Kleberg County Texas History

Kingsville History
[Source: p. 450, "The Encyclopedia Americana", 1919]
Submitted to Genealogy Trails by K. Torp
KINGSVILLE, Tex., town, county-seat of Kleberg County, on the Saint Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway, 118 miles north of Brownsville and 235 miles southwest of Houston, Tex. Its chief manufacturing industries are cotton-oil mill, creamery with annual output of 200,000 pounds, broom factory, railroad shops, electric-power plant and ice factory. A considerable domestic and export trade is carried on in the agricultural products of the county, comprising corn, cane, non-saccharine sorghums, broom corn, melons, potatoes and winter vegetables, and the Hereford, Shorthorn and Jersey cattle of the famous ranges and dairy' farms of the neighborhood.

In addition to substantial business buildings, the town has costly and handsome brick or concrete structures, including courthouse, county hospital, general railroad offices, hotel, Masonic Temple, two brick ward public schoolhouses and a high school. It is the seat of the Texas-Mexican Industrial Institute and of the projected South Texas State Normal College. Formed out of the 10,000,000-acre King Ranch owned by Mrs. Henrietta M. King and managed by her son-in-law, Mr. Robert J. Kleberg, after whom the county is named.

Kleberg County borders on the Gulf of Mexico and has a semi-arid and semi-tropical climate. The summers are pleasant and the winters are so mild that palms and citrus fruits are grown. The topography of the country is slightly rolling and has an average elevation of 60 feet above sea-level. It is free from malaria and otherwise healthful.

The King Ranch home is one of the most magnificent residences in the South.

Paved highways, one of which leads to the celebrated Rio Grande Valley, extend throughout county and State.
Pop. 5,500.