Like Bob Kleberg, Tio was always looking for ways to help the ranch prosper in difficult times. An index to over 2.1 million people mentioned in Associated Press stories, including name, subject, location, date and a reference to the article. Robert J. Kleberg and his grandniece, Ida Louise Clement, at King Ranch in 1956. King continued expanding his business operations, investing in the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad Company, packing plants, ice houses, and harbor improvements at Corpus Christi. At all ranches, the beef prices keep going down, and the costs of producing the beef keep going up, which means we have to think and act in a more efficient way.. John Armstrong, an esteemed family member who became president of the ranch after Jim Clement retired, said in a 1980 interview, If the next generation is content to live off their income, then weve lost it. Although a handful of new heirs used their dividends to buy smaller ranches for themselves, the vast majority never visited the King Ranch except for hunting trips in the winter and for the familys Summer Camp reunion and annual business meeting, where, according to one family member, everybody got to play cowboy for a week before returning to their real lives. In their group photograph taken at Summer Camp, they seemed to embody the best of the American aristocracy, with pointed noses and high cheekbones and graceful smiles. The cotton and milo farms, which had been expanded to 60,000 acres, brought in at least half a million dollars more than the cattle. April 29, 1862: Alice Gertrudis King is born. Because of this, the heirs to the King Ranch have solidified the No. What Alexander and Clement did believe was the right thing for the shareholders was for them to support Hunt over Tio. Richard Louis King Born 10 Jul 1824 in New York City, New York, United States Ancestors Son of Charles Henry King [uncertain] and [mother unknown] When Hunt told his board of directors at a meeting in Houston that he wanted to pay a consulting firm $500,000 to do a study assessing the King Ranchs environmental problems, Tio glared at him and exclaimed that such a huge sum didnt need to be spent. He imported top equine stock and led efforts to develop a breed of cattle that could withstand the hot, harsh South Texas climate. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. According to some sources, however, he told shareholders that he wanted the King Ranchs energy company to launch a major exploration program, which could cost $250 million a year over the next four years, to acquire 200 billion cubic feet of oil and gas by the year 2000 (the company owns 46 billion cubic feet today). . But what really made money for the company was its Florida sod farm, which in a good year brought in a whopping $16 million. The times he spoke at family meetings, he would say that it was up to the family to preserve the ranchs heritage. Everyone is always interested in a position like that, Alexander finally said. This era saw the development of mechanized brush control methods and innovative corrals for working cattle. He didnt even once ask me to drive him around the ranch just to see what was here.. Another became a champion equestrian rider in Florida. Those who came up later and gave the painting a second look said nothing out loud, but it was clear that the landscape could not possibly have been South Texas. During some legal proceedings in Corpus Christi in 1881, Captain King was so impressed with the opposing counsel that he sought him out after matters were settled. In 1836, King Charles-Albert gave birth to Albertville by uniting the two towns (Conflans and the Hospital). This firm achieved "nearly monopolistic" control on the Rio Grande for most of the years between 1850 and 1874, when the partnership was dissolved. View 9 photos $1,224,468 2 Beds 2 Baths. Richard King (July 10, 1824 New York City April 14, 1885, San Antonio, Texas) was a riverboat captain, entrepreneur, and most notably, the founder of the King Ranch in South Texas, which at the time of his death in 1885 encompassed over 600,000 acres (2,400 km). Lee is said to have chosen the location for the King's home on the King ranch, as a location easy to defend. Various Kleberg descendants have made names for themselves in the public sector. Robert Grunnah, a principal at the Texas land specialty firm Novus Realty Advisors, told Bloomberg in July 2021 that if Waggoner Ranch is worth $725 million, King Ranch is worth $1.1 billion. In 2015, it was expanded and renamed the King Ranch Chair for Business Leadership, a position now held by Senior . He arrived just before the start of a new era. Some days youre amazed that man or beast can survive down here, Tio Kleberg told me one scorching June afternoon at his home, just a few hundred yards from the Big House. Robert Klebergs belief in the power of a unified family formed the framework, and his wifes long devotion to that belief instilled it in their children. Scientific upbreeding programs have been hallmarks of King Ranch since its inception, and they have paid off in spades. