Kingsville

Kingsville, the county seat of Kleberg County, is on U.S. Highway 77 forty miles southwest of Corpus Christi in the north central part of the county. It originated as a town on the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway. Around 1900 there was growing sentiment in South Texas for building a railroad to Brownsville. Henrietta King designated a large tract of the King Ranch to be opened for sale, half of which was deeded to a construction company to induce it to build the line. In 1903 Robert Justus Klebergqv, manager of the ranch, organized the Kleberg Town and Improvement Company to sell the land for Mrs. King and the railroad-construction company. A surveyor was hired to lay out the townsite three miles east of the headquarters of the King Ranch. The community was named Kingsville, after Richard King. A short time later the tracks reached the site. On July 4, 1904, the first regular passenger train went through the community, and the citizens had a big celebration. A post office was also established in 1904.
After considerable negotiation with the town leaders, railroad officials decided to locate their headquarters in the community, and a general office building and shops were constructed. By the last part of 1906 Kingsville was the home of twenty-five permanent employees of the railroad and their families. The railroad facilities were expanded in subsequent years, and by 1931, 500 persons were working for the railroad and made up one-third of the population of the town. The railroad was the main source of income for Kingsville, and the establishment of the railroad headquarters in Kingsville brought new residents. By 1912 the population was 4,000; in 1930 it had risen to 6,815, of whom 2,000 were Mexican Americans and 524 were African Americans.