September 19, 2024 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the story of Richard King and his "King Ranch" has much to tell us about America. Here is the pulse of the national epic of cattle and cowboys, ranchers and horses, a vast fortune created out of the oldest source of wealth there is, land and cattle. Roger McGrath brings us the story along with William Yancey from Texas A&M University, Kingsville.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue here on our American Stories. And our
next story is about an American legend named Richard King.
King's legacy can be seen on every tailgate and door
of Ford's upscale F series trucks. The logo reads King Ranch.
Here to tell the story of Richard King is Roger McGrath,
author of Gunfighters, High Women, and Vigilantes, a former US
(00:34):
Marine and former history professor at UCLA. Doctor McGrath has
appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries and is a regular
contributor to Our American Stories. Here's Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
The cattle kings of the Old West carved empires out
of the wilderness. They were larger than life characters, bold daring, intelligent, courageous, tough.
They had great strength, character, and iron wills. No cattle
king exhibited these characteristics more than Richard King. Born in
(01:10):
New York City to Irish immigrant parents in eighteen twenty four,
Richard King is only three years old when his parents
die and he is left in the care of an aunt.
At nine years old, he is apprenticed to a jeweler.
The jeweler works him hard six days a week. On
his day off, the young boy walks down to the
(01:31):
docks of Manhattan and watches the ships come and go.
He dreams of climbing aboard a ship and sailing off.
At twelve years old, he does just that. Here's William Yancey,
historian at Texas A and M University, Kingsville.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
He ran away to the docks in New York City
and he snuck on board an ocean going ship called
the Desdemona, and he hit out in the hold of
that ship for about two weeks to scrounge in whatever
food he could get his hands on. After two weeks,
some sailors found him in the hold of that ship,
and at this point the ship was already well out
to sea, so they grabbed him brought him up to
(02:09):
the captain. The captain asked him the question, what is
your name, boy, and he immediately answered, my name is
Richard King, and you can either throw me overboard or
put me.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
To work, but I'm not going back.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
The captain seemed to be impressed by this young man's attitude,
so he put him to work.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
For the next several years. King works in a variety
of capacities on several different ships. He demonstrates such intelligence
talent and leadership. The two different ship captains school him
in navigation and command of a ship. By the time
he is sixteen, is a pilot's license and knows the
(02:47):
Gulf coast and the rivers of the Cotton Kingdom like
the back of his hand. In eighteen forty two, King
lists for service in the Seminole War in Florida.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
It is during in.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
His Semino War service that he meets Mifflin Kennedy, another
ship's officer. King and Kennedy will become lifelong friends. Kennedy
had been born in Pennsylvania, and, like King, had first
gone to sea as a cabin boy and worked his
way up to become a ship's pilot. By eighteen forty three,
(03:21):
Richard King has grown and matured. The nineteen year old
is square jawed, well muscled, and tall for the times
at five feet eleven inches. When provoked, he can turn
the air of purple with profanity. That makes his friendship
with a soft spoken Quaker Mifflin Kennedy, something of a surprise.
(03:42):
In eighteen forty seven, Richard King enlist's first Second War,
taking command of the ship Colonel Cross, and rises to
rank a captain In the US Navy during the Mexican War.
King serves for the wars duration transporting troops and supplies.
He becomes intimately familiar with the Texas and Mexican coasts
(04:06):
and with the Rio Grande River, and is during his
service in the Mexican War, the King recognizes steamship service
would revolutionize the commerce of South Texas, especially the Rio
grand Valley. When the war ends, he buys this ship.
He commands as war surplus and is often steaming. King
(04:29):
soon forms a partnership with his old friend Mifflin Kennedy.
By the mid eighteen fifties, their company is operating more
than two dozen ships, and thanks in part to their
low rates, they are monopolizing shipping on the Rio Grande River.
They will continue in this preeminent position for more than
two decades. Here again, as William Yancy.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
In eighteen fifty, Captain King had been on a steamboat
run to Rio Grande City and back. He had a
rough couple of days. He had problems with his sailors.
He had had problems with the engines on his steamboats.