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. Small and wiry, with sharp blue eyes and an Old West gunfighters mustache that drooped over the sides of his mouth and curled up at the ends, he carried an unlit Henry Clay cigar in one hand and didnt hesitate to use his other hand to slap a cowboy on the back and encourage him to work harder. The Founding of King Ranch The story starts in the mid-1830s with an eleven-year-old boy indentured by his destitute family to a jeweler in New York City. In fact, the senior male has never taken over the ranch, a striking departure from the traditions of most aristocracies. April 14, 1885: King dies. Three Riverway, Suite 1600 Management developed ranching operations overseas with land purchases in Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Australia, Venezuela, Spain, and Morocco. In 1940, Dick Kleberg, Jr., joined his father, Mr. Dick, and his uncle, Mr. Bob, in managing King Ranch. Waggoner Estate Ranch in Texas earlier this year, we can get a sense of King Ranchs value. The boy who started as an impoverished, indentured jewelers apprentice became an adventuresome, hard working and visionary businessman who, by the time of his death in 1885, had made his indelible mark on the landscape and taken his place as a titan among the ranks of the tamers of the Texas range. Its little wonder that the Ford Motor Company licenses the King Ranch name for upscale variants of its F-Series trucks. Born in New York City into a poor Irish family, King was indentured as an apprentice to a jeweler in Manhattan at the age of nine. Over the course . Who Owns King Ranch in Texas? Info on the Kleberg Family and Descendants They had 5 children, Nettie, Ella, Richard, Alice Gertrude, and Robert E. Lee, the latter named for the King family friend, Robert E. Lee. Helen Kleberg, Bobs wife, infused in the family a sense of pride in the important details of family life: the single-spaced printed sheets listing everyones birthday, the cards and letters on special occasions, the ceremonies that brought the family together. It was a message he also passed on to his four childrenone of whom was a good-natured boy named Tio, who used to sneak into the Big House to shoot his BB gun at birds that had flown in through the open windows. From left to right in the picture, the Kleberg children are: Alice, who is the only survivor of the five and perhaps the most fiercely independent of the bunch. He and the managers introduced a new composite breed called the Santa Cruz, which some experts said was leaner and more fertile than the Santa Gertrudis and which Tio himself claimed would one day become the dominant breed on the ranch. Clement had grown up with Tio on the ranch during the sixties, when Clements father was helping run the ranchs corporate affairs. Before her death in 1925, Henrietta King had donated land and funds toward the construction of churches, libraries, and school projects (creating an oasis of community development) in this previously untamed land. He would lose his temper at meetings when he thought the family committee was losing its focus, and his straightforward manner occasionally offended relatives. Robert J. Kleberg designed the first cattle dipping vats to battle the tick. But lets face it, Tio adds with a shrug. The companys only significant purchase was a 5 percent interest in a small bio-tech firm in California that makes environmentally friendly pesticides. Tell me right now, Jack. Bob saved the ranch from foreclosure by negotiating a lease with Humble Oil (which later became Exxon) to begin oil and gas exploration on the property. Who could have guessed the day would come when the family would not support the very person who had been so loyal to them?. The article hinted at the challenges to come, but Tio and others in the family seemed full of hope that the family tradition would endure. He traveled to an impoverished hamlet in Mexico where many vaqueros were known to live. about king ranch heirs family tree please comment if we missed anything here, please let us know. The King Ranch continues to be a dominant economic force in the region. At least initially, Hunt did act more like an asset manager than a visionary. King Ranch is the largest ranch in the United States. How, on a ranch where the bonds of family meant so much, could its most loyal son be deposed? Father of Henrietta Maria Atwood; Ella Morse Welton; Richard King, II; Alice Gertrudis Kleberg and Robert E. Lee King, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_King_(Texas). It was what gave meaning to his life. Whats more, because of 3D seismic technology, deeper oil wells were being successfully drilled on King Ranch land, making the royalties higher than ever. #7 King Ranch Heirs - Forbes [4] It is mainly a cattle ranch, but also produced the Triple Crown winning racehorse Assault . He and Alice had five children, three daughters and two sons. Tio said he knew the ranch from top to bottom, and he could show anyone the places where there might be problems, such as a garbage dump or an underground storage tank. King Ranch's Legacy - King Ranch Acquiring and breeding superior foundation stallions, the King Ranch Quarter Horse program produced the number one registration (WIMPY) in the American Quarter Horse Association Stud Book and Registry, as well as the youngest horse (MR SAN PEPPY) ever to be inducted into the National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame. By any calculation, Bob