Ralph Wranker

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This day in Texas history

South Texas

The Villarreal Family
Robert Justus Kleberg
The Seguin Family
Presidio La Bahia
The Texas Revolution
Corpus Christi
Kingsville
The Big Tree
King Ranch
The Texas Rangers
Visit To Goliad
Battle Of Coleto Creek
Fort Lipantitlan
James Kenney (My second cousin) - A True Cowboy

Texas Links

The State of Texas
Texas State Capital
The Alamo
Daughters of the Republic of Texas (The Alamo)
Alamo de Parras
Sons of DeWitt Colony
Handbook Of Texas
Goliad
Texas Treasures
Texas Historical Commission
The Texas Almanac
San Jacinto Monument
Institute of Texan Cultures
Texian Heritage Society
The Texian Web
Texas State Historical Association
Texas Navies
Texas Military Forces Museum
Texas County Road Maps
Seguin Descendants Historical Preservation
The Witte Museum
Texas Army - 1836 Reenactment Group
Exploration Of Texas - Institute of Texan Cultures

Kingsville - The Early Years

Kingsville, Texas was founded on July 4, 1904. The land for the original townsite was donated by Mrs. H. M. King, wife of the founder of the King Ranch, Richard King.

The photo (right), was scanned from a post card. The writing on the card says; "Plenty good coffee and excellent barbeque, Kingsville July 4-08".

In the above photograph; a view looking northeast from the original Kingsville Lumber Company shows a portion of early downtown Kingsville. The street in the foreground is King Avenue. The street along the buildings at right, is 6th Street. The park in the foreground is the site of today's Post Office. The buildings (from left to right): Kings Inn Hotel (now the location of the Kleberg Bank Building), King Ranch Offices (now City Hall), Raglands (now the King Ranch Saddle Shop). The tall building on the right, shows a portion of the opera house, on the second floor of the Flato Building. Photo from the History of Kleberg County, Texas.

The Castulo Perez Orchestra about 1906. Mr. Perez had a blacksmith shop on the corner of 6th Street and Alice Avenue. He was the organizer and leader of the first Kingsville Orchestra. The above picture was taken south of the original school, at 3rd Street and Alice Avenue. Photo from the History of Kleberg County, Texas.

Kingsville - Today

Click on the below image to visit the Kingsville Chamber Of Commerce's web site.

Click here to visit the Kingsville Chamber Of Commerce's web site.

King Ranch Museum

The King Ranch Museum houses many artifacts, photographs, specialized (custom built) vehicles, and horse carriages used by the King Ranch. It's interesting to see how the people of the ranch lived, played, and worked.

Click on the photograph visit the King Ranch museum.

King Ranch Saddle Shop

The King Ranch Saddle Shop located in downtown Kingsville. The building can be seen above, showing an early photograph of downtown Kingsville.

Like most large ranches of the 1800's, King Ranch had to rely on its own resources to provide needed working materials. The need for leather goods was critical, i.e., saddles, chaps, saddle bags, etc. The King Ranch Saddle Shop is world famous for its quality leather goods and has a large range of leather goods for sale to the general public, like travel bags, brief cases, women's purses, men's wallets, etc.

The King Ranch in Texas has land holdings in excess of 800,000 acres. The ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Click on the above photograph to visit the King Ranch Saddle shop home page, and order their catalog. It's well worth the time and effort.

Texas A&M University - Kingsville

Texas A&M University Kingsville (Formally Texas A&I University). The mascot is the Javalina. This sculpture of 2 javalinas is placed prominently for all the students and visitors to see when entering the campus. The football team is nationally known for their NCAA Division II Championships.

Click on the photograph to go to Texas A&M University Kingsville's Home Page.

King Ranch

Because of the King Ranch many small towns and some major cities in south Texas would not have developed beyond small cross road trading posts and small sea ports. The pioneer visionaries of the King Ranch in the eighteen hundreds saw a need and developed markets that were small, or did not exist before them.

Like everything else in Texas, King Ranch did things in a big way. King Ranch impacted global oil and natural gas markets, cutting horse breeding, cattle (they developed the only recognized breed of cattle in the United States, the Santa Gertrudis), farming, and ranching.

King Ranch continues to be a leader in those markets, and today, they are developing new ones.

Live Camera At The Country Luau

Click on the image at left to visit Kingsville's first live Internet camera at a business establishment; Country Luau. The live camera is from one of the Country Luau's security cameras. When the Luau is closed, you may see images from Barry's house.

The Country Luau is owned by Barry Anthes, and he has a web site of his own. Click HERE to visit Barry's web site.