THE PEOPLE
For sheer scope and richness of incident, neither “Dallas” nor “Downton Abbey” have anything on The King Ranch. Its saga has been the subject of one motion picture (“Giant,” 1956, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean, with screenplay adapted from Edna Ferber’s 1952 novel), but neither that movie nor this report could possibly bring a full portrayal. Tom Lea, Robert M. Denhardt, Richard
M. Kleberg, Jr., Helen Kleberg Groves with Anne and Tobin Armstrong, Mona Sizer, Don Graham, J.W. Williams and several others have written histories, and the interested reader can also turn to the official websites of the King Ranch, Armstrong Ranch and East Family Foundation, as well as many online articles from The Handbook of Texas. This sidebar introduces the first two generations of major players.
Portrait of the King family taken in about 1875: Captain King is in his Civil War uniform, the boys are in their Sunday suits, and the girls wear matching dresses. On the box is the bearded driver, possibly George P. Durham, a former Texas Ranger King employed as a bodyguard and later hired to manage the Norias division. Next to him is Richard King II (18601922, who later married Elizabeth Pearl Ashbrook and inherited the Santa Fe parcel shown on page 85).
Seated in the carriage from left to right are Robert E. Lee King, the youngest child (born 1864) and King’s favorite son. He died of pneumonia in 1883 while at business college in St. Louis. Next to him is his sister, Ella Morse King (1858-1900), who later married businessman Louis Morris Welton. They moved to St. Louis and eventually sold their interest in the ranch to the heirs of Alice G. King (Kleberg). Next to Ella is seated the Kings’ oldest child, Henrietta (Nettie) Maria King (1856-1918). A few years after this photo was taken, she married Major Edwin Byron Atwood of the U.S. Army Quartermasters Corps. Her relationship with her mother was strained and distant but the Atwoods eventually inherited the El Sauz Ranch parcel.
Across from them, between Henrietta in her flowered hat and Captain King, is Alice Gertrudis King (1862-1944), who would grow up to marry Robert Justus Kleberg II (known as Robert Kleberg,
Sr.). The Klebergs inherited the majority of King Ranch property from Henrietta and also acquired the interests of her sister Ella. Alice and Robert, teamed with Henrietta after Captain King’s death, are responsible for creating policies and innovations that guaranteed the longterm success of the ranch.
Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg and husband Robert J. Kleberg II (Sr.) shortly after their marriage in 1886. They would go on to have five children. The eldest was Richard Mifflin Kleberg, Sr. (1887-1955), a seventerm Democratic congressman from Texas. He married Mamie Searcy, and their son, Richard M. Kleberg, Jr. (“Mr. Dick”) helped his uncle Robert J. Kleberg III (“Mr. Bob”) to run the King Ranch horse and cattle breeding programs during the 1930s through the 1960s. Our next installment will feature their scientific horse breeding program.
The Klebergs’ second child was Henrietta Rosa Kleberg (1889-1968). In 1915 she married John Adrian Larkin who died in 1948. Their child was Ida Louise Larkin, who married James Clement I, who during the 1970s became president of the King Ranch. Henrietta Rosa’s second husband was Thomas Reeves Armstrong, son of neighbor and former Texas Ranger John Barclay Armstrong.
Their third child was Alice Gertrudis Kleberg (1892-1997), who in 1915 married Tom Timmons East, Sr. They owned and managed the San Antonio Viejo Ranch, now a part of the Santa Fe Ranch.
The Klebergs’ fourth child was Robert J. Kleberg III (1896-1974), known as Robert Jr. In 1926 he married Helen Campbell. He was the first president of the
King Ranch after it was made a family corporation in 1935 and ran it for the next four decades. He is primarily responsible for developing the Santa Gertrudis cattle breed and the King Ranch sorrel horse strain, later incorporated into the Quarter Horse breed.
The Klebergs’ youngest child was Sarah Spohn Kleberg (1898-1942), who upon her first marriage moved to the East Coast. Her first husband was Belton K. Johnson and her second was Robert Shelton. Their children did not go into the ranching business.
Robert J. Kleberg II’s brother was Rudolph Kleberg, who married Mathilde
Elise Eckhardt in 1872. Their son was Caesar Kleberg, wildlife conservationist and expert horseman, cousin and contemporary of Robert J. Kleberg, Jr.
Richard King’s partner, Mifflin Kenedy, married the beautiful Petra Vidal, widow of Señor Louis Vidal, a Mexican military officer and diplomat. Kenedy was a Quaker and Petra a devout Catholic. She had six children with her first husband, and Kenedy adopted all six; he and Petra then went on to have six more children. Most important among these were John Gregory Kenedy, Sr., called “Don Gregorio,” who ran Kenedy’s La Parra ranch for a time after his father’s death. Don Gregorio married Stella Turcotte, and their daughter was the beautiful Sarita (1889-1961). She married Arthur Lee East, brother of Thomas T. East (who married Alice Kleberg). Sarita, like her mother, was a devout Catholic; she eventually deeded the Kenedy La Parra Ranch headquarters to become a
Catholic retreat house.
Major John Barclay Armstrong and wife Mary Helena Molly Durst in about 1878. The Armstrong ranch is entirely surrounded by King Ranch property and the families have been friendly for generations.
After the Civil War, Armstrong signed up with the Texas Rangers and became famous for capturing the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin. The Armstrongs had seven children; their youngest, John Barclay Armstrong II, married his cousin Mary Durst. Their son, Thomas Reeves Armstrong, married Henrietta Rosa Kleberg (daughter of Robert J. Kleberg, Sr., and Alice King Kleberg).
In 2006, then-Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot another hunter while visiting the Armstrong Ranch. After the
1960s, King Ranch political support shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party, and particularly during the two Bush Presidencies, the Armstrong Ranch became the “White House West.” One political pundit observed, “the Bushes of Kennebunkport make deals with guests while out sailing. The Bushes of Texas make them while out hunting at the Armstrong Ranch.”