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Chapter 1: King Ranch Connection 061125
This is a war story with a connection to an
Old West Legacy, which had “far reaching” effects. At the same time, its
personal. I believe that I would have died as a nineteen year old grunt in
1967 Vietnam had it not been for my connection to the Old West Legacy of the
King Ranch. You see, the King Ranch Legacy is a Christian legacy which still
thrives today. The physical ranch, itself, was established through the efforts
of Captain Richard King. However, the legacy of that physical ranch became
much more. It was transformed into a spiritual legacy by Richard's wife,
Henrietta Chamberlain King, long after Richard's death. My personal war
experiences put me at the center of events which revealed how this godly ranch
legacy brought hope and life to my entire combat unit years after Henrietta's
death.
You see, Henrietta had lost her mother at the
age of three, and shortly after that traumatic experience, she had also lost
her first stepmother. This could have been enough to send this young girl’s
soul into a tailspin, except for the following two things. Number one, even in
the extremely lonely times after her mother’s death, Henrietta had allowed the
Holy Spirit to develop in her a deep and abiding love for Christ. Secondly,
she was also the beneficiary of a bedrock love shown to her by her father,
Hiram Chamberlain. He never failed to encourage his daughter’s relationship
with Christ. Just one example of this was his bold approach to furthering
Henrietta's schooling. When she turned fourteen, though they lived in Missouri
at the time, he sent Henrietta to a girls’ school in Holy Cross, Mississippi.
This was a rare step for a father to take during this period in American
history, and it was just one more proof of the strong functional love Hiram
had for his daughter. It was these two loving relationships—God and her
earthly father, working in tandem—that built an incredibly strong foundation
in Henrietta's soul. That foundation allowed her to blossom into a
Christ-inspired force, which would later richly bless many downtrodden
families living in the Rio Grande Valley.
It was a sunlit February day in Brownsville.
Henrietta busied herself on the decks of the “Ole Whiteville” with routine
activities of the day. I am sure Henrietta's willowy shape, exquisitely
chiseled facial features, as well as her sparkling brown eyes, would have
caught the attention of every young man who had occasion to be on the docks
that day. Most, however, would have just looked and marveled. That's where it
would have ended. Why? Because this young girl's attractiveness was more than
physical, and that “more” part could be quite intimidating. In Henrietta was a
bold spiritual magnificence, which at first glance could stop a carnal soul in
its tracks, and it just so happened that most, if not all, of the young men on
these docks were carnal. As a matter of fact, on this fine February day, one
more of that sort of carnal young man was coming around a downstream river
bend at this very moment. Unlike those other carnal souls, however, this young
man would quickly announce his presence in no uncertain terms.
The river was not much more than 100 feet
across and is still the dividing line between the United States and Mexico
today. In my mind, it’s easy to imagine Henrietta stopping her chores and
joining others as they gazed at the big steamboat plowing its way up the river
toward them. Any newcomers to the area, including the Chamberlain family,
loved to watch these big monsters. This one was definitely going to dock.
Maybe it would bring some new faces to their world. That would be good. Now
that the war with Mexico had ended, there were just not that many newcomers to
this area. Long gone were the two American armies which needed to be
resupplied by these big riverboat beasts. Yes sir, they were quite the sight
for the average person of that era. Most had now stopped what they were doing
entirely and were watching intently as the boat pointed its bow toward the
dock. The distinctive slap, slap, slap sound of its paddle boards hitting the
water got louder and louder. The bow came closer and closer. Suddenly the big
wheel stopped, and the bow turned slightly starboard toward the "Whiteville."
The wheel then reversed itself. River current caught the bow and pushed it
further starboard. The big paddle now reversed itself again, pushing the boat
forward. Obviously, its pilot was struggling to keep the boat within the
narrow gap between the “Whiteville” on his starboard and the dock on his port
side. Men were waiting on the docks to catch the big mooring lines ready to be
thrown by men on the boat. The space occupied by the “Whiteville” created a
very narrow passage, indeed. It was obvious that the pilot was very skilled to
be able to navigate this narrow gap. He was the twenty-five-year-old captain
and also owner of the “Colonel Cross,” Richard King.
Safely docked and the threat of a damaging
collision averted, the young Captain Richard King could now vent the boilers.
No, I am not meaning the boilers on the “Colonel Cross.” I mean the volatile
boilers of his own soul. You see, Richard was a perfectionist through and
through. That was the one human trait which defined his character the most.
Like every perfectionist, he was convinced that the pursuit of perfectionism
would save him and eventually be the vehicle to get him to a place where he
could fill the sinkhole inside his soul. It was a sinkhole which had grown
greatly after being abandoned by his poverty-stricken parents at the age of
nine. Richard had since come to believe that striving to do a thing perfectly
was the one thing which would allow him to not only survive but to thrive in
what he had found to be a very hostile world. For Richard, the pursuit of
perfection was akin to righteousness. It had curried the favor of those who
had made his life easier, and it was responsible for taking him from being a
stowaway to cabin boy and from being a cabin boy to a riverboat pilot, and
finally from a pilot to a riverboat captain and the owner of his very own
riverboat, the "Colonel Cross." Like all satanic lies, the belief that success
in life can be achieved by working hard at being perfect is partly true, but
only partly.
Now, Richard was about to exhibit in no
uncertain terms the outward manifestation of the frustration which comes to a
perfectionist when he crosses paths with imperfection. You see, perfectionists
expect everyone else to be perfect too. When that doesn't happen, a
perfectionist can get very mad, and Richard was now as mad as mad could be.
Whoever parked the “Whiteville” in his way was not perfect, or they would have
moored the boat in another spot to give more room for other boats to dock.
This is what Richard would have done, and this is what Richard was thinking
should have been done. In a perfect world of his own making, this other boat
would not have been where it was. Now, in a loud voice, he was going to let
the entire world know how he felt.
An angry spirit arose within Richard like an
obedient servant. His face flushed, and his big burly hands turned white as he
grasped the side rails on the deck beside the wheelhouse. He bent slightly
forward, looking directly at the “Whiteville” as if it were a person before he
“let fly.” Then, out it came. It was a string of the same cursing comments,
spewing forth, which had been used on the waterways of America for years and
which I am sure is still being used today. Isn’t it strange how those curse
words never change? As his loud barrage blasted verbal shrapnel across the
decks of the “Ole Whiteville,” no one on the “Whiteville” dared to answer back
or even to look his way. I can imagine some mothering souls grasping their
children and leading them into the interior of the "Ole Whiteville" in a
desperate attempt to shield them from such language. At this point, however,
there was one person on the old steamboat who was not willing to ignore such a
public display of vile behavior, and she certainly was not going to run from
it. Henrietta's brown eyes flashed as the first vulgar rantings from Richard’s
booming voice struck her ears. As others cowered before this disgusting
display of filthy bellowing, she immediately acted. In my imagination, I can
still see her running from the afterdeck to a spot on the “Whiteville’s”
midsection and then stopping directly across from the cussing captain as she
initiated her one-woman counterattack. Standing straight, with hands on hips,
in my mind's eye, I see her immediately delivering a returning salvo of
well-chosen words, while looking across the way directly into the captain’s
eyes. Those few piercing words, whatever they were, spoken in grammatically
perfect English and delivered in the tone and phrasing of a rebuking angel,
instantly penetrated the very core of Richard’s black heart. It was as though
he had been struck by the hand of God, and Richard King’s life would never be
the same again while in the presence of the woman who now stood before him.
