Willacy County
Raymondville, Willacy County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Formed from Cameron and Hidalgo counties; created March 11, 1911, recreated April 2, 1921; organized August 12, 1911, reorganized August 13, 1921. Named in honor of John G. Willacy; born November 10, 1859; member of the Texas Legislature 1900-1916; State Tax Commissioner, 1922-1926; County Seat, Sarita, 1911, Raymondville, since 1921. (1936)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Carved from Cameron and Hidalgo counties in 1911 and reorganized a decade later, Willacy County honors John G. Willacy, a state legislator and tax commissioner. Its seat shifted from Sarita to Raymondville as the county settled into its modern shape in the 1920s.
Why it matters
The creation and reshuffling of South Texas counties reflects how rapidly the Rio Grande Valley was being organized, populated, and governed in the early twentieth century.
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Related people
- · John G. Willacy
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Willacy County Courthouse
Raymondville, TX
After Willacy County was reorganized in 1921 with Raymondville as its seat, officials held early meetings in a bank building and even borrowed a jail cage from the King Ranch. They soon commissioned architect Henry T. Phelps — who had designed the earlier courthouse in remote Sarita — to build a proper three-story courthouse and jail, completed in 1923. The understated brick building became the focus of civic pride and community life in the South Texas county.
Edward Burleson Raymond
Raymondville, TX
Born in an Austin log house to a Republic of Texas newspaperman, E. B. Raymond rode into South Texas in 1870 and spent decades managing the sprawling King-Kenedy ranching empire. Building his own ranch and civic career, he helped bring the railroad through by deeding right-of-way and donating a station site, which the railway named in his honor. He then founded a town company, bank, telephone exchange, and cotton gin, and Raymondville later became the seat of Willacy County.
Lyford
Lyford, TX
This corner of the Willacy County brushland was once King Ranch pasture nicknamed "Como se Llama" before Rock Island Railroad executives developed the townsite in 1907, naming it for Illinois attorney William H. Lyford. Midwestern settlers arrived by train and camped in tents until homes could be built, drawing water from an artesian well and worshiping and schooling in "Pioneer Hall." Soldiers and Texas Rangers guarded the young town through the border bandit raids of 1913-15.
Lasara
Lasara, TX
Carved from the old San Juan Carricitos Spanish land grant, Lasara was laid out in 1926 by developers W. A. Harding and Lamar Gill, who fused their wives' names, Laura and Sara, into the town's. Within that first year a post office, a Union Sunday School, and a schoolhouse all took root, and the school became the community's social heart. Once a cattle-shipping point, the town settled into its role as a hub for the surrounding ranch country.