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. The new group of leaders insists that the King Ranch legacy will not dieand perhaps it wont. After World War II, the ranchs agricultural business was extended, in part to expand the national and global presence of the Santa Gertrudis breed. Today King Ranch cow bosses are called unit managers, and the forty cowboys, who make between $20,000 and $35,000 a year, stay in touch with one another on the vast pastures with cell phones. They kept clapping, perhaps because they were not sure what else to do at such an awkward moment. Robert Justus, Jr., took over effective control of the ranch at 22 during World War I, when his father suffered a stroke and his older brother, Richard, was with the Army. Three Riverway, Suite 1600 Youre supposed to get your ass out of bed. Other shareholders didnt agree with Tios ranching methods. Luxury Homes for Sale in Albertville, Auvergne Rhne Alpes, France Nor is there any guarantee that Tio will last on the board past his one-year term. Corpus Christi has a high school named for King. 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. Young Tio was given the responsibilities for the cattle operations, in large part because no one else in the family was willing to take them on. Around the ranch, Tio did not hide his opinion that Hunt was not leading the company. Robert J. Kleberg oversaw the building of cross fences that divided the vast acres into managed pastures. For six generations, the King Ranch has remained in the hands of one family: the descendants of Richard King. 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). In addition to all of these accomplishments, Mr. Kleberg built a facility that was, for a time, the largest cattle rail operation in the world. Its little wonder that the Ford Motor Company licenses the King Ranch name for upscale variants of its F-Series trucks. He died of stomach cancer at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio on April 14, 1885, at age 60. Name Card Index to AP Stories (1905-1990). April 29, 1862: Alice Gertrudis King is born. A Family Affair - Texas Monthly Under his tenure the ranch grew to encompass over 1,300,000 acres (5,300 km2). He would lose his temper at meetings when he thought the family committee was losing its focus, and his straightforward manner occasionally offended relatives. In one regard, what happened to Tio Kleberg was nothing more than pure corporate politics, a clash between two executives. I didn't create it, just shared. 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. At least initially, Hunt did act more like an asset manager than a visionary. Tio knew how to give his troops one hell of an inspirational speech about the King Ranch. The grass around them was greentoo green, actually, for the King Ranch. But the drought lasted three years, costing the King Ranch several million dollars in unrecoverable feed costs and pasture leases. Although it is hard to imagine an increasingly faceless corporation arousing much interest outside Texas with such a product (the idea might have worked fifty years ago, when Assault was winning the Triple Crown and people were talking about the King Ranch), the idea demonstrated how far Hunt was willing to go to increase revenues. In 1868, King and Kenedy dissolved their ranching partnership, taking 13 months to round up and divide the livestock. The entire village relocated, and these first Kineos helped King get his ranch started. Soon, phones were ringing around the state: The last of the legendary Kleberg patrones had been ousted by the chief executive officer of King Ranch, Inc., Jack Hunt, an astute business executive who had been brought in three years earlier from California to oversee the entire multimillion-dollar King Ranch operation and its varied business ventures, from a citrus grove in Florida to platform oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Will their understanding of their own heritage be blurred by their increasing demands for dividends? He just wasnt the kind of leader you would want to follow into battle, Tio says now. The company made about $3 million annually in pre-tax profits leasing 500,000 acres of the home ranches for hunting. But they are not sure how long they will stay. He knew the location of all one hundred pastures and 320 windmills on that harsh scrubland, and he knew the exact number of cattle (usually a figure more than 60,000) grazing in the ranchs four divisions. He smiled, waving his ever-present unlit cigar in the air. But at another level, the drama that played out at the King Ranch was a poignant parable about what Texas used to be and what it is inevitably becoming. The children and their descendants all played important roles in the history of the ranch. BibliographyCaptain King of Texas: The man who made the King Ranch, Tom Lea, 1957, Atlantic Monthly Press. 