Klebergs achievements were colossal. Once upon a time, their ranch was the grandest, not only in Texas but also in the world, captained by visionaries and bound by blood. John Spong writes primarily about popular culture. He served in Congress, but on the ranch he deferred throughout his life to his younger brother, Bob. Today, the Santa Gertrudis is the most prevalent cattle breed in Australia. ISBN 0894906739, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18107. Yet, according to Tio, Hunt told him that at an industry meeting he had heard that the King Ranchs manager in charge of breeding sales, Scott Wright, was not well respected by other cattlemen. Famous for covering more land than the state of Rhode Island, Texas' legendary King Ranch has placed the King family at No. In 1868, King and Kenedy dissolved their ranching partnership, taking 13 months to round up and divide the livestock. Always hungry for more land, Mr. Bob, as he became known among the Kineos, used the King Ranchs share of the oil royalties to buy huge amounts of land in Australia, Cuba, Europe, and South America, creating a worldwide cattle kingdom. The Texas Fever Tick created significant problems for the marketing of cattle from South Texas. Kleberg was a Corpus Christi lawyer with little ranching experience, yet he quickly transformed himself into a daring and creative cattleman, introducing scientific methods to the cattle business, digging artesian wells to counter the devastating drought of the early 1890s (known as the Great Die), and experimenting with various breeds, from English Shorthorns to Herefords, to see which could best survive the unforgiving climate. Tio had trained many of these men; they had been part of his team for more than twenty years. He wants to battle climate change and preserve Texas' 13 million acres of public . Modern game management and wildlife conservation practices were expanded, and continue to benefit the ranch today. We are an honest family and we ask a lot of pointed questions and we dont hesitate to express our thoughts. By Tios own accounting, the agricultural department that he supervised had for the previous three years brought in $15 million to $18 million annually in after-tax profitsthe best three years on record. King Ranch Heirs Family Tree With Complete Detail Just to prove he was better than the elitist Kentucky horse breeders, he bought several Thoroughbreds, brought them back to the King Ranch in railroad cars, and started a breeding program that produced a horse named Assault that astounded the world of racing by winning the 1946 Triple Crown. Richard Louis King (1824-1885) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree Tio was startled, for instance, when Hunt asked him for the odometer readings of the cowboys pickups to see if they were driving too much. Besides, Tio was willing to take on any responsibility for the company. Outside, it was another hot afternoon, so hot that the heat was bouncing off the scrub brush. video . Because the eldest son, Richard, was already in law school when his father became ill, the reins of the ranch were handed in 1918 to the second son, Robert Bob Kleberg, Jr., a serious young man with a squeaky voice and an ungraceful demeanor. When Captain Richard King, a hell-raising, fistfighting, Rio Grande steamboat pilot from New York City, paid $300 for 15,500 South Texas acres, he knew nothing about cattle. The upshot of one such program in the years after Kings death would be the development of the Santa Gertrudis breed of cattle the first officially recognized new breed of beef cattle in America. One of Captain Kings most important contributions to his ranchs improvement was the outworking of his vision to improve his cattle and horse stock through an aggressive, thorough and studied upbreeding (breed improvement) program. (Another fifth-generation family member, Martin Clement, who lived in Kingsville, supervised the Big House, which was used as a lodge for visiting family members and special guests.) We identified it from obedient source. AUSTIN Jay Kleberg, a conservationist and filmmaker who is part of the family that has owned the famous King Ranch in South Texas for generations, said Thursday he's running for state land commissioner as a Democrat. These two meet tragic ends at the start of the Dutton's Westward Expansion, however. The five children pledged to stay together for twenty years. John Spong writes primarily about popular culture. BibliographyCaptain King of Texas: The man who made the King Ranch, Tom Lea, 1957, Atlantic Monthly Press. Those days are over. But now all he could do was stand with his painting, smiling graciously with his wife, listening to the applause go on and on. I didn't create it, just shared. You Can Lead Cows to Water, But Can You Make Em Swim Across the Colorado River? Hunt already knew the man he wanted to head the cattle business: an intellectual much like himself named Paul Genho, the respected manager of a major Florida cattle operation who held a Ph.D. in animal science. The Kleberg family, descended from Richard King, held sway over the family's holdings from an austere whitewashed mansion on the ranch. Since his death in 1885, there has always been a family member in charge of the home ranches, the four massive divisions