La Feria

La Feria is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 83 and Farm Road 506, twenty-four miles northwest of Brownsville in western Cameron County. The area was first settled when the land was assigned by Spain in 1777 to Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí as part of the La Feria land grant. The Ballí family established several farms with headquarters on the La Feria grant. The family maintained control of the land well into the mid-1800s, and the community that grew up on the grant remained a ranching center into the twentieth century. In 1909 G. J. Schoenberg, a local land developer, developed the town of La Feria. That year the La Feria post office was opened. A railroad stop named Bixby was established a mile from the town when the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway was built through the area in 1911. In July 1912 the founding fathers of La Feria stole the Bixby depot and hauled it to the new townsite. By 1915 La Feria had a population of 200, a bank, two churches, and a weekly newspaper, the La Feria Leader. In 1925 estimates of the population ranged from 236 to 825. Read more at TSHA