The final straw was when he got back to Brownsville.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
He went to.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Moore's steamboat in the slip where he normally kept it,
and somebody already had a boat there. Today there was
a steamboat in this slip. Now, everybody in Brownsville and
you not to park their steamboats there because that was
Richard King's slip. But today there's a steamboat there. Well,
this sent him over the edge. He starts cursing a
blue streak. Had to go down the river a little ways,
(05:30):
found an empty slip to Moore's boat, and he starts
walking back towards this houseboat. And he's about to give
the occupant of this houseboat a piece of his mind.
Well he never got a chance to do that. There
was a young lady on the houseboat who had heard him,
and she decided to confront him first, and the two
walked towards each other, and this young lady says, essentially,
(05:51):
who do you think you are using language like that?
This is my father's houseboat. He has just as much
right to be here as you do. Why don't you
spend less time making a fool of yourself and more
time washing your filthy boat. And at that Richard King
didn't really have a response. He's not someone who was
left speechless very often, but this time he was left speechless.
(06:11):
He turned around and he walked back to his boat,
and then he and his sailor spent the rest of
the afternoon washing that boat. Over the next several days,
he couldn't get this young lady out of his mind.
So he's going to go to his best friend and
business partner, Miflin Kennedy. So he goes to Kennedy and
ask him who's the young lady whose father's house boats
(06:32):
parked in my slip? And Kennedy says, well, that's miss
Henrietta Chamberlain. Her father's the new Presbyterian minister in town.
Kennedy said, there's only one way you're going to get
to meet her, and that's if you start going to
church with her. Well, over the next several weeks and months,
he becomes a very faithful Presbyterian. He is there every
(06:52):
time the doors of the church are open. And to
make a long story short, he'll begin a four year
courtship of Miss Henrietta. But eventually the two of them
will be married. In eighteen fifty four, there in Brownsville,
her father performed the ceremony. The ceremony was at their church.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
King takes risks when those with fainter hearts shy away.
He steams sections of the Real Grand where others think
it impossible to go. He designed ships specifically for the
fast currents and narrow bends of the river, enabling him
to reach destinations previously considered impossibly remote. While dominating trade
(07:34):
on the Real Grand. King recognizes that much of the
land of south western Texas would not support farming, but
would be good for cattle. As a result, he begins
to buy property, including the fifty three thousand acre Santa
Gertrudis Grant. He pays eighteen hundred dollars for the grant,
(07:55):
fought by many to be near worthless because recurrent droughts
leave much of the area wasteland.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
In eighteen fifty four, Captain Richard King is going to
find some help for his cattle operation from an unlikely source.
During the eighteen fifties, he made several trips to Mexico
to buy cattle to stock his ranch with now one
particular occasion, he went to a village called Krueas, which
was in the state of Tamilippus, maybe one hundred miles
(08:23):
southwest of Mata Morris. This village at the time was
well known for its cattle herds and for its vocos
or cowboys, but they were in the middle of a
three year drought. All the grass was dead, there wasn't
any water, the cattle were dying. So Richard King goes
there and he makes a pitch to the villagers because
they owned the herd in common, and he basically said
(08:46):
to them, why don't you sell me your entire herd?
And the villager said, here's what we're willing to do.
