Captain Enrique Villarreal and Rincon del Oso Land Grant
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A soldier, colonist, Indian fighter, and explorer, Captain Enrique Villarreal at one time held title to most of the land that now constitutes Nueces County. The Rincon del Oso land grant, encompassing approximately 44,000 acres, was awarded to Villarreal by the Mexican government in 1831, although he had been using it as ranch land since 1810. Trouble with raiding Indians forced him off the land until peace was made in 1824. As an officer in the Mexican Army, Enrique Villarreal participated in the Mexican War for Independence, the Texas War for Independence, and the U.S.-Mexican War. He was made commander of the troops at Fort Lipantitlan in 1830. When Henry Lawrence Kinney established his trading post at the site of what is now the city of Corpus Christi, he did so on land that was part of Villarreal's Rincon del Oso grant. In 1841 the two men met, and Kinney purchased one "sitio" of Villarreal's land the following year. Kinney came to own all of the Rincon del Oso Grant after Villarreal's death in 1846. Captain Enrique Villarreal's significance to local history lies in his position as original title holder to most of what is now Nueces County, including the City of Corpus Christi. (1986)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Soldier, colonist, and explorer, Captain Enrique Villarreal once held title to most of what is now Nueces County through the vast Rincon del Oso land grant, awarded by Mexico in 1831 though he had ranched it since 1810. Raiding forced him off the land until peace came in 1824, and as a Mexican officer he fought through the Mexican War for Independence, the Texas Revolution, and the U.S.-Mexican War. When Henry Lawrence Kinney founded his trading post on Villarreal's grant, he set in motion the sales that would make him the land's eventual owner—and give rise to the city of Corpus Christi.
Why it matters
Villarreal's grant is a reminder that South Texas was Mexican ranch country long before it was American, and that the region's great cities rose on the bones of these older land grants.
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Related people
- · Enrique Villarreal
- · Henry Lawrence Kinney
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Nueces County
Corpus Christi, TX
Nueces County takes its name from the 'River of Nuts' that forms its northern border, a country touched early by Spanish explorers and marked by the frontier post of Lipantitlan. The area passed into Anglo-American hands during the Texas Revolution, and in 1845 U.S. Army forces camped here on their way to the fighting of the Mexican-American War. The county itself was created in 1846 and organized the next year with Corpus Christi as its seat.
Henry Lawrence Kinney
Corpus Christi, TX
Pennsylvania-born Henry Lawrence Kinney arrived on Corpus Christi Bay in 1838 and, a year later, opened a trading post on the bluff that would grow into a city. Much of his early trade was contraband run to Mexican Federalists, but his fortunes soared when General Zachary Taylor chose his outpost to stage the U.S. Army before the Mexican-American War. Kinney served as quartermaster, sold town lots to Taylor's soldiers, sat in the legislature for years, and chased grand schemes—a failed 1851 fair, a doomed Nicaragua venture—before dying in Matamoros in an unmarked grave.
Felix von Blucher
Corpus Christi, TX
A German émigré trained in engineering, languages, and law, Felix von Blucher came to Texas in 1845 and joined the settlers at New Braunfels, where he helped John O. Meusebach negotiate the 1847 Comanche treaty that opened the Fisher-Miller grant. After service in the Mexican War he settled in Nueces County, mapped a trade route to Eagle Pass, and became county surveyor. His descendants carried on as surveyors and cartographers of the region for over a century, giving the family enclave the name Blucherville.
Thomas S. Parker
Corpus Christi, TX
Philadelphia-born Thomas S. Parker came to Texas at twenty, and in 1839 he and his parents received large land grants near present-day Corpus Christi, where they raised cattle. He allied with trader Henry L. Kinney, and when Zachary Taylor's army camped near Kinney's post in 1845 — the staging ground for the war with Mexico — Parker won the contract to supply the soldiers' beef. "Col. Tom" went on to become the first sheriff of Nueces County, later a Texas Ranger and Confederate soldier, and finally Corpus Christi's city marshal, shaping the young city's commerce and law until his death in 1886.