Julia

RACHAL, DARIUS CYRIAQUE (18391918). Darius Cyriaque Rachal, rancher, businessman, and community leader in San Patricio County, was born in 1839 in Natchitoches, Louisiana, of French ancestry and moved to Liberty, Texas, in the early 1850s. In 1857 Rachal, then eighteen, took a job helping Edward and Frank White drive stock from East Texas to San Patricio County. After serving with Hood's Texas Brigade in the Civil War , he married Julia Bryan of Liberty, and in 1866 he bought a tract of land at White Point on Nueces Bay. Shortly after they established their home a yellow fever epidemic hit the area, killing fourteen, including four from the White Point families, who were buried in a cemetery on the bay that still exists on Rachal land. Rachal prospered and expanded his cattle operation, building a ranch home that became the social center of the surrounding area. Some time dances there lasted two to three days and nights. The drought of the late 1870s dealt a blow to his cattle business, but he survived with his land still intact. Prosperity returned, and Rachal and Henry Scott of Refugio bought the 31,000-acre Rabb Ranch in Nueces County. Another drought in 1885 forced the sale of the Rabb Ranch to Robert Driscoll for $93,000. This land later became the property of Clara Driscoll .