Jane Clements Monday - Letters to Alice: Birth of the Kleberg-King Ranch Dynasty

Letters to Alice

NUMBER TWENTY-TWO:

Gulf Coast Books

Sponsored by Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi

John W. Tunnell Jr., General Editor

A list of all titles in this series is available at the end of the book.

An artists rendering of Robert and Alice Kleberg from a photograph thought to have been taken at the time of their wedding on June 17, 1886. Illustration by Barbara Mathews Whitehead.

Letters to Alice

Birth of the Kleberg-King Ranch Dynasty

EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY

Jane Clements Monday and Frances Brannen Vick

With a Foreword by

Thomas H. Kreneck

Texas A&M University Press

College Station

Copyright 2012 by Jane Clements Monday and

Frances Brannen Vick

Manufactured in the United States of America

All rights reserved

FIRST EDITION

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992

(Permanence of Paper).

Binding materials have been chosen for durability.

The front jacket illustration and frontispiece are from Barbara Mathews Whiteheads rendering of Robert and Alice Kleberg from a photograph thought to have been taken at the time of their wedding on June 17, 1886. Courtesy Barbara Mathews Whitehead.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kleberg, Robert Justus, 18531932.

Letters to Alice : birth of the Kleberg-King Ranch dynasty / edited and annotated by Jane Clements Monday and Frances Brannen Vick ; with a foreword by Thomas H. Kreneck. 1st ed.

p. cm. (Gulf Coast books; no. 22)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60344-471-2 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-60344-471-8 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-1-60344-331-9 (e-book)

ISBN-10: 1-60344-331-2 (e-book)

1. Kleberg, Robert Justus, 18531932Correspondence. 2. Kleberg, Alice Gertrudis King, 18621944Correspondence. 3. Kleberg, Robert Justus, 18531932. 4. Kleberg, Alice Gertrudis King, 18621944. 5. RanchersTexasBiography. 6. LawyersTexasBiography. 7. Ranchers spousesTexasBiography. 8. King Ranch (Tex.)History. I. Monday, Jane Clements, 1941 II. Vick, Frances Brannen, 1935 III. Kleberg, Alice Gertrudis King, 18621944. IV. Title. V. Series: Gulf Coast books ; no. 22.

F391.K63A4 2012

976.4113dc23 2011047715

To my family, whose support is outstanding: my wonderful husband Charles, our children and their spouses Kimberly, Lauren, Julie, Buddie, Jennifer, and Adam, and our grandchildren Jack, Ellie, Sarah, Ben, Sam, Annie, Caroline, and Charlie. I give you all my deepest love and appreciation. To our Leadership Texas Class of 1990, who have become our sisters and supporters through the years: I join with Fran in our appreciation of the true meaning of friendship.

Jane Monday

To the women who made all the difference in my life: Bess, who was first, then Marilyn, and the ones who came laterEllen, Jane, Mary Etta, Gayla, Joyce, Laura, Judy, Liz, Phyllis, Sharon, Jane M., Diane, Carla, Jerry, and the Leadership Texas Class of 1990.

Fran Vick

Contents

Foreword

THE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & Archives Department of the Mary and Jeff Bell Library, Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi, is gratified to be involved in publishing these edited letters from Robert Justus Kleberg Sr. (18531932) to Alice Gertrudis King (18621944), prominent figures in the establishment of King Ranch. Jane Clements Monday and Frances Brannen Vick have fashioned this correspondence into a significant volume on the history of South Texas. It contributes to the literature on King Ranch and illuminates the life and times of not only the young man who wrote the letters and the young woman who received them during courtship and early marriage but also the people and events of the Victorian-era world in which they lived.

Although authors/editors Monday and Vick elaborate at length on the correspondence, let me introduce several dimensions of special importance. First, the letters supplement our knowledge of King Ranch, which many scholars see as a paradigm of Texas and US ranching. In particular, they shed light on the union between Robert and Alice, members of the Kleberg and King families that marked a new and important departure in the development of that ranching enterprise. The correspondence reveals how their courtship involved Alices parents, the legendary Captain Richard King and Henrietta Chamberlain King. The letters thus show a less well known but profoundly human side of these early figures of the most celebrated ranching family in South Texas.

The Klebergs and Kings were significant not only in the history of ranching but also in Corpus Christi urban development. They saw Corpus Christi as a seasonal residence and as an important outlet to the sea for the agricultural goods of the hinterlands, of which King Ranch formed a part. Robert Kleberg Sr. came to Corpus Christi in the early 1880s to practice law in the fledgling town and stayed in the region for the rest of his life. His comments offer glimpses into the legal profession as well as the web of social and business networks within which these families dwelled. Kleberg also provides insights into the life of a working Corpus Christi and Texas attorney as he shares his activities with his bride-to-be. On occasion, he also shares his political observations with her.

The book gives the reader an intimate look at courtship during this era. The Kleberg-King letters shed light on interpersonal relationships and patterns of courting in the late nineteenth century, when letter writing allowed people to express their feelings in an indelible manner. The correspondence reflects the sentiments of a love-struck (and somewhat possessive) gentleman for the object of his affections. He is a fellow smitten, a man thoroughly human and attentive to his future wifes feelings. Only the most barren soul could not savor the genteel but intense love story that is told in his letters.

As with all publications, several people played key roles in this production. Most importantly, Jane Clements Monday and Frances Brannen Vick were the precise scholars to deal with this material. Their work on the Kenedy-King relationship in their monumental Petras Legacy: The South Texas Ranching Empire of Petra Vela and Mifflin Kenedy (2007) qualified them as such. Their ongoing association with the Special Collections & Archives Department likewise placed them in good stead. Monday and Vick should be commended for the meticulous job they have done with this correspondence. Amply footnoted and annotated, their work represents solid analytical history; happily for us, they have also provided a readable narrative.

Other people close to this publication include the late Robert E. Skabelund, who acquired these letters during the 1940s while in the armed services in Corpus Christi and subsequently donated the letters to Special Collections & Archives. Because of Mr. Skabelund, they are now part of the departments permanent holdings. Only through the foresight and generosity of such donors can historical treasures like these be saved and made available for scholarship. The department also wishes to express its appreciation to Rick Stryker and Donald P. Zuris of the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History for referring the donor to us. Special thanks also go to Jorge D. Canales and Warren J. DeLuca of the Texas A&M University Systems Office of General Counsel for their crucial legal assistance in this project.