Mary Dodson Wade - Henrietta King: Loving the Land

Henrietta Morse Chamberlain was born July 21, 1832, in Boonville, Missouri. At sixteen, she went away to school in Mississippi. She read books and studied math and music.

Henrietta was almost eighteen when Reverend Hiram Chamberlain took his family to Brownsville, Texas, to start a church. Their first home was a houseboat on the Rio Grande.

Riverboat captain Richard King saw the houseboat sitting in his spot. He said some very bad words. Henrietta told him that no gentleman talked like that.

The captain liked her spirit. He went to church so that he could be with her. Four years later, her father married them.

The new bride rode for four days to get to the ranch on Santa Gertrudis Creek. Henrietta loved this place in South Texas.

She spent long hours riding over the prairie with her husband.

He called her Etta. She called him Captain.

Captain King chose a cattle brand. It was the letter R with an arrow through it. But the first brand he registered was Henriettas initials HK. Ten years later, the ranch started using the famous Running W brand.

Henriettas first house was very small. Later they made the house much larger to take care of many visitors who came there.

The first of the Kings children was called Nettie, born in 1856. Then came Ella, Richard King II, Alice, and Lee.

At that time, husbands owned everything. Richard King kept buying land. One piece was very large. He gave his wife half this new place. That made her own as much land as he did.

Then came the Civil War. Northern ships would not let southern ships sail. Wagon loads of cotton came to the ranch.

Richard King was paid in gold to take the cotton to Mexico to sell.

Northern soldiers tried to capture him. Henrietta watched them ride horses into her house. They smashed furniture and dishes. But they did not catch her husband.

After the war King Ranch grew bigger. It had thousands of cattle and horses. Cowboys took the cattle north to be sold.

The ranch had fine horses. On cattle drives, the herds were different colors. Cowboys rode horses the same color as the cows.

Richard King carried lots of money when he traveled.

Only Henrietta and one other person knew the secret place in the carriage for hiding the money. King also had fast horses to outrun robbers.

Henrietta felt her husband spoiled their children. He bought them expensive gifts. He gave her a pair of diamond earrings.

She did not want to look gaudy. She had the jeweler cover the diamonds with dark enamel.

The children went away to school in Missouri. Lee got sick.

His parents rushed to him, but he died. Henrietta was very sad and became too ill to return to the ranch. Richard King returned home broken-hearted. He wrote Henrietta he would sell the ranch, but he did not. Before long she returned to the place she loved.

Two years later Richard King died. The 53-year-old widow owned half a million acres and all the cattle. She was rich but wore black dresses for the rest of her life.

One morning a barking dog awoke everyone. Guests rushed out of the burning house. Eighty-year-old Henrietta put on her black dress and came downstairs carrying a little bag. She would not let anyone go back for furniture. Someone might get hurt.

Three years later her new fireproof house had 25 rooms.

Fifty people could sleep there.