Humbled, he stood silent. What could he say? He just gazed into the young
woman’s eyes for an instant before turning away. A strange sensation of
calmness now came over him, defying all human logic. Like an enraged beast,
which had been rebuked by the voice of its master, he simply slinked away from
the young woman's view, maneuvering behind some stacked cargo crates to hide
from that piercing angelic voice. The shadows on the other side of the
wheelhouse concealed him, blending well with the darkness of his soul. This
was the first meeting of the beauty and the beast, and it was a meeting which
would have enormous consequences for myself and the men of the 1/18th Infantry
Battalion. Also, just like in the story of “The Beauty and The Beast,” Richard
instantly fell passionately in love with Henrietta.
He tried to hide his feelings from his good
Christian friend, Mifflin Kenedy. However, a little later, after the incident
on the docks, those feelings came oozing out while discussing an important
business opportunity with Mifflin. As the business conversation took a pause,
Richard nonchalantly started pumping Mifflin for more information about the
new minister's family in town. At the same time, he tried to disguise his true
intentions for asking. Now, Mifflin knew almost everyone in Brownsville, so he
would have been the right person to question about the arrival of new people
in town, but Richard's ruse did not fool him in the least. The good Christian
believer, Mifflin Kenedy, was nobody's fool. He knew almost as soon as Richard
opened his mouth, despite Richard's attempts at asking oblique questions, that
his young friend had been smitten by the Reverend's daughter. He soon
afterward introduced Richard to Henrietta on the streets of Brownsville, but
he also did something else which was especially important. He coached this
rough-as-a-cob riverboat captain on how to proceed on a course of action to
get to know Henrietta better. Richard’s pierced heart had no choice but to
heed Mifflin’s suggestions. One of those suggestions meant that Hiram
Chamberlain’s church meetings would be occasionally attended by a
rough-looking, rough-talking, and awkwardly unchurched young riverboat captain
who had one thing on his mind each time he darkened the church doors, and it
had nothing to do with improving his relationship with the God of heaven and
earth. Somehow, someway, he had to make Henrietta his wife. It took four
years, but he did it, and I must admit that I can become a little judgmental
of Henrietta's choice of husbands here, especially since the apostle Paul
advised Christians to not become unequally yoked. However, as I review the
outcome of this marriage and the positive impact it had on people’s lives,
including my own, I find it necessary to remind myself that Paul also said
that all things work together for good to those who love God and who are
called according to his purpose. Henrietta loved God, and I also believe she
was called according to God’s purposes. On the other hand, if Christianity
were a crime, there simply is not enough historical evidence to convict
Richard of that crime.
I believe that it is important to my story to
talk about the unbeliever Richard King's boyhood just a bit more. Like many
people, for so many years, circumstances and fear dominated almost every major
move Richard made in life, and yet he was one of the roughest, toughest, and
successful hombres in this era of Texas history. His emigrant parents, while
trying to scratch out a living in New York, apprenticed him to a New York
jeweler at the age of nine. The resulting abandonment issues caused by that
separation plagued Richard for life. After being thrown off this
soul-shattering cliff by his parents that first time, it became much easier
for him to jump off the next few cliffs all by himself. He made his first solo
jump at the age of eleven and ran from the jeweler. It was a relatively easy
jump because he had visited the New York docks enough to familiarize himself
with other disgruntled young men who were doing what he was thinking of doing.
Most were caught and returned with very little consequence. So, it was.
Richard was able to gain the courage to make the jump. He stowed away on the
Yankee schooner “Desdemona.” As with others like him, he was discovered, but
unlike most of them, he was not returned to the jeweler. It seems his demeanor
and his willingness to work hard while aboard impressed the captain of the
"Desdemona" so much that this captain arranged for him to go to work for a
riverboat captain friend of his on the Gulf Coast. Although Richard could have
been returned to the jeweler in short order, maybe for a small reward, fortune
smiled on him. The riverboat captain was also impressed by Richard and his
honest character, initiative, and intelligence. He was so impressed that he
unselfishly arranged for him to go to work for another friend of his, who he
thought could better mentor him. Captain Holland was this man’s name, and he
was an educated Connecticut man who taught Richard to read and write. Captain
Holland treated Richard more like a son than a deckhand. When Richard was in
his mid-teens, the captain sent him to live with his two elderly sisters in
Connecticut. There, he got some formal schooling. He did well in school.
However, after only eight months, Richard was again ready to make another
jump. I strongly suspect that the underlying reasons for him abruptly jumping
ship this time was the fear of being discovered as a runaway apprentice.
Connecticut was close to New York and the jeweler. The newspapers were full of
ads offering rewards for runaway apprentices. A misspoken word in the ears of
the wrong person could have easily led to his arrest and then a forced return
to that jeweler.
By the time he ran away from the sisters,
Richard had already become comfortable working on riverboats. They provided a
sheltered and secure environment for a boy like him. Because they were always
on the move, Richard was relatively safe from being caught and sent back into
what amounted to nothing more than child enslavement. You see, the jeweler had
actually been using Richard as a house servant to babysit his young children.
He wasn't being taught a trade, as was originally agreed upon with Richard's
parents. Life aboard a riverboat, however, restored much of that chance at
life, which he had lost. He could learn a trade while always having a hot
meal, a place to sleep, and wages—not much, but a little. How many boys his
age, with no parents, could find a way to have all this? To a highly
intelligent adolescent who had been abandoned in life, riverboats had to feel
comfortable, safe, and liberating. It was a no-brainer for a brawny,
quick-witted kid like Richard. Shortly after jumping ship on the sisters, he
found work as a deckhand on Captain Henry Penny’s boat in Florida during the
Seminole Indian Wars. He spent the rest of his teen years working in these
Florida waterways. He worked his way up the ladder to become a pilot in his
early twenties, which was no small feat. An achievement like that obviously
required a person to have a much better-than-average intellect because they
would have to remember how to navigate sandbars, currents, and obstructions
dotting the long stretches of river. Piloting also required uncanny attention
to detail in handling a big riverboat in changing river currents and depths.
