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Photo Courtesy of Texas Highways
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Welcome to Texas Genealogy
Trails!
*Volunteers dedicated
to putting free data online.*
LaSalle County Website is available for adoption.
If interested in joining our group, view our Volunteer
Information Page and contact
Kim.
[Basic webpage design
knowledge and a desire to transcribe data is required]
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| Between the Texas Revolution and the
Mexican War most of what is now La Salle County lay in the disputed area
between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River. Since neither the Republic
of Texas nor the Mexican government could establish control over this
strip of land, it became a haven for desperados. Even after the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo definitively assigned the Nueces Strip to Texas,
outlaws and hostile Indians delayed the development of the area for
years. When La Salle County was officially formed from the Bexar
District on February 1, 1858, the county had only begun to be settled.
Some of the earliest settlements in the county grew along the road from
San Antonio to Laredo. In May 1852, to protect travelers on the road,
the United States Army established an outpost, Fort Ewell, where the
road crossed the Nueces. The site proved to be unhealthful, and the fort
was abandoned in 1854; meanwhile a small town, Guajoco, also known as
Fort Ewell, had developed 1½ miles from the fort. When the fort was
decommissioned, its few remaining inhabitants moved to the settlement.
By 1871 perhaps sixty people, most of them probably of Mexican descent,
lived in or near Guajoco, which had a post office, a saloon, a general
store, and a stagecoach stop.
Meanwhile, other settlers were beginning to find
their way to La Salle County. In 1856 William A. Waugh, a native of Ohio
who had spent some time in the California gold fields, established a
ranch where the San Antonio-Laredo road crossed Cibolo Creek. He
abandoned the site in 1858, but returned in 1861. By the 1870s Waugh
maintained a large herd of cattle in the area, and his ranch
headquarters became a stopping point for travelers. A store was
established on the spot, and the place became a center of activity in
the area; in 1879 it was granted a post office under the name Waugh's
Rancho. Iuka, another early settlement, was established by a group of
families in 1868 about eight miles west of the site of present-day
Cotulla. Iuka served as a stage stop and a meeting place for cattle
buyers; according to one source, most of the inhabitants of the town
were of Mexican descent. The settlement was granted a post office in
1880. More than twenty-five ranches were established in the county
during the 1870s, including the La Mota Ranch, run by William and Amanda
Burks. In 1870 the census taker found only sixty-nine people residing in
La Salle County; in 1880 the population was 789.
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La Salle County was formally organized in 1880
with Stuart's Rancho, near Guajoco, designated its first seat of
government. The political organization of the county closely coincided
with other developments that helped to change La Salle County from a
collection of isolated frontier settlements and ranches into a more
stable environment for economic and social development. The last Indian
raid in the county occurred in 1878. In the early 1880s the
International-Great Northern Railroad extended its tracks into the
county. These developments, along with the gradual elimination of
outlaws, helped to make ranching a more predictable and profitable
enterprise, and no doubt helped to attract out-of-state capital. In the
late 1870s and early 1880s, for example, James J. and Andrew J. Dull,
two wealthy brothers from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, purchased large
tracts of La Salle County land, including much of W. A. Waugh's
property, to put together a vast ranch.
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