of land in South Texas. Because of the luck of inheritance, the ranchs largest individual stock holder, with between 5 and 10 percent of the stock, was Richard Sugden, a doctor in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Other upbreeding programs led to the development of the countrys top quarter horses and some of Americas most notable thoroughbreds including 1946 Triple Crown winner ASSAULT. Times were changing, and the board declared that the ranch no longer needed a domineering Bob Kleberglike leader. Oil and gas royalties drove another growth spurt for King Ranch during this period. Hunt told me that when he arrived at the King Ranch offices in Houston, I did what any executive would do, which was to find out what was generating good returns and what was generating poor returns. And one of the first areas he looked at was the ranchs beef business. Much of the ranchland is made up of great tangles of brush, creating the perfect hiding places for livestock during roundup time. To open up more pasture, he invented a plow pulled by a massive, specially designed bulldozer that could clear four acres of brush an hour. Their daughter Alice and her husband, Robert Klebergshown with their children in the turn-of-the-century photograph at the rightfounded the family that sustained it. Although six of the board members came from outside the family, two were younger cousins of TiosJohn D. Alexander, Jr., of San Antonio and James H. Jamey Clement, Jr., of Dallas, both private investors in their early forties. It was, in retrospect, a startling achievement: Civilization had been brought to El Desierto de los Muertos. But Hunt told the board of directors that Tios job should be done by two menone to run the King Ranchs farming operations across the nation and someone else to run the cattle business. Leave them blank to get signed up. The Founding of King Ranch - King Ranch Move em out: Despite 60,000 head of cattle, the corporations profits these days depend on ventures far removed from ranching. By the 1870s, Kings outfit, R. King and Company, was sending tens of thousands of cattle north on the trails. He also initiated an aggressive mesquite-clearing program on the ranch. The five children pledged to stay together for twenty years after the incorporation, but since then the descendants of two of them have left the ranch. Move Over, Snake Farm: Reptilandia Is the Hill Countrys Classy New Reptile Zoo, The Bronc-busting, Cow-punching, Death-defying Legend of Boots ONeal. At a good-bye party for Tio, one old man wept and said, Who will take care of us now? Meanwhile, life at the ranch had to go on. Now 87, she and her children run a former division of the King Ranch called the Santa Fe Ranch, in Hidalgo County. But he and his four siblings, who had created a corporation to control their spread, splitting the stock equally, had made a quixotic vow: The King Ranch would stay together and remain under family ownership no matter what happened. For a more detailed chart see: Family tree of English monarchs (from Alfred the Great through .Queen Elizabeth I); Family tree of Scottish monarchs (from Kenneth MacAlpin through James VI and I); Family tree of Welsh monarchs; and the Family tree of the British royal family for the period from Elizabeth I . He is also linked to several filibustering exhibitions in northern Mexico, attempts to seize Mexican territory by force. And he believed the family had a responsibility to Kingsville. Tio always made sure to allocate about $150,000 of his departments annual budget for Kingsville civic projects, from Fourth of July parades to livestock shows, and he helped develop a plan to revitalize the downtown. In his direct, ranch-raised speaking style, he liked to talk about doin things the King Ranch waydoin it right, doin it with quality. He made a point of riding horseback through every pasture. Did you like this post? By the early 1970's, King Ranch holdings totaled, worldwide, approximately 11.5 million acres. Robert J. Kleberg oversaw the building of cross fences that divided the vast acres into managed pastures. Then Bob Kleberg did something that had not been done anywhere in the world in the previous two hundred years: He created a new breed of cattle. Youre supposed to get your ass out of bed. Other shareholders didnt agree with Tios ranching methods. In 1974, with the death of Bob Kleberg and Dick, Jr., in poor health, the Family selected James H. Clement, Sr., the husband of King's great granddaughter Ida Larkin, as President and CEO. [1] From 1842 to 1847, King would operate steamboats on the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee rivers, in Florida and Georgia.