Falfurrias
Falfurrias, Brooks County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded as a cattle shipping point by Edward C. Lasater, 1904, town bears name of a village on land he purchased in 1893. When the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad extended its lines, Lasater (1860-1930) platted present townsite, built a hotel, general store, water and power plants, and cotton gin. He opened area to truck, citrus, and dairy farms. He founded South Texas' first creamery--now widely recognized. A post office, newspaper, churches, and schools were opened. A citrus packing plant was built in 1914. Still later the city became an oil and gas production center. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Falfurrias was founded in 1904 as a cattle-shipping point by rancher Edward C. Lasater, who took the name from a village on land he had bought in 1893. When the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad reached the area, Lasater platted the townsite and built its hotel, store, water and power plants, and cotton gin, then opened the region to truck farming, citrus, and dairying — founding South Texas' first creamery. Later oil and gas discoveries added yet another chapter to the boomtown's growth.
Why it matters
Falfurrias is a textbook example of the entrepreneur-built railroad town that transformed the South Texas frontier from open range into farms, industry, and settled communities.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Edward C. Lasater
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bishop
Bishop, TX
F. Z. Bishop founded this town in 1910 on land bought from the Driscoll Ranch, staking it on both sides of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico railroad and dreaming of a model city on the prairie. He designed a uniform brick business district, planted 600 palm trees, laid miles of sidewalks, and planned a park with a lake and band pavilion; the town reached 1,000 residents within two years and incorporated in 1912. Though Bishop went bankrupt in 1916, the community endured, and mid-century oil and gas discoveries pushed petroleum past agriculture as its economic base.
Barronena Ranch
Realitos, TX
The Barronena Ranch preserves the deep roots of South Texas ranching, on land granted by the Republic of Mexico to Diego Hinojosa and patented under Texas in 1856. Later owners included James O. Luby, an English-born Confederate veteran who became Duval County's first judge, before J. M. Bennett bought the ranch in 1905 and kept it in his family. Its adobe core reportedly served as a stage stop between Goliad and Laredo, and after World War II the King Ranch introduced its famous Santa Gertrudis cattle here.
Cattle Drives from South Texas
Corpus Christi, TX
By 1840 tens of thousands of wild longhorns roamed the brush country between the Rio Grande and the Gulf, so plentiful they were nearly worthless to the Texans who owned them. Ranchers began trailing small herds toward distant markets — New Orleans, Missouri, Ohio, even California and Chicago — but the real boom came after the Civil War, when hungry Northern cities and advancing railroads finally made the long drives pay. Feeder trails near here fed the great Chisholm and Dodge City routes to the Kansas railheads, and by 1880 some four million head had gone up the trail.
El Encino del Poso (The Oak in the Hole)
Encino, TX
A magnificent live oak once spread its canopy over this stretch of the South Texas plains, growing in a hollow scooped out by sheltering livestock and eroding winds. "The Oak in the Hole" guided early trails and land grants, sheltered a stagecoach station, and gave the nearby town of Encino its name. An extended drought killed the great tree in the 1890s.