It was also remarkable that Richard possessed the wherewithal to successfully
assimilate into the riverboat culture. That took a lot more than just being
able to learn the technical operations of the boat. He emerged at the top of
the pecking order, which said a lot about Richard's ability to adapt.
It was the Quaker, Mifflin Kenedy, who was
responsible for Richard moving to Texas. Richard and Mifflin had met when
Mifflin was captain of the riverboat “Champion” in Florida and Richard was the
boat’s pilot. Later, Mifflin left Richard behind to follow repairs being made
to the “Champion” in Pittsburg. There, he was offered a job by the Army
Quartermaster as captain of the new riverboat “Corvette.” There was a war with
Mexico. The "Corvette" was being built and sent to Texas to help transport
military supplies and troops up and down the Rio Grande River. Mifflin quickly
accepted the job. Not long after Mifflin arrived in Texas, he wrote to Richard
and asked him to join him as his pilot on the "Corvette." Richard accepted the
offer, and that’s how he found himself on his way to Texas. When Godly
legacies are being assembled from nothing, there is always a believer in
Christ working behind the scenes somewhere. Most of the time these believers,
like Mifflin, never see the bigger picture.
However, on that February day in 1850, when
Richard looked into Henrietta’s eyes for the first time, he was floundering.
He was working harder than ever but slowly sinking under a tidal wave of
circumstances. Before the war ended, Richard became Captain of the “Colonel
Cross,” but he soon lost that job when the war ended. To survive, he invested
some of his savings and bought a flop house, which provided lodging and
alcohol for down-and-outers. He did this while waiting on the government to
auction off the well-worn surplus riverboats, which were no longer needed by
the Army. These were being disposed of by a slow-moving government auction
sale, which finally took place in April of 1849. Richard purchased the
“Colonel Cross” for $750. It had originally cost the government $14,000. This
seemed like just the right break for Richard. He was no doubt the most skilled
captain and pilot on the Rio Grande. However, that made little difference.
Within his own strength, he was now faced with having to build a business in a
dying post-war economy. This time his efforts alone were not going to save
him. This time his hard work would not be enough. Richard needed a fresh new
blessing from God. In this church age, civilization is advanced through these
fresh new blessings, and they are dispensed through believers in Christ. Sure,
the ungodly invent, but only the blessings of God can turn that invention into
a good thing for humanity, instead of a device to further mankind's
destruction. A residue of past blessings may linger, and devilish counterfeits
abound everywhere, but God's fresh new blessings, no. The river freight
business had shrunk considerably. By the time Richard met Henrietta in
February of the next year, he was barely scratching out a living. Financially,
he was inching toward the rocks aboard an old worn-out riverboat. To put it
bluntly, Richard had now reached the most desolate time of his entire life.
Yet, he was about to become a major participant in a legacy too grand for his
carnal mind to grasp.
Many would probably say that the most
desperate time in young Richard's life was when he was given away by his
parents or when he had run away from the jeweler to become a stowaway on the
“Desdemona.” "But oh no!” His most desperate time was just before he laid eyes
on Henrietta. Young Richard was drowning. At this moment, he had descended
into a deep and most desperate place. As he stood cursing at the “Ole
Whiteville” that day, I am sure that he had no idea how close he was to
becoming an empty shell. His struggles were fast entangling him tighter and
tighter in a web of death. He was fighting the river in a broken-down old
riverboat, and the river was winning. If the river had won, not one but many
legacies would have been lost. However, God is merciful. He threw Richard a
lifeline, and her name was Henrietta.
There is no mistaking the exact moment when
Richard King started winning instead of losing. The winning started the very
first day he laid eyes on Henrietta. Before that time, without God, his
ability to win was severely limited to his own abilities. Sure, many
unbelievers seem to win at life in the short term, but a victorious life
cannot be measured in the short span of our lives lived here in this world.
The type of winning which I am talking about brings eternal victories wrought
in God. Many times, this type of winning looks like losing to the world around
us. In Richard's case, it was his wife, Henrietta, who was blessed with the
ability to win an eternal legacy, but her husband, Richard, also shared in
those victories and blessings which came through Henrietta. A better way for
Richard would have been to have won at life through his very own personal
relationship with God. However, from that very first moment, as he stood on
the "Colonel Cross," cussing away, God’s blessings were able to start flowing.
His life started at that very moment to change for the better. Why was that?
Well, let me tell you. It was because God was now able to bless Richard for
the sake of his impending relationship with Henrietta. Before that moment, God
had been severely limited by His righteous discernment of Richard's state of
mind. Richard had rejected Him. Without the guidance that comes from a
personal relationship with God, the blessings which God desired to heap upon
Richard would have been turned into destructive enablement. That enablement
would have pushed Richard even further away from that personal and also
eternal relationship with Him.
Now, as Henrietta and the others listened to
his rantings, they had no idea that they were listening to the pleading cries
of a hopeless man who was trapped in a barren existence. Yet, God knew, and
God understood. As Richard “God damned” this and he “God damned” that, the
Lord of All was watching. God knew the end from the beginning. He knew the
desolation of Richard’s soul. God also saw the agony of being abandoned by his
mother and father and the crushed soul which that abandonment had produced.
God saw what lay underneath Richard’s festering fears. God also saw the future
and knew Richard’s mind. God loved Richard, but sadly God’s hands were tied
because Richard refused to turn his life over to Him. God knew that cussing
and fist-fighting his way through life would be the only way Richard would
choose to vent his frustrations. Throughout his entire life, Richard would
never turn to Him. He would always find a way to vent his anger, himself, but
at least he would vent it before it turned into bitterness. Believe it or not,
God can work in a limited way through someone like that, especially if they
are willing to listen to a believer who does have a personal relationship with
Him. Over the ages, many unbelievers have taken the advice of believers and
have had better outcomes for doing so. God’s desire is to bless His entire
creation. However, God is not going to bless the actions of an unbeliever if
those actions do nothing but damage His kingdom. God weighs all things in His
balance. He will bless those actions which help build His kingdom. Some of
Richard’s actions were able to be used by God to do just that through the
encouragement of his godly wife, Henrietta. Richard was not a bitter man. All
his life, Richard had a natural affection for his wife, "Etta," which Satan
was unable to destroy. All his life, Richard loved his family. All his life,
Richard possessed a natural love for his friends. All his life, Richard loved
the people who tended to his ranch. God was able to use that natural love,
which Richard possessed, not in an eternal way but in a natural way to further
His kingdom. You see, loving others, even in a natural way, can be useful to
God, though it pales in comparison to that love which comes from first loving
God.
