Ed Lasater had quite a problem. He owed Grandma King $ 200,000. And in 1899 the King Ranch was rapidly acquiring land. Grandma would rather have Ed’s land than his money.
In the Great Drought Year of 1893 ranchers large and small lost most of their cattle. Ed Lasater was one of them. He ran cattle on a large scale and suffered a huge loss. But Ed had something most didn’t -- credit; obtained through his father’s mercantile business. Ed bought land from distressed ranchers, latino and anglo alike.
He needed real money to pay off Grandma King. Lasater persuaded the English brokerage firm, Francis Smith, to invest in his ranch. He expanded it to 360,000 acres in south Texas. He convinced the Southern Pacific railroad to build a line down from San Antonio to his ranch. Lasiter built what was said to be the largest dairy herd in the world. He attracted settlers by offering them subdivided ranchland by the railroad. Lasater’s headquarters became the little town of Falfurrias.
When I was a boy living in Kingsville (home of the King Ranch), Falfurrias was only some 40 miles away but you couldn’t get there. Not by auto. Not until the State of Texas built what we called the “new highway.” I remember the first sight of Falfurrias’s citrus groves and date palms.
The name “Falfurrias” itself is obscure. Perhaps a Lipan word meaning “desert flower?” Or does it refer to an old shepherd who lived there? Falfurrias was the final home of a famous curandero, Don Pedro de Jaramillo, a beloved faith healer. I used him as a model for the healer Don Pedro in Escape from the Alamo.
I’m grateful to David Montejano’s history, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1896. And of course, the Handbook of Texas Online. Always.
Dac Crossley
February 22, 2013.
Happy Birthday, George W.
“Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” – Washington.