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. Among the many innovations for which he was responsible on the ranch, perhaps foremost among them were his efforts to drill for artesian water. King Ranch - Wikipedia In the late eighties a momentous family vote was taken to look for chief executives and board members outside the family, specialists in value-added processing and least-cost production and vertical integration. If Captain King would have been surprised to learn that Richard Sugden was his largest stockholder, imagine what he might have said upon hearing that the new chairman of the board of directors was a man named Abraham Zaleznik, a psychoanalyst and professor emeritus at Harvard Business School who could barely stay on a horse but who was a nationally renowned corporate consultant. Were he alive today, Richard King would hardly recognize the . He invented the cattle prod to move the cattle along faster when they were in their pens. Today, the Santa Gertrudis is the most prevalent cattle breed in Australia. Robert J. Kleberg designed the first cattle dipping vats to battle the tick. He served in Congress, but on the ranch he deferred throughout his life to his younger brother, Bob. South Texas Ranching. Perhaps what made Tio angriest was Hunts questioning the capability of some of Tios ranch managers. 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. During the thirties the family successfully negotiated several long-term leases with Humble Oil and Refining Company (now ExxonMobil) for oil and gas rights to the 1.15 million acres of King Ranch property. Despite the ranchs past glories, its profitability was in the oil and gas underneath the land that had been bringing in at least $20 million annually since the late sixties. One time she wrote about sports. When he died she married her neighbor Tom Armstrong and returned to the ranch. Daniel Vaughn is the countrys first barbecue editor, and he has eaten more barbecue than you have. He gave personal loans to the Kineos, took their kids to the doctor, and worked every day of the week. But Hunt did not hesitate to challenge Tios judgment. Although the 50,000 tourists to the King Ranch visitors center were still inundated with exhibits on the ranchs great cattle history, the truth was that the cattle division had long ago become one of the smaller profit centers at King Ranch, Inc. To eliminate at least part of the tax, Bob could simply have sold off some of the land. It was good politics to avoid butting heads with the last Kleberg on the ranch. This discovery was a welcome end to a decade that started with a drought so severe it was known as the great die-up.. In 1863, the Union General Nathaniel Prentice Banks attempted to interrupt this trade with his forces capturing Brownsville, Texas and raiding and destroying the King Ranch, but King avoided the raid and resumed business in 1864, earning a considerable fortune over the course of the war. Tio snapped, Just who the hell is spreading nasty shit about Scott? But what impressed many family members was that he had also been trained at Harvard Business School, focusing on agribusiness. Richard, the oldest child, was a man of natural ability and grace, the favorite of his mother. 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. Hunt and other board members could always ask him not to stand for reelection, or Tio might quit. 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. [1] In 1835, he ran away from his indenture, stowing away on a ship bound for Mobile, Alabama. During this era, Robert J. Kleberg and Mrs. King continued to improve and diversify the assets of King Ranch with agricultural development, land sales, and town building projects. Now Jay Kleberg, another descendant in the Kleberg family tree, is getting into politics. Thank you for visiting king ranch heirs family tree page. In the last years of his life, Kleberg suffered a debilitating stroke that seemed to lock up his mind. They had 5 children, Nettie, Ella, Richard, Alice Gertrude, and Robert E. Lee, the latter named for the King family friend, Robert E. Lee. King's ghost is said to haunt the Menger Hotel, particularly the suite named for him. King Ranch Heirs. Thats a lot of baby heifers for one mother cow to nurse, says Helen Groves, one of the family matriarchs. Following Robert Kings's early death at age 19, King is said to have taken to drink; however, other sources suggest that this was self-medication for a recurring stomach pain. In the past Tio would have been anxious to slip out of the meeting and get together with his cattlemen and talk about what to do next. Scientific upbreeding programs have been hallmarks of King Ranch since its inception, and they have paid off in spades. The nucleus of King Ranch formed around 2 irregularly shaped pieces of wilderness of 614,000-Acre (abt 60 major land purchases) King Ranch (today ~1,000,000-Acres). John Dutton Family Tree: Who is James Dutton to John Dutton, Other Nows Your Chance. 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 . Over the course . Forget the Trailer. Yet during the twice-yearly roundups, time seems to stand still. It doesnt matter where we are living, says Richard Sugden. 