Amazingly, God used Mifflin and Henrietta
both to rescue the rebellious Richard King. Mifflin approached Richard with a
new business opportunity around the same time that he introduced Richard to
Henrietta on the streets of Brownsville. Coincidence? I do not think so! The
riverboat business faced stiff competition. Even one of the area’s richest
merchants, Charles Stillman, who owned several boats, was feeling the pain.
Business was so bad that after the war ended, Mifflin had gotten off the river
entirely and was trying his hand at land speculation, which didn't go so well.
To aggravate the business climate in the area even more, many young Americans
who normally would have been bringing their new blood to this American
frontier were bypassing Texas altogether and heading straight to the gold
fields in California. Then it happened, and it happened in a way that can only
happen through God’s divine intervention. Stillman asked Mifflin to join him
as a partner in his riverboat business, hoping that by joining forces with the
knowledgeable Captain Mifflin Kenedy, he could turn the riverboat part of his
business dealings around. Mifflin’s stellar reputation must have preceded him
for Stillman to make such an offer. Mifflin agreed to join Stillman on one
condition. That condition was that Stillman would also include his good friend
Richard King as a partner in the deal. You see, Mifflin’s understanding of the
rough-and-tumble business of river boating was remarkable. He realized that he
couldn't do it alone. He also realized that his roughneck perfectionist friend
was just the kind of person whom they needed to ramrod the day-to-day
operations. He needed a hard-driving man whom he could trust, and that man was
Richard King. Stillman agreed, so Mifflin approached Richard with the
proposition, and Richard accepted under one condition. That condition was
huge.
During the war, Richard had fought this river
with riverboats that were designed for rivers back east, not the Rio Grande.
They were underpowered and were also prone to running aground in the shallow
waters upstream of Brownsville. To keep this from happening, cargo would have
to be offloaded and hauled further overland, causing the costs of hauling
freight to skyrocket. This knowledge prompted Richard to become emphatic in
insisting on two huge conditions before he would become a partner with
Stillman. Having attended the river’s school of hard knocks, and being a
perfectionist to boot, Richard bluntly spoke up, saying that there would only
be one way for him to join this partnership. He let it be known that he was
not about to continue doing things the same old way. With that being said,
Richard then gave his assessment of what he knew needed to happen. They would
need a much sturdier, shallower-draft riverboat that could go further up river
into shallow water, and it would need a more powerful steam engine to buck
those strong river currents. That would solve half the problem. To solve the
other half of the problem, they would need another boat with a much different
design to brave the open waters of the Gulf of America. That boat would be
used to relay cargo from the sailing ships at the Port of Brazos Santiago (on
the Gulf Coast) to a terminal about 15 miles upriver at a place called "White
Ranch." Two boats like these would cost a large sum of money. It would be more
money than Mifflin or Richard had seen in their entire lives. However, it was
exactly the two conditions needed if their partnership were to have any chance
for success. Fortunately, they had a partner in Charles Stillman, who was the
"Kevin O’Leary” of his day. He agreed to provide the financing to build both
riverboats. The order and timing of these events were not just coincidence or
good luck. They were the divine intervention of God, and when God intervenes,
that intervention always has consequences which reach much further into the
future than anything we can imagine. As I have already said, the timing also
coincided exactly with Richard meeting the Chamberlain family for the first
time. Stillman approved the idea, and the partnership was formed. Mifflin
followed the construction at the Pittsburgh Shipyard, while Richard stayed
behind to oversee the day-to-day business on the Rio Grande. He also attended
the church in Brownsville every chance he got, and he made sure that he got a
lot of chances. Oh yes, he probably got involved in one or two fistfights
while doing some heavy drinking on the side just to let off steam.
Richard's youthful soul had strongholds, but
it also had areas that were still largely untarnished. The soul cannot
generate light. That can only come from a believer's living spirit. However,
even the soul of an unbeliever can reflect divine light when exposed to true
believers in Christ. Richard's soul was now able to reflect the light
generated by Henrietta and the Chamberlain family's living spirits in Christ.
This happened because he was around that family a lot. Today, many very
remarkable and accomplished souls in this generation are experiencing that
same phenomenon in their own lives. This is true because they reside in
civilizations sprinkled throughout with the presence of true believers in
Christ. However, these remarkable unbelievers are not aware of what is taking
place. Most are deceived into thinking that they are totally responsible for
their own success. Yet, it is the Spirit of God working through believers that
becomes the glue that holds civilizations together. When civilizations are
solid, a stable base is established for these remarkable but spiritually
unborn people to be successful. This dynamic is what has allowed many to turn
their imaginative dreams into reality in the communications revolution which
the world is experiencing at this moment in time. Ignorance of this building
block of civilized society is leading America and other nations of the world
into a very tumultuous time. It seems that it is going to get worse before it
gets better. However, it will get better as God's ministers gain the
understanding necessary to first develop a personal relationship with God
themselves. Next, they must learn how to teach others the benefits of
believing in God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Young ministers across our
nation are starting to come together in unity of the faith to do just that.
During this next four-year period, while
Richard forced himself to tread extremely uncomfortable waters to win the hand
of Henrietta, his fortunes in the South Texas business arena soared to a
completely new level. In just a short time, the company monopolized the
steamboat business on the Rio Grande River. With this new level of business
success, his personal standing in the area was elevated to new heights. It was
a level that few men of that era, cut from his mold, would ever experience.
The respect he garnered on both sides of the Rio Grande also grew
exponentially. Here is the short version of why that happened. You see, every
important shaker and mover in the area would have an occasion at some point to
come in contact with or at least have heard of the young captain of the shiny
new riverboat “Grampus,” and these were not just white Americans but
influential Mexicans also. The border was a cauldron of mixed races with
passions well suiting a man like Richard King. He was now in his prime. He
would never be as fit, as smart, or as good looking. Adversities from
childhood until now had been the mold that shaped him into this almost perfect
prototype of the man needed to survive the rugged business climate of the Rio
Grande Valley. During this period, he kept moving up and down the Rio Grande
River, which allowed him to not only meet many different types of people but
also to stay in contact with them. He got to know soldiers, Mexican
revolutionaries, Mexican and American merchants, politicians, lawyers, and
Texas Rangers, just to name a few. He also developed a strong connection to a
host of working-class people who hauled his freight, built his warehouses, and
worked as deckhands and as laborers. They did everything from loading and
unloading his riverboats to keeping the woodpiles stacked high with the
mesquite wood to fire the boilers of the “Grampus” and the “Comanche.” Most
everyone who took the time to get to know him found it easy to connect with
him. Many were drawn to Richard's raw honesty and hardworking attitude, as
well as his hard-drinking and occasional bare-knuckles displays of those
pent-up emotions within his soul. He no doubt attracted a broad spectrum of
acquaintances from down-and-outers to up-and-coming leaders in the area.
