Henry Lawrence Kinney
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Known as the founder of Corpus Christi, Pennsylvania native Henry Lawrence Kinney (1814-1861) was trained to become a merchant by his father, Simon Kinney. He helped lay out the town of Peru, Illinois, and eventually made his way to this part of Texas in 1838. The trading post he established in 1839 on a bluff overlooking Corpus Christi Bay opened the way for settlement of the town of Corpus Christi. Much of Kinney's initial trade was in smuggled goods for Mexican Federalists. General Zachary Taylor's choice of Kinney's outpost as a camp site for his army helped to multiply profits rapidly. Kinney served as Quartermaster when the troops moved to the Rio Grande in 1846. A successful politician as well, Col. Kinney, as he was known, represented his district in the state legislature at various times from 1846 until 1861. He eventually came to own most of the land that now makes up Nueces County, selling town lots in Corpus Christi to many of the soldiers in Taylor's army. Not always a success, Kinney organized the "Lone Star Fair" in 1851 to attract settlers. The enterprise failed, as did later attempts to control part of Nicaragua. Henry Lawrence Kinney died in Matamoros, Mexico, and is buried there in an unmarked grave. (1986)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
His trading post seeded a major Gulf city and shows how private frontier entrepreneurs, smuggling, and the U.S. Army's march to the Rio Grande together drove American expansion into the Southwest.
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Related people
- · Henry Lawrence Kinney
- · Zachary Taylor
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Captain Enrique Villarreal and Rincon del Oso Land Grant
Corpus Christi, TX
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.
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.
Site of Kinney's Trading Post
Corpus Christi, TX
Henry L. Kinney built a fort-like trading post here, enclosed by a stockade around his home, store, and quarters for armed men, and Corpus Christi grew up around it. Much of his trade was with Indians and smuggling for Mexican Federalists, but business boomed when General Zachary Taylor's army camped nearby before marching to the Rio Grande in 1846. Kinney served as Taylor's quartermaster in the Mexican-American War, won repeated election to the legislature, and later ruined himself on a failed fair and a doomed Nicaragua scheme before dying in Matamoros.
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.