World Agriculture Directory: the home of the world's largest agriculture database. Fastest way to find events, farms and agribusiness that suit your needs. Agriculture Event Directory

Cattlemen Hall of FameBeef cattle barons, cowboys, breeders and builders from around the world

Cattle Barons and Land Owners

Richard King: The Steamboat Captain Who Built the King Ranch

A runaway cabin boy became a river captain, then used the money to put together one of the biggest ranches in America.

Who was Richard King of the King Ranch?

Richard King built one of the largest ranches in the United States out of a steamboat fortune and a stretch of South Texas grassland that most people crossed as fast as they could. He was born in New York City in 1824, according to the Wikipedia biography of King, and died in 1885 at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio. Britannica gives 1825 and Orange County, New York, so the early details differ by source.

People who know the ranch mostly through its later cattle breeding are sometimes surprised that King did not start as a cowman. He started as a boatman, and the river money is what bought the first land. This profile follows that route, then looks at what the record shows about how the empire was assembled, including the parts that were hard on other people.

Early life: a runaway who learned the river

King came from a poor Irish family in New York. At age nine he was indentured to a Manhattan jeweler. In 1835 he ran away by stowing aboard a ship bound for Mobile, Alabama, where the crew took him in and taught him navigation. The King Ranch's own history tells the story slightly differently, putting his indenture at age eleven in the mid-1830s, so treat the exact ages as approximate. By sixteen he was a steamboat pilot.

In 1842, near the end of the Second Seminole War, he met Mifflin Kenedy, the man who would become his lifelong business partner. From 1842 to 1847 King worked steamboats on the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee rivers in Florida and Georgia. The King Ranch history says he became a captain in 1847.

How did King come to the Rio Grande?

Kenedy talked King into joining the Mexican-American War effort on the Rio Grande. King worked on the army transport Colonel Cross, hauling supplies among Reynosa, Camargo and Matamoros. After the war the two men stayed. In 1850 King, Kenedy and two other partners formed M. Kenedy and Company, and in 1866 the firm was renamed King, Kenedy and Company after the other two partners were bought out.

The company held what the Wikipedia article calls nearly monopolistic control of Rio Grande shipping for most years between 1850 and 1874, when the partnership dissolved. That steady cash flow is the foundation under everything that came next.

How the King Ranch began on Santa Gertrudis Creek

In 1852 King made an overland trip from Brownsville to Corpus Christi across the Nueces Strip, the dry country the King Ranch's own history page calls the Wild Horse Desert. At Santa Gertrudis Creek he saw that the land could carry domestic livestock. In 1853 and 1854 he acquired two ranches totaling 68,500 acres, which became the core of the King Ranch. The same year he also bought a disputed title to the southern half of Padre Island.

He kept buying until he died. By 1885 the ranch covered about 614,000 acres by the Wikipedia count, while other sources cited there put the total above 825,000 acres, so sources differ. King also put steamboat profits into land in Brownsville and Cameron County. In 1854 he married Henrietta Chamberlain, who helped guide daily ranch work when the Captain was away on business.

The Key to King's Success

The documented record shows a business that was never only about cattle. King used one profitable enterprise to fund another, and he kept the river line running for decades while the ranch grew. That gave him cash when land was cheap and cattle prices were uncertain.

It also tied the ranch to the politics of the border, which brought real costs, covered in the next section.

  • Fund land from a separate cash business: steamboat profits went into Brownsville and Cameron County property and into the ranch core.
  • Keep a trusted partner: the Kenedy partnership gave the river firm near-monopoly control of Rio Grande trade for most of 1850 to 1874.
  • Buy continuously: the ranch grew from 68,500 acres in the early 1850s to roughly 614,000 by 1885 on one count.
  • Read the country: King saw livestock range on Santa Gertrudis Creek where others saw empty brush.
  • Sell to whoever is buying: during the Civil War he sold cattle to the Confederacy as food.
  • Share the load: Henrietta King helped run the ranch day to day while he handled other business.

King, cotton and conflict in the Civil War

During the Civil War King sold cattle to the Confederacy and profited from the Cotton Road, the route that moved Confederate cotton across Mexico. Wagon caravans stopped at the ranch for supplies, and steamboats under Mexican registry carried cotton out and military supplies back. Historian James Marten's work, cited by Wikipedia, confirms that enslaved people were held on the ranch.

At Christmas 1863, after the Battle of Brownsville, about 80 Union troops led by Captain James Speed attacked the ranch. King fled after being warned. Ranch hand Francisco Alvarado was killed while trying to warn the soldiers that women and children were inside. King waited in Matamoros, Mexico, while seeking amnesty and returned to Texas on July 14, 1865.

Family, death and what came next

Richard and Henrietta King had five children between 1856 and 1864. Their daughter Alice Gertrudis, born in 1862, later became Alice King Kleberg. In 1885 King traveled to San Antonio because of poor health and died of stomach cancer at the Menger Hotel on April 14.

Kingsville, Texas, is named for him, and he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1959. Within the Wikipedia biography, the Padre Island title dispute and the wartime cotton trade are listed among the more contested parts of his record.

Where to learn more about Captain King

The standard book is Tom Lea's Captain King of Texas, published in 1957. A shorter 1997 biography by William R. Sanford and Carl R. Green is aimed at younger readers, and the Handbook of Texas carries an entry on King. For the ranch as it is today, start with the Britannica entry on King and the ranch's own site.

For more on the business side of the cattle country he helped define, see the ranching coverage on farm.FM, or read a farm.FM story about the King Ranch.

Timeline

  1. 1824Born in New York City, according to Wikipedia (Britannica gives 1825)
  2. 1835Runs away on a ship bound for Mobile, Alabama
  3. 1842Meets Mifflin Kenedy; begins steamboat work in Florida and Georgia
  4. 1850Forms M. Kenedy and Company on the Rio Grande
  5. 1853Begins acquiring the land that becomes the King Ranch core (68,500 acres by 1854)
  6. 1854Marries Henrietta Chamberlain
  7. 1863Union troops attack the ranch at Christmas
  8. 1865Returns to Texas on July 14 with amnesty letters
  9. 1874Steamboat partnership with Kenedy dissolves
  10. 1885Dies April 14 in San Antonio; ranch covers about 614,000 acres

Frequently asked questions

Who was Richard King?

Richard King (1824-1885) was a steamboat captain who founded the King Ranch in South Texas. He used profits from Rio Grande shipping with partner Mifflin Kenedy to buy ranchland starting in the early 1850s.

How big was the King Ranch when Richard King died?

Wikipedia says about 614,000 acres by 1885, while other sources it cites give more than 825,000 acres. The two main early purchases in 1853 and 1854 totaled 68,500 acres.

How did Richard King get rich?

He first made money from steamboats on the Rio Grande, where his firm held near-monopoly control for most of 1850 to 1874, then invested in land. Civil War cotton trade and cattle sales added to his wealth.

Who was Richard King's partner?

Mifflin Kenedy, whom King met in 1842. They ran the steamboat firm together, and Kenedy joined him as a partner in the Santa Gertrudis ranch in 1860 before later building his own ranches.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

More from the hall