Almost all could easily come to respect and even admire a man like Richard
King.
Mifflin got married before Richard. He fell
in love and married a 26-year-old Mexican beauty and widow with five children
from Mier, Mexico, on April 16th, 1852. Mifflin was a believer, but the
passions often expressed by the phrase “falling in love” affect believers and
non-believers alike, and that’s all I have to say about that.
In May of that same year, there was a state
fair in Corpus Christi, which was around 165 miles north of Brownsville.
Richard had been invited by its promoter, Henry Kinney, to attend, so he went.
Getting there presented him with several problems, however, which he had never
faced before. You see, State Highway 77 had not been built quite yet. There
were some wagon trails, but Richard had done little exploring beyond the
riverbanks of the Rio Grande. One reason for that was because he had been too
busy keeping the “Colonel Cross” afloat until now. However, the booming
riverboat business with Stillman was now providing him with more hands-off
free time to enjoy life. Another reason for Richard not exploring the region
north of Brownsville was because it was a very dangerous place. The
countryside itself was beautiful to look at. Grasslands stretched for miles
toward the Gulf coast, and clumps of mesquite trees dotted the flat landscape,
but the place was devoid of settlers because it was as wild as anywhere in the
entire American Frontier. It was known generally as the “Wild Horse Desert,”
but it wasn't what one may picture a desert being. It had springs that fed
crystal-clear running streams. There were vast grasslands near the coast. Wild
game abounded as well as thousands of wild horses. It also had and still does
have some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets in the entire world. The
sound of cooing doves and yelping coyotes could be heard in the evenings, and
whippoorwills too. In 1852, although a person with a frontiersman’s skill set
would have had little problem traveling across this landscape, it would have
been a very foolish undertaking for a tenderfoot from back east, like Richard
King. The men who had the best skill sets for traveling this land and staying
alive were undoubtedly the Texas Rangers. Maybe that's one reason why Richard
did what he did next. For all his bravado, Richard was not one to take
needless chances with his own personal well-being. So, he buddied up with a
Texas Ranger Captain named Gideon Lewis. Lewis made the trip to the state fair
with him. More than likely, Richard had met Gideon sometime earlier, possibly
hauling supplies upstream to the ranger outpost at Lake Tampaquas.
Despite their vastly different skill sets,
these two traveling companions had one thing in common. The pride of life was
sinking its talons into both, as it does with all upwardly mobile young people
who have no interest in building a relationship with God. At this point, it
was gaining a much more deadly grasp on Gideon than Richard. Here is the
reason for that. Richard’s source of pride and self-respect was being built up
by the trappings of a successful steamboat business, which provided a service
to others. He was also being exposed to the influence of a very Godly family
in his long courtship of Henrietta Chamberlain. Since his steamboat business
served the needs of others, that mitigated the destructive effects caused by
the pride of life. Gideon’s pride of life, on the other hand, was being fed by
much more destructive forces. He was a recognized war hero, and killing others
always plows up the soul of a soldier, no matter how justified the cause. War
heroes are extremely susceptible to the pride of life, although they may be
sleeping in a gutter. Gideon also garnered automatic respect and power over
others through the authority he carried as a captain in the Texas Rangers. He
was drawn to politics as well. Without God's anointing, politics can be as
destructive as war to the human soul. Gideon's most deadly fault, however,
which is a symptom of the pride of life gone wild, was his inability to
control his passions. Those passions created in him an incessant desire for
other men’s wives. This would eventually get him killed by a jealous husband.
Nevertheless, at this stage, while traveling together to the fair, both men
were in their prime, headstrong and about the same age. That commonality made
them particularly good traveling companions and also gave them a chance to
bond. Since Gideon had been a courier during the Mexican War and a ranger
after the war, he no doubt had extensive knowledge on how to not only survive,
but also how to have a pleasant time, escaping the everyday grind, while
traveling through the "Wild Horse Desert," on the way to the state fair.
I mention this trip to the state fair for a
very important reason. It was during this trip that Richard was able to see
the land that he would soon purchase. That purchase would become the nucleus
of the world-famous King Ranch. It was located on one of the best pieces of
ground along the 165-mile stretch between Brownsville and Corpus Christi, on a
creek known as the Santa Gertrudis. It was a Spanish Grant to the Mendiola
family of 15,500 acres, which Richard purchased for $300. He received a
warranty deed for it in July of 1853. This wasn’t a lot of money, but he still
brought Gideon into the deal as a half-partner. He obviously did that for
reasons other than needing help with financing to buy the land. He partnered
with Gideon because Gideon not only had experience buying and selling land in
the area but also possessed other useful skills and connections. For one, he
was associated with the type of men who had the right skills to work the
proposed cow camp and stay alive at the same time. You see, the "Wild Horse
Desert" was uninhabited, and for good reason. Comanches and banditos roamed
freely there. When they ran across others in their path, they simply took
whatever they felt like taking and then killed the person to boot. It was a
livelihood for these wretched creatures, but they got what was coming to them
in the end, and the Texas Rangers dispensed most of that frontier justice. Did
others get hurt in the process? Of course, they did, but the world is not a
perfect place, my dear. Raiding parties like these had existed throughout the
ages. They were not noble warriors, just trying to protect their rights. They
were predators, plain and simple, with no regard for other human beings. Ah
yes, and some of these predators were gangs of cut-throat "cowboys" from other
parts of Texas. A handful of Texas Rangers were the only law. The Wild Horse
Desert was a very dangerous place.
However, violence does not stop God's
ordained legacies. In the case of Henrietta's legacy, we must open our eyes to
a bigger picture. That picture reveals God’s domino trail of blessings leading
all the way to the 1/18th Infantry Battalion in 1967, and beyond. The first
dominoes did not fall until immediately after Richard saw Henrietta for the
first time at those docks. Shortly afterward, he was brought into the new
riverboat business by his friend, Mifflin Kenedy. The fair in Corpus not only
gave Richard the opportunity to find land for a ranch but also connected him
with a knowledgeable partner, Gideon Lewis, who had tremendous knowledge and
connections for running a cow camp. Thus, the ranch was born. The riverboat
business generated the capital to do all that. Without the state fair in
Corpus in 1852, there may have been no motivation to buy the land in the first
place. Gideon's expertise aided in not only providing security for the cow
camp but also the knowledge to legally secure their land purchases. Legal
acquisitions during this period were not easy. To legally secure ranch land,
signatures of the landowners had to be obtained. Therein lay another problem.
