In the stoic Kleberg manner, Chris kept his emotions to himself, but many of Tios employees and the Kineos were beside themselves. When Hunt told his board of directors at a meeting in Houston that he wanted to pay a consulting firm $500,000 to do a study assessing the King Ranchs environmental problems, Tio glared at him and exclaimed that such a huge sum didnt need to be spent. That same year, he traveled overland from Brownsville to Corpus Christi, and became fascinated with the grasslands along Santa Gertrudis Creek in the "Nueces Strip" (the land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande). As the American Civil War progressed, King and Kenedy shipped to and from the Confederate States of America, registering their fleet of 26 boats under Mexican flag at Matamoros to avoid the Union blockade. Emily McCullar is a senior editor covering pop culture, news, and Texas history. Management developed ranching operations overseas with land purchases in Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Australia, Venezuela, Spain, and Morocco. Their descendants have followed a similar pattern: the men run the ranch, the women keep the family together. Just to prove he was better than the elitist Kentucky horse breeders, he bought several Thoroughbreds, brought them back to the King Ranch in railroad cars, and started a breeding program that produced a horse named Assault that astounded the world of racing by winning the 1946 Triple Crown. Eventually oil was discovered under much of this cattle country. In the past Tio would have been anxious to slip out of the meeting and get together with his cattlemen and talk about what to do next. To open up more pasture, he invented a plow pulled by a massive, specially designed bulldozer that could clear four acres of brush an hour. Meanwhile, life at the ranch had to go on. At a good-bye party for Tio, one old man wept and said, Who will take care of us now? He needed a cow that was as hardy as a Longhorn, able to endure the sun, yet capable of eating just about anything. They had 5 children, Nettie, Ella, Richard, Alice Gertrude, and Robert E. Lee, the latter named for the King family friend, Robert E. Lee. Daniel Vaughn is the countrys first barbecue editor, and he has eaten more barbecue than you have. . He said they gave him no reason for his firing except that a change was needed. John Spong writes primarily about popular culture. By means of this program, King began to transform the hardscrabble longhorns and wild horses of his lands into the finest cattle and horses in Texas. King continued expanding his business operations, investing in the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad Company, packing plants, ice houses, and harbor improvements at Corpus Christi. The upshot of one such program in the years after Kings death would be the development of the Santa Gertrudis breed of cattle the first officially recognized new breed of beef cattle in America. John Armstrong, an esteemed family member who became president of the ranch after Jim Clement retired, said in a 1980 interview, If the next generation is content to live off their income, then weve lost it. Although a handful of new heirs used their dividends to buy smaller ranches for themselves, the vast majority never visited the King Ranch except for hunting trips in the winter and for the familys Summer Camp reunion and annual business meeting, where, according to one family member, everybody got to play cowboy for a week before returning to their real lives. In their group photograph taken at Summer Camp, they seemed to embody the best of the American aristocracy, with pointed noses and high cheekbones and graceful smiles. Most of the Kineos were phased out through an early retirement program. This young lawyer would soon be handling the lions share of the great ranchers legal work. Since the death of Captain King, the ranch has been run by an in-law (Robert Kleberg, Sr.) in the second generation, a younger brother (Bob Kleberg) in the third, and an in-law (Jim Clement) in the fourth. Robert J. Kleberg designed the first cattle dipping vats to battle the tick. A few had turned into superstars in the business, regularly profiled in such magazines as The Cattleman. I have a very high regard for him. Weldon Wilson Drove Cattle the Old-fashioned Way. She was like a character out of Victorian fiction, a thin and severe Presbyterian who for the next forty years would wear widows black and tour the ranch twice a year in a black, horse-drawn coach. The company had a whopping $200 million either in the bank or invested in securities, and it had almost no debt. Tio was not a saint. The sale of bulls and seed stock are important components of the ranchs contemporary business. The previous two chief executives had, for the most part, left Tio alone. Birth 24 Dec 1918 - King Ranch, Texas, USA Death 15 Jan 1994 - Midland, Midland, Texas, USA Mother Mary Etta "Mamie" Searcy Father Richard Mifflin Kleberg Quick access Family tree New search Katherine Searcy Kleberg family tree Family tree Explore more family trees Parents Richard Mifflin Kleberg 1887 - 1955 Mary Etta "Mamie" Searcy 1889 - 1972 Over the course of over 160 years, King Ranch led some of the first cattle drives, developed the Santa Gertrudis and Santa Cruz breeds of cattle, bred the finest Quarter Horses, and produced champion