Soy de Duval

The Corpus Christ Caller chronicled the goings and comings of San Diego during its early days. The importance of San Diego and Duval County in the development of the area is evident by the attention the foremost newspaper in the area paid to events occurring in the section. In January 1883, the Caller reported that L. Levy, a merchant from San Diego, was in Corpus Christi replenishing his stock of goods. At the same time, R. B. Glover of Benavides was also is in the city visiting the Caller offices. Glover—who had been out the printing business for 11 years—still helped to get the newspaper out. The same issue of the newspaper reported that Delfina de Alcala was the owner and operator of Hotel de Alcala located on the north corner of the “principal plaza” of San Diego. San Diego resident and State Senator N. G. Collins, one of the largest sheep owners in Texas, was named head of the Senate Committee on stock-raising in charge of all proposed legislation directly affecting sheep and oth...

One year after the railroad reached Benavides, the town began to gain importance in Southern Duval County. A post office opened in Benavides on January 18, 1881 with Jacob William Toklas serving as the first Postmaster. The day before, the post office at Realitos closed. Later that year the post office in Borjas also closed. As one of his final acts, County and District Clerk Andrew Valls submitted the names of S. A. Mattasson, Cenobio Cuellar, G. W. Davidson, Charles Roach and Manuel G. Diaz, to the Secretary of State as justices of the peace and notary clerks. In October, James D. Latta notified the Secretary of State that the Duval County Commissioners Court had appointed him as Duval County and District Clerk to replace Valls who resigned. He also tendered his notary Public seal. The year 1881 ended with a report from Piedras Pintas of yet another Indian raid that resulted in the death of 31 persons, the wounding of two and several going missing. Hugo Heldenfellls of Beeville built...

In its early years, wild cattle and horses dominated Duval County’s ranges. By 1880, the scene began to change dramatically as great sheep herds started moving in. The sheep industry was so big the San Diego sheep prices were listed daily in the Galveston News in a distinctive market report. The Galveston News reported in its September 21, 1880 edition that there were 275,257 sheep and 83,816 goats in Duval County. Cattle only numbered 7,951 and horses and mules totaled 16,789. The largest sheep raisers in Duval County included Manuel Vela (12,000), E. G. Perez (10,000), C. Hoffman (10,000), Rios Cayetano (10,000) and Hubbard and Company (8,000). The newspaper reported that Jacinto Guerra had 100,000 pounds of wool in storage in his store in San Diego. It seemed like everyone in the county was in the wool business. The largest buyers of wool, buying millions of pounds annually, were N. C. Collins and James O. Luby of San Diego. Other important buyers included E. Garcia Saenz, M. C. Spa...

The Galveston Daily News reported in its Dec. 5, 1876 edition that a resident of San Diego had contributed a series of articles to the Frontiersman in which he gave a detailed description of the town and surrounding area. Here are some of the highlights of what was reported at the time. The county was just being organized with San Diego as its county seat. The town was the center of the sheep-raising region in this part of the state. It boasted of a dozen “well-appointed” stores, a number of “tolerable” homes, a “large” Catholic church, a “model” school building, and a population of about 1,200. Within a radius of 50 miles from the town’s center, one could find more than 250,000 head of sheep, which were sheared twice a year. Each head of sheep would yield between 1½-2 pounds of wool. During clipping months, business is San Diego was quite hectic. A herder could handle between 1,500 and 2,000 head of sheep. This job typically fell on Mexicans who would get paid $8-$10 a month. In lar...