Many of these Mexican landowners had moved to Mexico after the war. Here was
another problem. Ownership of these land grants had by now been passed down
and divided amongst several generations of heirs. The legal entanglements
required a lot of time, patience, and forethought to unravel. Gideon possessed
some of the skills and connections needed to make all this happen. Once the
hard part of acquiring legal ownership was done, next came the impossible
part. I say impossible because the dominos to bridge this gap had not yet been
created. You see, the agrarian model which worked so well for large
plantations back east would never work here on the "Wild Horse Desert" for two
major reasons. Number one was the frequent droughts. There were vast
grasslands, but they were not good for farming because of the inconsistent
supply of water. There were many seasonal creeks and small spring-fed creeks,
but not enough year-round fresh water was available. The second reason was
that there was no available workforce to raise cattle or for farm labor. Back
east, this was provided by the institution of slavery.
A century before, Mexican citizens had
actually started ranching in the "Wild Horse Desert." Those grand ranchos had
large herds of tough Spanish cattle which roamed free as well as thousands of
wild horses. Landowners employed hundreds of vaqueros to manage their
livestock. However, when Texas won its freedom from Mexico in 1836, the last
of those ranchos disappeared. Why? Because those gangs of “cowboys” from north
of the Nueces River regularly raided the lawless "Wild Horse Desert." Although
Texas recognized landowner rights and the Spanish Land Grants, issued by
Mexico before the war, the people who owned these ranchos had no protection
from lawmen willing or able to enforce those laws. These cattle rustlers
regularly raided at will and drove cattle north for profit, killing anyone who
stood in their way. The ranchos were soon deserted, and the area became very
unsafe for anyone, Mexican or white, who tried to settle in this region. By
the time Richard started buying land, the cattle which once roamed the “Wild
Horse Desert” were gone, and so were the ranchos, and so were the settlers.
When Richard traveled through this area in 1852, it was very beautiful, but it
was also devoid of all permanent settlements.
Amazingly, during his courtship of Henrietta,
Richard had begun to work through those many impossible hurdles of ranch
ownership. He was the first to establish a permanent cow camp on Santa
Gertrudis Creek. For reasons I have just mentioned, it was a miracle that
Richard was able to put down permanent roots there. Richard's greatest
miracle, however, was winning the hand of Henrietta Chamberlain in marriage.
He could not have accomplished this feat if he had not won the blessing of her
father. Henrietta was remarkably close to her family, and especially to her
dad. To win Hiram over, it’s a safe bet that Richard was forced to become a
regular visitor at Hiram Chamberlain’s church in Brownsville. As I have said,
it took four years, but his persistent efforts eventually paid off.
Here are some very important reasons why
Hiram finally gave his blessing to Richard. Richard, like so many people I
meet today, was a good reflection of God’s light when he was exposed to that
light. Exposure to the Chamberlain family, over that four years, caused
Richard to change for the better. As he was able to reflect more and more of
that light generated by the Chamberlains, it allowed him to walk in more and
more of the earthly blessings that God intended for him in the first place.
These blessings made him an ever more appealing suitor for the hand of
Henrietta. You see, Hiram, like most Christians, still looked at the outward
appearance and attitudes of others. I am sure that Hiram was impressed by the
financial growth of Richard's business dealings. Seeing the blessings coming
from that did nothing but help Hiram draw closer to Richard. Then came the
excitement over the success of his cow camp on the Santa Gertrudis. I am sure
this was talked about many times over Richard's shared family dinners with the
Chamberlain family. The Man of God, Hiram Chamberlain, could not help but be
impressed by Richard's earthly progress. Yet there was something else which
impressed this man of God even more. He was also impressed by the genuine love
Richard possessed for his daughter. The sum of it all was very compelling, and
it persuaded Hiram Chamberlain to accept Richard as a very suitable husband
for Henrietta.
Richard was a good reflector of light, but a
reflection needs a source. That source came not only from Henrietta but also
from missionary Hiram Chamberlain and his church. No matter what Richard’s
motive was for being in church and no matter whether Richard was a believer or
not, his mental state was changed for the better during those four years as he
sat in church listening to the word of God. Now, the word of God is powerful,
and it has a supernatural effect on whoever hears it, especially if they
listen to it regularly and especially if the reading of it is reinforced by
the actions of God’s people modeling this word before that unbeliever. When I
read the historical account of events in Richard’s life during this four-year
period, while he was listening regularly to the word of God, I am amazed at
the number of good outcomes which not only happened to him but for others
around him as well. Richard's forward thinking during this time was amazing
and far removed from his previous line of sight. Here is an example. I believe
it is one of the greatest displays of God’s reflective light, working through
Richard, in his entire life. At the beginning of 1854, just before he and
Henrietta were married, Richard went to a small village in northern Mexico to
buy cattle. After buying every cow in that village, its inhabitants were left
with extraordinarily little means to feed their families. Two years of severe
drought made things even worse. Starvation for the village was just around the
corner, when, not batting an eye, Richard offered jobs to everyone who was
willing to follow the herd back to the Santa Gertrudis Creek cow camp. Almost
the entire village of over a hundred people took him up on his offer. These
men, women, and children would become the nucleus and life’s blood of the King
Ranch. They were to become known as King's People (Los Kinenos). Many years
later, President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Education, Lauro Cavazos, would
author a book, "A Kineno Remembers," detailing how important growing up on the
ranch had been for him and his future success in life. His childhood had been
greatly influenced by the descendants of those people who had walked to the
ranch from Mexico with Richard.
Richard married Henrietta at the church in
Brownsville on December 10, 1854. They spent the first several months
honeymooning at the cow camp on San Gertrudis Creek. Etta would later say that
this was one of the most wonderful times of her entire life. I believe that
statement to be tremendous evidence of the internal emotional courage which
the Holy Spirit of God had forged in this young woman's soul, because the
"White Horse Desert" at that time was still one of the most dangerous places
on earth.
The next thirty years would provide ample
proof for the principle which I have briefly touched on here. It's a principle
which can be described this way: Henrietta's born-again spirit was the
generator of light, and Richard reflected that light. However, as it always
happens with all who only reflect the light of God, Richard's ability to
reflect God’s light became tarnished with time by the circumstances of this
world. At the same time, the light generated from within the born-again spirit
of Henrietta grew ever brighter. This is not to say that Richard became a bad
person. As a matter of fact, I believe Richard remained as good a person as
anyone who has ever lived a life without Christ. I would have loved to have
met him. However, although I will meet Henrietta in a few years, I am afraid
that I will never meet Richard. Again, I hope I am wrong.