We're willing to sell you the entire herd if you'll
take as many of us as want to go back
to your ranch and we'll work that herd for you.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Well, that's a no brainer, isn't it. He needs help.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
They need cattle to work, So about a hundred villagers
are going to come back to the ranch in Texas
with Captain King. At that point, they become the first
volcero's or cowboys on the ranch, and over time they
take a lot of pride in working for Captain King.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
They start to call.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Themselves Kenaneo's, which roughly translated means King's men or King's people.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Whenever he can, King buys more Land. His philosophy is simple,
buy land and never sell.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And when we come back, we continue the story of
Richard King here on our American stories. And we returned
(10:10):
to our American stories and the remarkable story of cattle
King Richard King. Let's continue where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
During the Civil War, Texas sees from the Union joins
the Confederacy. Within months, the US Navy effectively blockades the
Gulf Coast, cutting off the South's greatest source of income,
cotton exports. In these dire circumstances, King becomes one of
the Confederacy's heroes, a blockade runner. He is so successful
(10:44):
that he becomes a legend. It doesn't hurt that he
is handsome and well built. He becomes a real life
Red Butler. Union forces raided the King ranch late in
eighteen sixty three and loot and burn everything they can. However,
their principal target, Richard King, escapes, and when the Confederates
(11:07):
retakes South Texas in eighteen sixty four, King is back
in business with the Confederates surrender in April eighteen sixty five,
though King slips into Mexico. King's story might have ended
right there, but late in eighteen sixty five, he secures
a pardon from President Andrew Johnson and resumes all of
(11:29):
his former activities. Here again is William Yancy, historian at
Texas A and M University Kingsville.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Now not until eighteen sixty seven before he really starts
to re establish his full time cattle operation. And that
just goes to show what good sense of timing the
man had, because around eighteen sixty seven they're started to
develop a huge market for beef in the Northeast. As
the Northeast becomes more industrialized, people are moving into city
so they're not raising and growing their own food. Also
(12:00):
have a large influx of immigrants from Europe. There is
a need for beef, and Richard King becomes one of
the first South Texas ranchers to realize that you can
make quite a bit of money supplying that need.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Now, at the time, there aren't very.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Many railroads in Texas, so in order to get the
beef to where it is needed, you have to welcome
to where the railroads were, and that meant cattle drives.
Richard King will become one of the first South Texas
ranchers to drive cattle, specifically the Texas longhorn from his
ranch in South Texas to railheads, first in Missouri and
(12:37):
then later in Kansas. At the time, you could purchase
longhorns for between two to four dollars ahead in South Texas,
sell them for around twenty dollars ahead in Fort Worth,
maybe even as high as forty by the time you
got to Kansas, and Captain King was able to make
a considerable amount of money doing this. Eventually, longhorns, however,
(12:58):
are going to fall out of favor in north eastern markets.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
The problem with long warns is are beef is very tough.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
And stringy, and eventually, as railroads start to penetrate more
of the country, it's easier for ranchers in other areas
to raise better tasting breeds of beef, load them onto
railroad cars, and ship them to slaughterhouses in Chicago for
movement on to the east.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
In eighteen sixty nine, he leads his first herd north
on the long Drive for King. Coming from his ranch
in the extreme southwestern region of Texas. The drive to
the Kansas railheads is more than twelve hundred miles. Despite
the length of the drive and losses to stampede swollen streams,
(13:46):
and Indians. King makes enormous profits. From eighteen sixty nine
through eighteen eighty four, King sends well more than one
hundred thousand head of cattle to the railheads in camp
or the ranges of the Northern High Plains. He continues
to plow his profit back into cattle and land until
(14:10):
he has hundreds of thousands of acres and tens of
thousands of cattle. If rht Butler in Gone with the
Wind is a Richard King like character during the Civil War,
then Tom Dunson is a Richard King like character in
Red River. King's great cattle operation is not without problems,
(14:33):
which include regular cross border raids by Mexican bandidos such
as Juan Cortina and Juan Floris. In three years, King
loses thirty three thousand head of cattle. He has the
state for help, but the governor refuses. In eighteen sixty seven,
King begins to fence his huge ranch. At first, his
(14:56):
crews put up wooden fences. After Bob Wire appears in
eighteen seventy four, the work goes faster. In eighteen eighty
three alone, the ranch uses one hundred and ninety thousand
pounds a Bob Wire. During the mid eighteen seventies, King
wages a personal war with florists in his Bandidos, entirely
(15:18):
at his own expense. King supplies Captain Lee McNelly and
his company of Texas Rangers with horses, food, and the
latest Winchester rifles for pursuit of the Bandidos. McNelly is
spectacularly successful, but not without controversy. He not only pursues
(15:40):
the Mexican bandits through Texas, but right into Mexico. In Mexico,
he destroys several Bandido sanctuaries and defeats a Mexican army.
While the US government is apoplectic over mcnelly's border crossing,
Richard King couldn't be happier. By the time of his
(16:02):
death in eighteen eighty five, King has increased the size
of his ranch to six hundred and fourteen thousand acres,
and those are acres he actually owns, rather than leases
from the government. Following his instructions to buy land and
never sell, his son in law, A. Robert Clayburgh, adds
(16:22):
more acreage to the ranch, until by the eighteen nineties
the King ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island.