Thoroughbredsall under its iconic Running W brand, the site adds. To eliminate at least part of the tax, Bob could simply have sold off some of the land. And in such a corporation, where success is gauged on the financial returns of its investments, a familys heritage only goes so far. In addition to all of these accomplishments, Mr. Kleberg built a facility that was, for a time, the largest cattle rail operation in the world. For six generations, the King Ranch has remained in the hands of one family: the descendants of Richard King. A traditional Alpine barn, this four-bedroom property has been beautifully renovated to create a modern family home. King's ghost is said to haunt the Menger Hotel, particularly the suite named for him. Waggoner Ranch isnt as large as King Ranch, but it calls itself the largest ranch under one fence. King Ranch, meanwhile, is split across multiple parcels. He invented the cattle prod to move the cattle along faster when they were in their pens. An elderly plumber happened to be on the ranch that morning, driving by the stables just as Tio finished reading his statement. Texas Monthly Is Nominated for Two 2023 Media Awards by the James Beard Foundation. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. John Spong writes primarily about popular culture. In the 1930s, after years of meticulously crossbreeding Brahmans and Shorthorns, he introduced the dark-red Santa Gertrudis. The five children pledged to stay together for twenty years. (One of his papers in the journal Psychiatryis titled, The Case for Not Interpreting Unconscious Mental Life in Consulting to Organizations.) The first outside chief executive and president of the King Ranch was Darwin E. Smith, the head of Kimberly-Clark, the Dallas tissue paper and baby-products corporation. Yet, according to Tio, Hunt told him that at an industry meeting he had heard that the King Ranchs manager in charge of breeding sales, Scott Wright, was not well respected by other cattlemen. Around this time, Captain King registered a brand that has since taken on mythic significance in the taming of the West the famous RunningW. The Texas Fever Tick created significant problems for the marketing of cattle from South Texas. As a teenager in the sixties, Tio worked weekends in the cow camps for 50 cents a day. Modern game management and wildlife conservation practices were expanded, and continue to benefit the ranch today. In 2015, it was expanded and renamed the King Ranch Chair for Business Leadership, a position now held by Senior . Getting these cattle to market was a real challenge, though, as some one thousand miles of dangerous wilderness stretched out between Captain Kings cattle and the midwestern railheads where they could be sold. The Kleberg family, descended from Richard King, held sway over the family's holdings from an austere whitewashed mansion on the ranch. One day they might be carrying laptop computers in their saddlebags to keep track of the cattle inventory. Tio, who was fluent in Spanish, had received his nickname as a teenager from the Kineos, who thought he had the same drive as his great-uncle Bob (tio is uncle in Spanish). When he died she married her neighbor Tom Armstrong and returned to the ranch. It was already sweltering in early May on the King Ranch, the South Texas humidity so fierce that by midmorning your shirt was pasted to your back. As part of the deal, Humble gave him a $3.5 million loan, which took care of the tax. For the 52-year-old Klebergthe great-great-grandson of Richard King, who had bought this land in 1853the 825,000-acre ranch was like a religion. Helen Groves, who was on the search committee, describes him as very un-pushy and respectful. But he is tenacious when it comes to evaluating the nuts and bolts of a business. He never once said to me, Tio, this is where I want to go with the cattle and farming operations. All he had to do was tell me what he wanted, and Id do it. Bob Kleberg died in 1974, and Tios father, Dick, was too sick with emphysema to take his place. But Hunt did not hesitate to challenge Tios judgment. Among the many innovations for which he was responsible on the ranch, perhaps foremost among them were his efforts to drill for artesian water. [1] From 1842 to 1847, King would operate steamboats on the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee rivers, in Florida and Georgia.[1]. He did not miss a roundup. It seemed he was more influenced by modern-day business investors and tycoons than he was by cattlemen or oilmen. They were refused. Many members of the older generation were worried what the infusion of money would do to the family. He would lose his temper at meetings when he thought the family committee was losing its focus, and his straightforward manner occasionally offended relatives. But what impressed many family members was that he had also been trained at Harvard Business School, focusing on agribusiness. He later explained to me, Jack doesnt realize that you arent going to get higher weaning percentages in this kind of environment where the moisture is low, unless you spend so much money on extra feed that you stop making a profit.. After the attachment of Savoy to France in 1860, the City became a sub-prefecture. March 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn?

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