There was a great civil war during the first
half of the 1860s which presented a huge financial opportunity for the King
family because it allowed Richard to use his extensive network of business
associates in South Texas as well as Mexico to provide a vital service to the
Confederacy. He was able to export Confederate cotton overland, through
Mexico, and on to foreign countries, thus skirting Union blockades of
Confederate ports on the mainland. However, as with all unbelievers, his
choices in life seemed to become more complicated and more confused, causing
more and more anguish to his soul. He barely escaped a Union raiding party at
the ranch one night. The Union officer leading the raiding party shot dead, in
the darkness, one of his dearest and most trusted ranch hands, Francisco
Alvarado, thinking that he was Richard. After the war, Richard became one of
the first ranchers to start driving cattle north to railheads, where they
could be sold for better prices to Eastern beef buyers. However, the hardships
plaguing his ranching business continued to mount over the years and his
health declined. There were many bandito raids and rustlers from south of the
border. There were droughts and diseased cattle. Each year open range was
replaced by more and more barbed wire fencing, making it harder and harder to
drive his cattle to railheads up north for transport to markets back east. The
bandito raids never stopped during his lifetime. Yet, through all the strife,
and all the changes which the ranch went through, Henrietta was Richard’s most
constant stabilizing force. Though they had a nice house in Kingsville,
Henrietta made the ranch her home. She was present at the ranch during at
least 26 bandito raids, and she was also present when the Union raiding party
showed up that fateful night while Richard, forced by circumstances, ran for
his life. He was forced to leave her and his entire family behind to fend for
themselves. Later, well into the turn of the 20th century, many an old vaquero
would recall “La Madama,” as they called Henrietta, bringing food and other
supplies to their armed outposts, as they manned them to defend against
bandito raids on the ranch.
By the beginning of the 1880s, the relentless
wearing down by the world of Richard's soul had taken its toll. Richard was a
well-worn and tarnished shadow of that vibrant young man who entered into the
Chamberlain’s lives at twenty-five. All his life, he drew strength from the
spiritual warmth of his wife, but I do not believe that he ever understood the
why of it. In her company, perhaps he found the only place of peace he would
ever know. The cattle drives, which were a main source of income for the
ranch, became increasingly harder to make happen. Disease and drought
continued to shrink ranch profits. Although he had constantly added to his
land holdings over the years, he had also steadily added debt after the war
had ended. He drank heavily. On April 8, 1883, shortly after losing his
youngest son, Robert Lee, to pneumonia, this magnificent strong man’s soul was
nearing the end of its strength. History records that Richard King wrote the
following words in a letter to his beloved wife Etta: “I am tired of this
business, as I at all times have made a mess of everything I have undertaken,
and now I want to quit the Rancho business and will so do.” Shortly after
writing this letter, Richard found a British Syndicate to buy the ranch.
Fortunately, for many who would come later, the sale fell through. Though no
one can be sure, I am personally convinced that if these buyers had bought the
ranch, the futures of many souls connected to the King Ranch would have been
much more bleak. The story of the 1/18th Infantry Battalion in Vietnam would
have also ended much differently. Two years later, after the failed sale of
the ranch, in 1885, a much too young Richard King died of stomach cancer at
the age of 61. He died in a room at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, with all
his family at his bedside. Just a few days before his death, he was able to
write out his will. He left everything to his beloved wife, Etta Chamberlain
King. What a magnificent and successful man he was in so many ways. Yet, he
was such a pitiful loser in the eternal scheme of things. Again, I pray that
my last statement is wrong.
As I have said, while Richard was still
alive, debt on the ranch had continually mounted. It equaled almost as much as
the appraised value of the land itself. If Richard had sold before he died, or
had the ranch been sold by Henrietta at the time of Richard's death, then life
would have become much different for the many families who worked the land and
their children after them. No doubt, it would not have remained to become the
stabilizing force in the Rio Grande Valley that it later became.
God knows all. A young lawyer, Robert Justus
Kleberg, had been put on retainer by Richard King several years before
Richard's death, and he soon made King Ranch business his full-time
occupation. He also fell in love with Henrietta’s youngest daughter, Alice.
Appointing the young Kleberg to manage ranch business was to be one of the
most fortuitous choices Richard could have made, other than the passing of the
baton on to his wife, Henrietta, as sole heir of the ranch. At this time in
history, this was not the normal way to do business. Normally, trustees would
have been chosen to run things after Richard's death, and they were in this
case too, but those trustees quickly acquiesced to Henrietta's very capable
abilities to run things on her own.
God did not will Richard to die early, but
his death was also no surprise to God. He died an early death partly because
of his heavy drinking, but also because of the enormous stress that came from
believing he had to strive to maintain control of every aspect of his life
while turning his back on the strength to be gained by a personal relationship
with his creator. Today, in America, we will see more and more of this type of
thing happening as those incredibly talented people currently responsible for
igniting the communications revolution face growing older with only the
strength inside themselves to rely on. It is the same old story being played
out again and again through the lives of so many remarkable human beings who
have had the opportunity to grow up in a country that allowed them the freedom
to create what they have created. Richard's early death robbed him of the
opportunity of being at his youngest daughter's wedding. Today, many are in
the process of being robbed of the opportunity to have a daughter in the first
place. How sad because that is one of the most important ingredients of a
personal legacy. Many times, we can be robbed of that opportunity in the name
of a very self-centered and nebulous pursuit, which many simply label
"success."
Proverbs 22:1 says that we should value a
good name more than great riches. Immediately after Richard's death in 1885,
Richard King’s lien holders were more than happy to accept Henrietta’s written
good name on the debt owed them by her husband. This spoke volumes about the
name respect she had among Richard's business associates. Also, the Kleberg
marriage was a match made in heaven. That marriage not only blessed Robert and
Alice Kleberg but also the ranch's many families as well. In the coming years,
the Klebergs became very good facilitators of ranch business under the
watchful eye of its owner, the Godly Henrietta King. The management values
taken from the pages of God's word and established behind the scenes by
Henrietta would stabilize ranch life throughout some extremely hard times in
the first half of the twentieth century. In less than 10 years after Richard's
death, the entire debt on the ranch was paid off. Corridors of ranch land were
deeded over to railroads so they could extend railheads into the area. This
made the hard business of driving cattle to railheads up north a thing of the
past. Water wells were drilled, which tapped into vast underground artesian
rivers flowing beneath the ranch. Kingsville itself was built on land that had
already been donated by the King Ranch. As important, schools and churches
were not only built on land donated by Henrietta, but she also donated the
lumber to build them. The vaqueros who worked on the ranch worked hard, but so
did Henrietta and so did the Kleberg family. Many times, the owners were to be
found in the dirt working side by side with their vaqueros. Each soul living
on the ranch had a respected and important part to play, and each soul was
given as much responsibility as they were able or willing to handle without
prejudice. Where much is given, much is required. Robert Kleberg Sr. not only
worked alongside the ranch's Kinenos but, as a skilled attorney, he also
handled the ranch politics and business connections outside the ranch, which
only he could handle. During this period of Texas history, there were deep
cultural divides between Hispanics and Whites and Women and Men. Women would
not win the right to vote until 1920. Still, Henrietta held the reins of power
over every aspect of ranch life. She was guided in that endeavor by her heart,
which had long since been dedicated to God as a servant in Christ. She could
have sold the ranch, especially after paying off the debt, and lived very
comfortably as a wealthy woman for the rest of her long life, but she didn’t,
and I thank God that she did not.