Like the Eastern industrial barons, King tries to control all
businesses related to his ranching operation. He invests in railroads,
feed lots, packing houses, ice plants, harbors, and ships. King
(16:47):
in many ways is a king. To improve his longhorns,
King brings in Durham bulls from Kentucky. His goal is
to produce a steer with a long horn, toughness and
a Durham bulk here a Cannis Professor Yancee.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
In nineteen forty, the US Department of Agriculture would recognize
the Santa Gratrudaus breed as the first breed of beef
cattle produced in the Western Hemisphere, and really the first
anywhere in the world in over one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
In pursuing his dream, Richard King invents modern ranching. Farwars
before him tended to raise catalyst sideline in the city's
fresh meat was a luxury few could afford. The King
ranch turns ranching into a big business. It also helps
turn Americans into a nation of beef eaters. Richard King
(17:38):
is a colorful character whose violent temper and wild, rough
hewn nature never diminish with age. King gets in several
fights in his lifetime and seems to enjoy them. On
one occasion, a big, angry cowboy exclaims to King that
if he were not Captain King, the great cattle Baron,
he would.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Not be able to get away.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
With the profane remarks that he just made King is
no longer a young man. But the old cattleman explodes,
damn you forget the riches and the captain title, and
let's fight, and fight they do. It is one of
the best fights anybody can recall. A cowboy and the
(18:22):
Captain pommel each other with vicious blows for half an hour,
then bloody and I'm weary. They shake hands. Thereafter, the
cowboy says he will stand back to back with King
anywhere in any time. We tend to think of Hollywood's
portrayals of the cattle kings of the Old West as exaggerated. Actually,
(18:47):
a close look at Richard King demonstrates that's such a
classic questionn As Red River and John Wayne's character of
Tom Dunson told a tale than the facts of the
real life of Richard King.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And great job to Greg Hangler in special thanks as
always to Roger McGrath, author of Gunfightershigowmen, and migilantes, and
also a special shout out to William Yancey, historian at
Texas A and M University, Kingsville. Richard King's story here
on our American Stories
And we continue here on our American Stories. And our
next story is about an American legend named Richard King.
King's legacy can be seen on every tailgate and door
of Ford's upscale F series trucks. The logo reads King Ranch.
Here to tell the story of Richard King is Roger McGrath,
author of Gunfighters, High Women, and Vigilantes, a former US
(00:34):
Marine and former history professor at UCLA. Doctor McGrath has
appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries and is a regular
contributor to Our American Stories. Here's Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
The cattle kings of the Old West carved empires out
of the wilderness. They were larger than life characters, bold daring, intelligent, courageous, tough.
They had great strength, character, and iron wills. No cattle
king exhibited these characteristics more than Richard King. Born in
(01:10):
New York City to Irish immigrant parents in eighteen twenty four,
Richard King is only three years old when his parents
die and he is left in the care of an aunt.
At nine years old, he is apprenticed to a jeweler.
The jeweler works him hard six days a week. On
his day off, the young boy walks down to the
(01:31):
docks of Manhattan and watches the ships come and go.
He dreams of climbing aboard a ship and sailing off.
At twelve years old, he does just that. Here's William Yancey,
historian at Texas A and M University, Kingsville.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
He ran away to the docks in New York City
and he snuck on board an ocean going ship called
the Desdemona, and he hit out in the hold of
that ship for about two weeks to scrounge in whatever
food he could get his hands on. After two weeks,
some sailors found him in the hold of that ship,
and at this point the ship was already well out
to sea, so they grabbed him brought him up to
(02:09):
the captain. The captain asked him the question, what is
your name, boy, and he immediately answered, my name is
Richard King, and you can either throw me overboard or
put me.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
To work, but I'm not going back.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
The captain seemed to be impressed by this young man's attitude,
so he put him to work.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
For the next several years. King works in a variety
of capacities on several different ships. He demonstrates such intelligence
talent and leadership. The two different ship captains school him
in navigation and command of a ship. By the time
he is sixteen, is a pilot's license and knows the
(02:47):
Gulf coast and the rivers of the Cotton Kingdom like
the back of his hand. In eighteen forty two, King
lists for service in the Seminole War in Florida.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
It is during in.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
His Semino War service that he meets Mifflin Kennedy, another
ship's officer. King and Kennedy will become lifelong friends. Kennedy
had been born in Pennsylvania, and, like King, had first
gone to sea as a cabin boy and worked his
way up to become a ship's pilot. By eighteen forty three,
(03:21):
Richard King has grown and matured. The nineteen year old
is square jawed, well muscled, and tall for the times
at five feet eleven inches. When provoked, he can turn
the air of purple with profanity. That makes his friendship
with a soft spoken Quaker Mifflin Kennedy, something of a surprise.