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. Arrondissement of Albertville Genealogy Resources & Vital Records (832) 681-5700. A Ranching Family There were other family members who believed that Tio had wasted King Ranch money on the introduction of the Santa Cruz; privately they said he was trying to draw attention to himself. In 1983, the King Ranch Family Trust endowed the creation of a professorship. He was keen on creating the infrastructure that would get his product to market in the most efficient way possible. But. King also privately funded operations of the Texas rangers, particularly the "Special Force" under Leander H. McNelly, and donated $4,000 for a monument to McNelly upon McNelly's death. He never once said to me, Tio, this is where I want to go with the cattle and farming operations. All he had to do was tell me what he wanted, and Id do it. Leave them blank to get signed up. For six generations, the King Ranch has remained in the hands of one family: the descendants of Richard King. By the late eighties Tio was the only member of his generation willing to stay on the ranch. And the King Ranchs oil company, King Ranch Energy, was accumulating a healthy $12 million annually. To keep the profits rolling in, King Ranch, Inc., was turning into a highly competitive multinational agribusiness and energy corporation. She was like a character out of Victorian fiction, a thin and severe Presbyterian who for the next forty years would wear widows black and tour the ranch twice a year in a black, horse-drawn coach. When Henrietta King died in 1925, the ranchs 1.2 million acres were divided among her heirs. Soon after the 1925 death of Bobs grandmother, Henrietta King, the barely profitable ranch was saddled with a $3 million inheritance tax. He sat on the board of the local university and the local hospital; Janell was a longtime member of the local school board. To the surprise of many of the older, more conservative family members, Tio said that Uncle Bobs prized Santa Gertrudis could be made better. When King died, Kleberg took over the management of the ranch in 1885. America's Top 100 Land Owners - Modern Farmer Alice and Robert Kleberg ended up with more than 800,000 acres, which they and their children incorporated in 1934 as the King Ranch. 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. While Johnson was trying to. But if you watch 1883 there is a part where they that the land will belong to the Duttons for 7 generations, then the native Americans will take it back. This young lawyer would soon be handling the lions share of the great ranchers legal work. Taylor Prewitt is the newsletter editor for Texas Monthly. 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. He became a national celebrity, his exploits featured on the cover of Time. They voted to take 75 percent of the royalties, leaving the ranch corporation with the remaining 25 percent. King Ranch Descendants Named to List of Biggest Landowners in U.S. Jay Kleberg of Texas' King Ranch family is running for land King married Henrietta M. Chamberlain on December 10, 1854 in Brownsville, Texas. Other heirs, however, could persuasively argue that by embracing Jack Hunt, who might turn the King Ranch into an even bigger corporate Goliath, the family is doing exactly what the family has done in the past: whatever it takes to keep the ranch from going broke. He seemed unusually serious when he and his wife, Janell, arrived outside the stables, where he had asked everyone to gather. 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. The King descendants, who have privately owned the ranch since its inception, clock in at 911,215 acres. At the annual family meeting at Summer Camp in mid-June, the board of directors decided to honor Tio and Janell. Now 87, she and her children run a former division of the King Ranch called the Santa Fe Ranch, in Hidalgo County. He suggested that cotton and milo farming be increased at the ranch and that more than half of its land be leased to commercial hunting opertions. 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. You Can Lead Cows to Water, But Can You Make Em Swim Across the Colorado River? The Texas Fever Tick created significant problems for the marketing of cattle from South Texas. But lets face it, Tio adds with a shrug. [+] 13. He became a first lieutenant, stationed in El Paso, and was offered a chance to move up in rank. It is a struggle that has changed them, divided them, and perhaps even separated them from the very ideals that once made the King Ranch so great. Move em out: Despite 60,000 head of cattle, the corporations profits these days depend on ventures far removed from ranching. But today the King Ranch, like so much of Texas, is well on its way to creating a new identity for itself, one in which the rugged individuals are not those who move cattle but those who move money. Here are a number of highest rated King Ranch Heirs pictures upon internet. Bobby Shelton's mother, Sarah, was a tomboy and only wanted to ranch. Richard Louis King (1824-1885) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree Richard King, was born July 10, 1824 in Orange County, New York He was apprenticed to a New York City jeweler about the age of nine. Dicks second son, Stephen Justus Tio Kleberg, is at 34 the senior male Kleberg on the ranch and manager of the Texas divisions. 