Robert J. Kleberg Jr.: The Rancher Who Built the Santa Gertrudis Breed

Who was Robert J. Kleberg Jr.?

Robert Justus Kleberg Jr. was born on 29 March 1896 in Corpus Christi and died on 13 October 1974 in Houston. He was the grandson of King Ranch founder Richard King and the third-generation leader of the ranch, according to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum biography. Family and staff called him Mr. Bob, and younger relatives called him Uncle Bob.

Where his father had consolidated the ranch after Richard King's death, Kleberg Jr. made it a global enterprise built around a cattle breed of its own.

Growing up on King Ranch

He was one of five children of Robert Kleberg Sr. and Alice King Kleberg, who married on 17 June 1886. A University of North Texas record of the family, a Portal to Texas History document on the Klebergs, describes him as the first Kleberg raised as a working rancher, with his own saddle horses and time working cattle alongside the cowboys. As a boy he lived in bachelor quarters his father set up for the sons.

He attended high school and then the school of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin, and began ranching in 1916.

Taking over the ranch

After the death of Henrietta King in 1925, her will named him trustee of her estate for ten years and froze the assets, giving the family time to set up separate Kleberg holdings. He took over management after his father died in 1932 and became president of the family corporation in 1935.

In 1934 his mother, Alice King Kleberg, had consolidated much of the ranch property into a corporation with her children as stockholders, as the King Ranch history page explains. That page says he served as president and chief executive for about fifty years. The museum dates his presidency from 1935, so the exact span depends on the source.

How were Santa Gertrudis cattle developed?

Kleberg is best known for Santa Gertrudis cattle. King Ranch says the breed came from crossing Brahman bulls from India with British Shorthorn stock, and calls it the first American breed of beef cattle. The museum says it took about thirty years to perfect and calls it the first breed recognized in the United States. Kleberg credited his father with helping produce the new cattle.

The ranch says the breed is now the most prevalent in Australia. The sources used here do not give a single recognition date, so none is stated.

Oil, grass and horses

In the 1930s the family negotiated several long-term leases with Humble Oil and Refining Company, covering about 1.15 million acres of ranch property, per the ranch history. Kleberg also contributed to agricultural science, especially improved grazing grasses.

Under his leadership King Ranch horses won the 1946 Triple Crown with Assault, and two Kentucky Derbies, with Middleground and Bold Venture. The museum notes interests in banking, business and railroads, and ranch holdings in Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Morocco and Australia.

Honors and legacy

He received honorary doctorates from Texas A&M and the University of Wisconsin, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in 1975, the year after his death.

Santa Gertrudis cattle remain his lasting mark on the beef industry, and King Ranch remains a working operation.

Learn more about King Ranch

For more ranch stories, see the farm.FM ranching section and a farm.FM story about King Ranch.