(03:42):
In eighteen forty seven, Richard King enlist's first Second War,
taking command of the ship Colonel Cross, and rises to
rank a captain In the US Navy during the Mexican War.
King serves for the wars duration transporting troops and supplies.
He becomes intimately familiar with the Texas and Mexican coasts
(04:06):
and with the Rio Grande River, and is during his
service in the Mexican War, the King recognizes steamship service
would revolutionize the commerce of South Texas, especially the Rio
grand Valley. When the war ends, he buys this ship.
He commands as war surplus and is often steaming. King
(04:29):
soon forms a partnership with his old friend Mifflin Kennedy.
By the mid eighteen fifties, their company is operating more
than two dozen ships, and thanks in part to their
low rates, they are monopolizing shipping on the Rio Grande River.
They will continue in this preeminent position for more than
two decades. Here again, as William Yancy.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
In eighteen fifty, Captain King had been on a steamboat
run to Rio Grande City and back. He had a
rough couple of days. He had problems with his sailors.
He had had problems with the engines on his steamboats.
The final straw was when he got back to Brownsville.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
He went to.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Moore's steamboat in the slip where he normally kept it,
and somebody already had a boat there. Today there was
a steamboat in this slip. Now, everybody in Brownsville and
you not to park their steamboats there because that was
Richard King's slip. But today there's a steamboat there. Well,
this sent him over the edge. He starts cursing a
blue streak. Had to go down the river a little ways,
(05:30):
found an empty slip to Moore's boat, and he starts
walking back towards this houseboat. And he's about to give
the occupant of this houseboat a piece of his mind.
Well he never got a chance to do that. There
was a young lady on the houseboat who had heard him,
and she decided to confront him first, and the two
walked towards each other, and this young lady says, essentially,
(05:51):
who do you think you are using language like that?
This is my father's houseboat. He has just as much
right to be here as you do. Why don't you
spend less time making a fool of yourself and more
time washing your filthy boat. And at that Richard King
didn't really have a response. He's not someone who was
left speechless very often, but this time he was left speechless.
(06:11):
He turned around and he walked back to his boat,
and then he and his sailor spent the rest of
the afternoon washing that boat. Over the next several days,
he couldn't get this young lady out of his mind.
So he's going to go to his best friend and
business partner, Miflin Kennedy. So he goes to Kennedy and
ask him who's the young lady whose father's house boats
(06:32):
parked in my slip? And Kennedy says, well, that's miss
Henrietta Chamberlain. Her father's the new Presbyterian minister in town.
Kennedy said, there's only one way you're going to get
to meet her, and that's if you start going to
church with her. Well, over the next several weeks and months,
he becomes a very faithful Presbyterian. He is there every
(06:52):
time the doors of the church are open. And to
make a long story short, he'll begin a four year
courtship of Miss Henrietta. But eventually the two of them
will be married. In eighteen fifty four, there in Brownsville,
her father performed the ceremony. The ceremony was at their church.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
King takes risks when those with fainter hearts shy away.
He steams sections of the Real Grand where others think
it impossible to go. He designed ships specifically for the
fast currents and narrow bends of the river, enabling him
to reach destinations previously considered impossibly remote. While dominating trade
(07:34):
on the Real Grand. King recognizes that much of the
land of south western Texas would not support farming, but
would be good for cattle. As a result, he begins
to buy property, including the fifty three thousand acre Santa
Gertrudis Grant. He pays eighteen hundred dollars for the grant,
(07:55):
fought by many to be near worthless because recurrent droughts
leave much of the area wasteland.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
In eighteen fifty four, Captain Richard King is going to
find some help for his cattle operation from an unlikely source.