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. r/YellowstonePN on Reddit: Dutton Family Tree John Spong writes primarily about popular culture. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Apartment in Megve, Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes, France Contact. He raced back to town and reported that he had seen secretaries weeping and grown men hugging Tio and Janell. He continued acquiring land until his death in 1885, when the ranch had 614,000 acres (2,480 km2). Robert J. Kleberg designed the first cattle dipping vats to battle the tick. Todays King Ranch is a major agribusiness with interests in cattle ranching, farming (citrus, cotton, grain, sugar cane, and turfgrass), luxury retail goods, and recreational hunting. Heres more about the property. 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. Sugdens mother was Mary Etta Kleberg, the daughter of one of the original five Kleberg children. Robert Justus Kleberg, Jr. (1853 - 1932) - Genealogy The roundup for the fall calf crop was just beginning; more than nine thousand calves had to be weaned in a mere three weeks, and they were the heaviest on record, many weighing seven hundred pounds. In 1853, Captain Richard King purchased a creek-fed oasis in the Wild Horse Desert of South Texas, sparking generations of integrity, preservation, and innovation. Another became a champion equestrian rider in Florida. That same year, he traveled overland from Brownsville to Corpus Christi, and became fascinated with the grasslands along Santa Gertrudis Creek in the "Nueces Strip" (the land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande). According to those who worked with him, Tio followed the old family creed that a cattleman never left a herd until all the cattle work was finished. The company had a whopping $200 million either in the bank or invested in securities, and it had almost no debt. [4] It is mainly a cattle ranch, but also produced the Triple Crown winning racehorse Assault . Times were changing, and the board declared that the ranch no longer needed a domineering Bob Kleberglike leader. In 1934, Alice King Kleberg consolidated much of the ranch property into a corporation, with her children as stockholders. 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. He focused on getting rid of the businesses that were faltering, such as the companys cotton warehouse in Galveston, a lumberyard in Kingsville, and a horse farm in Kentucky. The jeweler was a difficult man, and the boy was chafing under the man's mistreatment. To get rid of Tio, Hunt knew he needed unanimous support from his eight-member board. When We Were Kings - Texas Monthly Thats what I really look to when I think about King Ranch, not just one individual here or there., But can this family stay together as a family without its connection to the landa land that once defined them, sometimes overwhelmed them, but ultimately enlarged them? [1] From 1842 to 1847, King would operate steamboats on the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee rivers, in Florida and Georgia.[1]. 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. Thanks to the sale of the W.T. 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. Robert J. Kleberg and his grandniece, Ida Louise Clement, at King Ranch in 1956. Finally, Zaleznik stepped to the microphone and presented Tio and Janell with a painting. One time she wrote about sports. In other respects, however, Tio was unabashedly old-fashioned. Denman, the former attorney for the ranch, remembers Dick telling Bob, If I can be of any use to you, I want to work. He was a deft roper and a fine horseman, one of the best all-around cowboys on the ranch. As part of his application for pardon, he declared that his taxable property was worth $300,000 at the time. All Rights Reserved. People laughed when he announced that he wanted to own all the land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande and then control a three-mile-wide strip from Brownsville to Kansas, on which his cattle would be driven to market. Some cowboys said he didnt have a firm handshake and he didnt look a person in the eye. Soon after Richards death, Henrietta asked Robert Kleberg, the husband of her youngest daughter, Alice (the Kings had four children), to run the ranch, a herculean task considering that it was about $500,000 in debt. 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. Imagine what Captain Kings reaction would be if he knew that a doctor at a Wyoming ski resort owned more of King Ranch than anyone else, marvels one family member.