Don Florencio Saenz Homestead
Progreso Lakes, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built on family Spanish land grant in 1902. Headquarters for Toluca Ranch, which at one time stretched 17 mi. north from the Rio Grande. Here Saenz operated a mercantile store, promoting cattle ranching and river farming as successful business ventures for the Valley. Site of 1915 bandit raid in which a private was killed when U.S. soldiers discovered and fought off desperadoes trying to burn the house. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On land his family held by Spanish grant, Don Florencio Saenz built his homestead in 1902 as the headquarters of the sprawling Toluca Ranch, which once reached seventeen miles north from the Rio Grande. From here he ran a mercantile store and championed cattle ranching and irrigated river farming as the future of the lower Valley. In 1915, amid the cross-border turmoil of the Mexican Revolution era, raiders tried to burn the house and were driven off by U.S. soldiers in a fight that cost a private his life.
Why it matters
The homestead captures how Tejano landowners along the Rio Grande shaped the ranching-and-farming economy of the Valley — and how exposed that borderland was during the violent raids of the 1910s.
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Related people
- · Florencio Saenz
Related events
- · 1915 border raid
Themes & tags
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