King Ranch: How a Disputed Texas Land Tract Became a Cattle Empire

How Richard King Started the Ranch

Richard King came to Texas from New York as a young steamboat man. He piloted riverboats on the Rio Grande around the time of the Mexican War, then partnered with Mifflin Kenedy in a steamboat company. Sources differ on his birth year (1824 or 1825) and on the details of his first land deals. The Kleberg Foundation's founders page says he bought the 15,000-acre Rincon de Santa Gertrudis for $300 in 1853 and added 53,000 acres in 1854, while an encyclopedia entry on King describes a 75,000-acre tract bought in 1852.

The land was cheap for a reason. The same encyclopedia entry notes that Mexican and Native claimants disputed it and no clear legal claim had been established. King held on, hired vaqueros who had worked cattle and horses all their lives, and by the Civil War era had a ranch of roughly 146,000 acres, according to the ranch's own history page.

The Kineños and La Patrona

A defining part of the ranch story is its workforce. According to Texas Co-op Power's profile of Henrietta King, King bought nearly all the cattle and horses in the Mexican town of Cruillas, and most of the town's people moved north with him in a procession called La Entrada. They became Los Kineños, the King men, and descendants still live on the ranch.

Henrietta Chamberlain, a Presbyterian minister's daughter, married King on December 10, 1854. After his death in 1885 she inherited about half a million acres and about half a million dollars in debts, per the same account, and the Kineños called her La Patrona. More than 200 of them reportedly rode to her funeral in 1925 and each cantered once around the grave.

Robert Kleberg and the Ranch Made Modern

Robert Justus Kleberg was a Corpus Christi lawyer who handled King's legal work from 1881 and married the youngest King daughter, Alice Gertrudis, after King's death. Henrietta put him in charge. His practical changes were the kind that decide whether a South Texas ranch survives drought. In 1899 he drilled a productive artesian well, designed cattle dipping vats to fight the Texas fever tick, fenced the range into managed pastures and began clearing mesquite.

Kleberg and Henrietta also helped bring the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway through in 1904 and helped found towns including Kingsville. Of the five Kleberg children, Richard Kleberg Sr. became a seven-term congressman and handled legal and financial matters, while Robert J. Kleberg Jr. ran operations for about fifty years until his death in 1974.

What Is the Santa Gertrudis Breed?

Santa Gertrudis cattle were developed on the ranch by crossing Brahman bulls with British Shorthorn cows, aiming at cattle that thrive in heat, insects and thin grass. The ranch calls it the first American beef breed, and the breed is now widespread in Australia. Texas Co-op Power's account says the breed matured to full size on less range grass than other cattle.

Horses, Oil and Going Global

The ranch's Quarter Horse program produced Wimpy, listed first in the American Quarter Horse Association stud book, and its Thoroughbreds included Assault, the 1946 Triple Crown winner, and Middleground, the 1950 Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner. In 1934 the family consolidated much of the property into a corporation, and in the 1930s it signed long-term leases with Humble Oil and Refining for rights on 1.15 million acres. After World War II the company bought land in other states and held operations in places including Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Venezuela and Spain.

Visit or Learn More

The ranch's history page lists current business lines, from cattle and quarter horses to farming, turfgrass and citrus. For more cattle history, see the ranching section of farm.FM and a farm.FM story about the King Ranch.