During the eighteen fifties, he made several trips to Mexico
to buy cattle to stock his ranch with now one
particular occasion, he went to a village called Krueas, which
was in the state of Tamilippus, maybe one hundred miles
(08:23):
southwest of Mata Morris. This village at the time was
well known for its cattle herds and for its vocos
or cowboys, but they were in the middle of a
three year drought. All the grass was dead, there wasn't
any water, the cattle were dying. So Richard King goes
there and he makes a pitch to the villagers because
they owned the herd in common, and he basically said
(08:46):
to them, why don't you sell me your entire herd?
And the villager said, here's what we're willing to do.
We're willing to sell you the entire herd if you'll
take as many of us as want to go back
to your ranch and we'll work that herd for you.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Well, that's a no brainer, isn't it. He needs help.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
They need cattle to work, So about a hundred villagers
are going to come back to the ranch in Texas
with Captain King. At that point, they become the first
volcero's or cowboys on the ranch, and over time they
take a lot of pride in working for Captain King.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
They start to call.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Themselves Kenaneo's, which roughly translated means King's men or King's people.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Whenever he can, King buys more Land. His philosophy is simple,
buy land and never sell.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And when we come back, we continue the story of
Richard King here on our American stories. And we returned
(10:10):
to our American stories and the remarkable story of cattle
King Richard King. Let's continue where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
During the Civil War, Texas sees from the Union joins
the Confederacy. Within months, the US Navy effectively blockades the
Gulf Coast, cutting off the South's greatest source of income,
cotton exports. In these dire circumstances, King becomes one of
the Confederacy's heroes, a blockade runner. He is so successful
(10:44):
that he becomes a legend. It doesn't hurt that he
is handsome and well built. He becomes a real life
Red Butler. Union forces raided the King ranch late in
eighteen sixty three and loot and burn everything they can. However,
their principal target, Richard King, escapes, and when the Confederates
(11:07):
retakes South Texas in eighteen sixty four, King is back
in business with the Confederates surrender in April eighteen sixty five,
though King slips into Mexico. King's story might have ended
right there, but late in eighteen sixty five, he secures
a pardon from President Andrew Johnson and resumes all of
(11:29):
his former activities. Here again is William Yancy, historian at
Texas A and M University Kingsville.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Now not until eighteen sixty seven before he really starts
to re establish his full time cattle operation. And that
just goes to show what good sense of timing the
man had, because around eighteen sixty seven they're started to
develop a huge market for beef in the Northeast. As
the Northeast becomes more industrialized, people are moving into city
so they're not raising and growing their own food. Also
(12:00):
have a large influx of immigrants from Europe. There is
a need for beef, and Richard King becomes one of
the first South Texas ranchers to realize that you can
make quite a bit of money supplying that need.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Now, at the time, there aren't very.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Many railroads in Texas, so in order to get the
beef to where it is needed, you have to welcome
to where the railroads were, and that meant cattle drives.
