Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

The old barons of beef and bone

Cattle ranchers were called "the anointed" by the great short story writer O. Henry, who once worked on a South Texas ranch. In one story, "A Call Loan," he wrote that Texas cattlemen were "the grandees of grass, kings of the kine, lords of the lea, barons of beef and bone."
   The most famous of the beef-and-bone barons in this area were the legendary ranchers Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy. They were unusual in that they acquired many thousands of acres when most cattlemen ran their cattle on the open range, and expected they would be able to do so forever.
   Given his ownership of a vast amount of land, it's not surprising that Kenedy was one of the first to fence. He fenced "Laureles," south of Corpus Christi, in 1868. King also was an early fencer, primarily, it was said, to control cattle breeding, but also to keep free-range cattle off his grass.
   Many early ranchers ran their cattle on the open range, buying enough land for their ranch headquarters. The cowboys called the cattlemen with huge herds and little land "range pirates."
   After the Civil War, more and more cattlemen began to realize, like King and Kenedy, that the future would be in enclosed pastures. I don't want to get too deep into fencing; books have been written about the conflict between big ranchers who owned their own range and free-grass cattlemen who learned what Walter Prescott Webb called "the art of wire cutting." My topic is the early ranchers, primarily in what used to be Nueces County, which was a lot bigger before it was carved up. There were more cattlemen than I could deal with in two columns, and there were some in this 1850-1880 era about which little is known, but I subjectively chose a few:
   James Bryden, like other early ranchers in this area, was attracted here by Henry Kinney's efforts to bring in immigrants to buy his land. James and Janet Bryden came from Scotland in 1852. A son John who was born on the packet Newcastle drowned 11 years later in the Nueces River.
   Bryden had a small cattle operation on 50 acres of land on the Santa Gertrudis Creek. After King began his famous ranch in that area, Bryden was hired as his ranch foreman. Bryden later bought the 8,000 acre Diezmero Ranch on the Nueces River. Bryden led many cattle drives north during the trail-driving era. He bought what is now the Centennial House, and, in 1878, gave it to a daughter. Another daughter, Margaret, married W.O. Staples, for whom Staples Street is named.
   After the Civil War, Martin S. Culver, who learned the cattle business on his uncle's ranch at Oakville, bought Rancho Perdido (Lost Ranch), 12 miles northwest from San Patricio, in what is today Jim Wells County. He bought the 600-acre ranch for $1 an acre and in time had one of the largest open-range cattle operations in Nueces County, with as many as 100 vaqueros or more working his cattle. One of Culver's four brands, KL, stood for his wife and daughter's names, Kate and Lizzie.
   After the bandit raid on Nuecestown in 1875, a wounded bandit was left behind. A posse brought him to Corpus Christi in a cart and drove around town, looking for a place to hang him. They tried to attach a rope to St. Patrick's steeple when Culver stopped them from using the church for a hanging. The following year, 1876, Culver sold his ranch and cattle; the ranch was later bought by his foreman, Milton Dodson. Culver died in Kansas in 1888.
   Josiah "Si" Elliff ran away from home in Pulaski, Tenn., after his father remarried. He worked as a cowboy around Banquete. After the Civil War, he began ranching on his own, starting with sheep to get enough money to buy cattle. He began buying land, too, until he had acquired 50,000 acres, making his one of the largest ranches in Nueces County. "Si" could not read or write, but would sign "44" - his cattle brand and the name of his ranch - to legal documents. In 1888 he built a 10-room house on Agua Dulce Creek. (This Banquete landmark was torn down in 1955.) On July 3, 1900, "Si" went to fetch some roasting ears. He was found sitting under a tree, dead of an apparent heart attack. The ranch was split up after his death.
   Richard Gallagher, like Bryden, was attracted to the Corpus Christi area in 1852 by Kinney's agents. He started a ranch on the Oso Creek.
   Martin Kelly came to Corpus Christi from County Galway,_Ireland, in 1842. In the 1850s, he gained a reputation as one of the state's most fearless Indian fighters. He was one of the first in this area to raise sheep as well as cattle. His ranch, southwest of the present site of the Corpus Christi International Airport, was sometimes called Kelly Ranch and sometimes called El Paiste.
   (This is the first of two parts. Part two will appear in this space next Wednesday.)
   (Murphy Givens can be reached by phone at 886-4315 or by e-mail at givensm@caller.com.)
  
  

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