b'o u rh i s t o r yAbove: Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who became a close friend of the Kings years before the Civil War, gave Richard the advice, Buy land, and never sell. Middle: Map of original 1869 cattle routes to northern markets from the Santa Gertrudis Ranch. Right: One of the first artesian water wells successfully drilled on the ranch in 1899, a vital achievement for raising cattle.The Kineos proved vital to the early survival of the stock, Richard King onceor yearhe had also earned quite a reputation for himself as a ladies man, quoted as giving full credit to his foreman, saying, [we] could not have keptincluding with the married ladies of other men. One of those ladies was Anna on and held on if Andrs Canales had not been adjoining. Yarrington, the wife of one Dr. J.T. Yarrington, who had previously been found Before the summer of 1854 had taken hold, King and Lewis had purchasednot guilty of manslaughter in a San Antonio gunfight that he won.their first herd, entirely manned their cow camp, and had closed on theirUpon the doctors discovery of love letters from Legs to his wife, he threw her second parcel. The 53,000-acre De La Garza Santa Gertrudis was a land grantout of the houseapparently an accepted practice under such circumstances bequeathed by the King of Spain in 1808 that had come into the possession ofin those daysbut Legs came around looking for said letters, lest they be pub-Praxides Uribe of Matamoros. The land had been successfully ranched for sixlicized to ruin his second campaign for Congress. Dr. Yarrington ran him off years, almost half-a-century earlier, under the protection of Spanish troops,and warned him not to return, a warning Legs did not heed, and on April 14, but when the Mexicans revolted, the troops left, and native tribes began men- 1855, upon his return to the doctors house in search of his letters, Legs was acing the De La Garzas. The familys patriarch, Don Jose De La Garza, wascut in half by fire from Yarringtons double-barrel shotgun. Patrons of the murdered by the natives, and the clan abandoned the ranch for good. Ruby Saloon on Chaparral Street, several of whom had their own history with King and Lewis paid $1,800 for the De La Garza Santa Gertrudis land, threeLegs, raised their drinks in honor of the good but homicidal doctor. Yarrington cents per acre as compared to the two cents per acre they had paid for theirwas again found not guilty by a jury of his peers, remarried to a woman from first tract. At the time, no one outside the partnershipon either side of theNew Orleans, and lived out a long life of 89 years in Oakland, California.borderexpressed any optimism that the Santa Gertrudis cow camp wouldFor Richard and Henrietta King, their era of triumph and trauma had just be-achieve any level of success. On territory described in its original Spanish landgun. In the spring of 1856, the Kings bore their first child, Henrietta, named grant as, unappropriated, waste and unpopulated, King and Kenedy set uponin honor of her mother. During her nursing period, mother and baby stayed at a perilous odyssey, the ultimate outcome of which would be determined byhome in Brownsville while Richard journeyed to Santa Gertrudis to manage their success or failure as businessmen and their ability to survive. the cow campan effort that became exceedingly difficult following the death As little in life is guaranteed in our comfortable First World,the onlyof his partner and ranch manager, Legs Lewis. By the end of the year, Henri-guarantee that Captains Richard King and Legs Lewis could rely upon wereetta and Baby Nettie would accompany Captain King on his trips to the ranch, the dangers they would face in the rugged Wild Horse Desert. At the end oftypically in a heavy coach accompanied by riflemen on horseback, but on a few 1854, a most productive year for Richard King, he married Henrietta Mariaoccasions, they made the perilous journey without security.Chamberlain, following a four-year courtship. Henrietta was the daughter ofOn one of those trips, they were approached by a lone Mexican seeking a meal a Presbyterian minister who moved to Brownsville with the mission of estab- as they were setting up camp for the night, whom the Kings cautiously invited lishing the first Protestant church on the Rio Grande. Their main home wasto join them. To paraphrase the description of the incident written by the am-Richards cabin, located next to that of Mifflin Kenedy in Brownsville, but thebitious Tom Lea in his epic 1957, two-volume history of the King Ranch, upon newlyweds long honeymoon was spent on the Santa Gertrudis. spotting the Mexican sneaking up from behind her husband in the dim light Captain Gideon Legs Lewis, an Ohio native, settled in Corpus Christi fol- of dusk, Henrietta screamed, Captain King! Behind you! And with the com-lowing his service as a Texas Mounted Ranger in the Mexican-American War,bative instincts of a riverboat brawler, Richard blindly reached behind himself in 1848. At the time he met Richard King in 1852, Lewis was publisher of thewith both hands and grabbed the arm of the man holding a knife, flipping Nueces Valley newspaper and had made a failed run for U.S. Congress the pri- him over his shoulder, rendering his would-be assassin helpless. Rather than 80THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'