Richard King will become one of the first South Texas
ranchers to drive cattle, specifically the Texas longhorn from his
ranch in South Texas to railheads, first in Missouri and
(12:37):
then later in Kansas. At the time, you could purchase
longhorns for between two to four dollars ahead in South Texas,
sell them for around twenty dollars ahead in Fort Worth,
maybe even as high as forty by the time you
got to Kansas, and Captain King was able to make
a considerable amount of money doing this. Eventually, longhorns, however,
(12:58):
are going to fall out of favor in north eastern markets.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
The problem with long warns is are beef is very tough.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
And stringy, and eventually, as railroads start to penetrate more
of the country, it's easier for ranchers in other areas
to raise better tasting breeds of beef, load them onto
railroad cars, and ship them to slaughterhouses in Chicago for
movement on to the east.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
In eighteen sixty nine, he leads his first herd north
on the long Drive for King. Coming from his ranch
in the extreme southwestern region of Texas. The drive to
the Kansas railheads is more than twelve hundred miles. Despite
the length of the drive and losses to stampede swollen streams,
(13:46):
and Indians. King makes enormous profits. From eighteen sixty nine
through eighteen eighty four, King sends well more than one
hundred thousand head of cattle to the railheads in camp
or the ranges of the Northern High Plains. He continues
to plow his profit back into cattle and land until
(14:10):
he has hundreds of thousands of acres and tens of
thousands of cattle. If rht Butler in Gone with the
Wind is a Richard King like character during the Civil War,
then Tom Dunson is a Richard King like character in
Red River. King's great cattle operation is not without problems,
(14:33):
which include regular cross border raids by Mexican bandidos such
as Juan Cortina and Juan Floris. In three years, King
loses thirty three thousand head of cattle. He has the
state for help, but the governor refuses. In eighteen sixty seven,
King begins to fence his huge ranch. At first, his
(14:56):
crews put up wooden fences. After Bob Wire appears in
eighteen seventy four, the work goes faster. In eighteen eighty
three alone, the ranch uses one hundred and ninety thousand
pounds a Bob Wire. During the mid eighteen seventies, King
wages a personal war with florists in his Bandidos, entirely
(15:18):
at his own expense. King supplies Captain Lee McNelly and
his company of Texas Rangers with horses, food, and the
latest Winchester rifles for pursuit of the Bandidos. McNelly is
spectacularly successful, but not without controversy. He not only pursues
(15:40):
the Mexican bandits through Texas, but right into Mexico. In Mexico,
he destroys several Bandido sanctuaries and defeats a Mexican army.
While the US government is apoplectic over mcnelly's border crossing,
Richard King couldn't be happier. By the time of his
(16:02):
death in eighteen eighty five, King has increased the size
of his ranch to six hundred and fourteen thousand acres,
and those are acres he actually owns, rather than leases
from the government. Following his instructions to buy land and
never sell, his son in law, A. Robert Clayburgh, adds
(16:22):
more acreage to the ranch, until by the eighteen nineties
the King ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island.
Like the Eastern industrial barons, King tries to control all
businesses related to his ranching operation. He invests in railroads,
feed lots, packing houses, ice plants, harbors, and ships. King
(16:47):
in many ways is a king. To improve his longhorns,
King brings in Durham bulls from Kentucky. His goal is
to produce a steer with a long horn, toughness and
a Durham bulk here a Cannis Professor Yancee.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
In nineteen forty, the US Department of Agriculture would recognize
the Santa Gratrudaus breed as the first breed of beef
cattle produced in the Western Hemisphere, and really the first
anywhere in the world in over one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
In pursuing his dream, Richard King invents modern ranching. Farwars
before him tended to raise catalyst sideline in the city's
fresh meat was a luxury few could afford. The King
ranch turns ranching into a big business. It also helps
turn Americans into a nation of beef eaters. Richard King
(17:38):
is a colorful character whose violent temper and wild, rough
hewn nature never diminish with age. King gets in several
fights in his lifetime and seems to enjoy them. On
one occasion, a big, angry cowboy exclaims to King that
if he were not Captain King, the great cattle Baron,
he would.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Not be able to get away.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
With the profane remarks that he just made King is
no longer a young man. But the old cattleman explodes,
damn you forget the riches and the captain title, and
let's fight, and fight they do. It is one of
the best fights anybody can recall. A cowboy and the
(18:22):
Captain pommel each other with vicious blows for half an hour,
then bloody and I'm weary. They shake hands. Thereafter, the
cowboy says he will stand back to back with King
anywhere in any time. We tend to think of Hollywood's
portrayals of the cattle kings of the Old West as exaggerated. Actually,
(18:47):
a close look at Richard King demonstrates that's such a
classic questionn As Red River and John Wayne's character of
Tom Dunson told a tale than the facts of the
real life of Richard King.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And great job to Greg Hangler in special thanks as
always to Roger McGrath, author of Gunfightershigowmen, and migilantes, and
also a special shout out to William Yancey, historian at
Texas A and M University, Kingsville. Richard King's story here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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