[1]. Corpus Christi has a high school named for King. He died of stomach cancer at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio on April 14, 1885, at age 60. Every afternoon he would shuffle to his car and have a driver take him from one pasture to another. Hunt had spent some of his youth in Texas and had worked as an executive for a large family-owned ranching company in the Panhandle. But so far, they have not gotten off to an auspicious start capturing the spirit of the place. The next generation of women is better educated and more interested in helping to manage the ranch, but they also run the summer camp that binds the familys children to the ranchs future. According to company insiders, the King Ranchs revenues started rising, jumping from around $100 million in the late eighties to $148 million in 1993 and $183 million in 1994. Dick had a bright future as a lawyerhe had done well in his first year at the University of Texas School of Lawbut he wanted to return home and serve his family. In a magazine interview, he once said the executives he would most like to have at a fantasy dinner were famed investor Warren E. Buffett, Ted Turner, and Robert Shapiro of Monsanto. One employee openly worried about major job cutbacks after allegedly overhearing Hunt say he had learned to run the ranching division at Tejon with just a couple of cowboys and some dogs. King married Henrietta M. Chamberlain on December 10, 1854 in Brownsville, Texas. His widow is left. Perhaps what made Tio angriest was Hunts questioning the capability of some of Tios ranch managers. Edna Ferber used Bob and his wife, Helen, the daughter of a Kansas congressman whom Bob had married after a seventeen-day courtship, as models for her novel Giant. Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought Waggoner Ranch this summer, according to Forbes, and though the terms of the sale werent disclosed, the nearly-800-square-mile property was listed at $725 million. This young lawyer would soon be handling the lions share of the great ranchers legal work. Weldon Wilson Drove Cattle the Old-fashioned Way. Since the arrival of Robert Kleberg in 1881 the family has not hesitated to pass over the senior male in the bloodline if someone else, blood relation or in-law, was judged more capable of running the ranch. He knew that the ranch had to find something to replace the oil royalties that for so long had bolstered the King Ranch cattle operations, especially during droughts. To date the most expensive ranch to sell in the U.S. was the Forbes family's (yes, this Forbes) 172,000-acre Trinchera Ranch in Colorado, which hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon bought. Rumors about him flew. Its possible youll see the next generations sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of the old family property so they can bring some better dividends for that year, Tio says. One day they might be carrying laptop computers in their saddlebags to keep track of the cattle inventory. As soon as King had arrived in Texas, he began speculating in land, beginning with lots in Brownsville, Texas and Cameron County, Texas, and continued investing the large profits from the riverboat firm. We have our opinions on what can make King Ranch better. There was one story going around that Hunt was so determined to make changes that he had flown in a chef from California to teach the longtime cooks at the Big House a different way of cutting beef. Tio told me that he was so distraught at the hospital that he picked up the phone, called Hunt in Houston, and shouted, Jack, Scott Wrights dead, and I hope youre happy. Then he slammed down the phone. Tio was in a denim jacket and Janell in a windbreaker. The land itself roams over "six counties, is divided into four parcels." He believed the family had an obligation to take care of the Kineos. It was during these transitional years that King Ranch made its name in animal husbandry. Members of Hunts staff also had talks with Louis Vuitton and Este Lauder about nationally distributing a line of King Ranch luggage and King Ranch colognes to be sold in department stores. Under his tenure the ranch grew to encompass over 1,300,000 acres (5,300 km2). Lee is said to have chosen the location for the King's home on the King ranch, as a location easy to defend. Employees at the ranch headquarters sensed almost immediately that there was going to be a personality clash between the buttoned-down Hunt and the cigar-wielding Tio. Today neither is with the ranch. He needed a cow that was as hardy as a Longhorn, able to endure the sun, yet capable of eating just about anything. Apocalypse Sow: Can Anything Stop the Feral Hog Invasion? As the American Civil War progressed, King and Kenedy shipped to and from the Confederate States of America, registering their fleet of 26 boats under Mexican flag at Matamoros to avoid the Union blockade. When she died, he received all of her stock. Cause of death: Stomach cancer - Apr 14 1885, Chamberlain Cemetery, Kingsville, Texas, United States, New York City, New York County, New York, United States, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, United States, Chamberlain Cemetery, Kingsville, Kleberg County, Texas, United States, Kingsville, Kleberg County, Texas, United States. New book peeks inside life at famed King Ranch By crossbreeding Brahman bulls, native to India, with British Shorthorn stock, the ranch produced the Santa Gertrudis, recognized as the first American breed of beef cattle and the first cattle breed to be recognized in the world in more than a century. I have a very high regard for him. Tio was not a saint. The systematic and ambitious expansion of this period in agriculture, energy, and real estate, together with expanded retail operations created the platform for the business segments of King Ranch today.
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king ranch family tree