EARLY SETTLERS OF KLEBERG COUNTY, TEXAS
The history
of Kleberg County during the first
fifty years is almost indistinguishable from that of the
King Ranch. Therefore, the earliest settlers would be those who lived
and worked on the ranch.
However, in 1903,
the St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexico Railway was
built through
South Texas to Brownsville, and Henrietta King, owner of the King Ranch at
that time,
opened for sale a
large tract of her land. The railroad chose the town of Kingsville to locate its
headquarters bringing families of the railroad company. Theodore F. Koch, land promoter who
purchased around 20,000 acres from Mrs. King in 1907,
established
Riviera. On Baffin Bay, a few miles to the east, Koch soon
organized
Riviera Beach as a vacation resort. Vattman, several miles
to the
northeast of Riviera, was settled in 1908 by German
American families
sponsored by the Catholic Colonization Society.
SOURCE: Kleberg County Historical
Commission,
Kleberg County, Texas (Austin: Hart Graphics, 1979).
THE FOLLOWING LIST IS A COMPILATION OF SOME FACTS EXTRACTED
FROM THE FAMILY NARRATIVES PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING
BOOK:
theKleberg County, Texas: a Collection of Historical
Sketches
and Family Histories American Revolution Bicentennial
Heritage Project - 1976; Kleberg County
Historical Commission, 1979.
SURNAME INDEX
| A-C | D-F | G-K | L-P | R-T | U-Z |
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