In his book, A Kineno Remembers, former
Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos Jr. detailed how important his father, as
well as King Ranch culture, had been in contributing to his success in life.
His father, a third generation Kineno, was hired by Henrietta herself when he
was 18 years old and was no doubt mentored by her until the time of her death
in 1925. Before that, Lauro Sr. was raised by a strict
Catholic-turned-Presbyterian mother who was the driving force for the moral
upbringing of all her children and grandchildren. Much of Lauro Sr.'s upright
and driving personality was shaped by this force-of-nature mother. Later, when
he turned eighteen, and started working on the ranch, no doubt he came under
the influence of another strong and Godly woman in the person of Henrietta
King. No doubt, the physically protective atmosphere provided by the ranch
played an important part in the continuing development of young Lauro Sr.
Unlike other young Hispanics of his time, Lauro was not beaten down by the
normal circumstances other Hispanics were forced to face day after day. The
ranch provided food, shelter, and a sense of self-worth through the work it
provided. Ranch life no doubt sheltered him from the effects of debilitating
fear, which gripped so many other starving Hispanic youngsters growing up in
the first half of the twentieth century in the Rio Grande Valley. In 1915,
Lauro Sr. repelled one of the largest bandito raids in ranch history, making
quite a name for himself with the locals as well as with his ranch family.
Soon after that raid, he volunteered to serve in the military during World War
I. He was promoted to sergeant and became a decorated war hero.
Though Lauro fought bandits on the ranch and
Germans in France, there was another side to him. That side was just as
fearless. After returning from the war, he let Robert Kleberg see that other
side. Robert ran the day-to-day operations on the ranch, so Lauro went to him
and let him know that he was not going to settle for being just another ranch
hand all his life. It took guts for a young Mexican of his generation to
confront Robert in this manner. In a very forthright way, he calmly announced
to Bob Kleberg that he would be moving on further west for greener pastures if
Bob could not find a way to give him more responsibility. Now, Bob was no
fool. He knew Lauro well enough to know that he meant what he said and said
what he meant. Lauro had worked the ranch for years. When he was given a task,
Bob could turn his back and walk away, knowing that it would be done. The
hardworking and smart Lauro Cavazos was a gift from God, and Bob knew it. He
was not about to let that gift slip through his fingers. Bob immediately
started training Lauro for a foreman position. It took several years. However,
in 1926, a year after Henrietta's death, he promoted Lauro to foreman of the
Santa Gertrudis Division of the King Ranch. Lauro held that position until his
death in 1957. Working side by side with Bob Kleberg Jr., he was instrumental
in developing the first and only American breed of cattle known as the Santa
Gertrudis Breed. He was one of the best horsemen in the country and also
helped the ranch breed some of the best quarter horse stock ever produced
anywhere. He was also elected and served as a justice of the peace in his
local community.
The foundation, however, which gave Lauro Sr.
the opportunity to become a much better version of himself, was laid through
the enlightened spirit of others. It was Henrietta Chamberlain King and,
before her, Lauro's own mother, who provided that foundation. Yes, Lauro Sr.
was an excellent reflector of their light, but the light itself was generated
by them and not him. Like Richard King, Lauro was a very soulish person, and
soulish people are able to take advantage of the light to do good works, but
they can never become the light. It is always God's enlightened vessels
shining on soulish people that allow them to become what they otherwise would
never be able to become. Interestingly, the world often ignores those
enlightened vessels, like Henrietta King, but touts those soulish people who
come after. During a terribly prejudiced and economically challenging time,
Lauro was motivated to make sure each one of his children spoke English. He
used his good standing in the community to battle school board authorities to
get his children enrolled as the first Hispanics in an all-white school in
Kingsville. He also made sure that each of his children went to college. In
the pages of his book, Lauro's son, Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos Jr.,
makes it very clear how important his father's guidance was. Americans today
would do well to have had an earthly father of Lauro Cavazos's caliber, yet by
all accounts, Lauro Sr. was not a generator of the divine light of God. He was
only a reflection of that light. The light originated and came from the
born-again spirit of Henrietta and his own mother. As with Richard, I hope I
am wrong about Lauro. Lauro Sr. was hired by Henrietta, and he answered to her
alone until her death in 1925.
Yet, what does this recanting of Texas
history concerning Richard King, Henrietta King, and their ties with the
Cavazos family have to do with anything? What possible noteworthy influence
could these people have had years later on an infantry battalion in 1967
Vietnam? Even if they did, many might say, "Who cares?" We lost that war, and
since we lost, why shouldn't we just move on? Who needs another story about
Vietnam made more convoluted by this little history of the King Ranch?
Actually, that is exactly the way I thought for a long time. Who needs another
story about the Vietnam War? Well, read on, pilgrim, read on!
When a man showed up to take command of my
downtrodden Infantry Battalion, on the surface that man did not seem like the
kind of man who could change anything. He was cool, calculating, and abrupt.
He cussed, and he was downright earthy. He wouldn't hesitate to gulp down a
shot of whisky and maybe have a second gulp to chase the first. He displayed a
temper, albeit without the underlying angry spirit to go with it. Yet, he was
the right man in the right spot at the right time. You see, Lauro Cavazos Sr.
had a second son, who also grew up on the ranch. His life, too, was shaped by
that same ranch culture. Like the ranch's founder, he also was named Richard,
and it was Lauro Jr.'s little brother, 38-year-old Lt. Col. Richard E.
Cavazos, who took command of my 1/18th Infantry Battalion in March of 1967.
In December of 1966, when I joined the First
Infantry Division north of Saigon, at a place called Di An, a dark cloud of
hopeless despair was hanging over the entire division. My 1/18th Infantry
Battalion was one of nine battalions in that division. Several months later,
after Richard Cavazos took over command, however, that dark cloud hanging over
other battalions started to dissipate from our battalion. Many of us were
amazed at how quickly things changed for the better. However, it’s safe to say
that no one knew the root cause of that change. Time and time again, we would
witness the chaotic cloud of dumb debacles taking place elsewhere becoming a
thing of the past in our unit. I knew nothing about legacies, and I certainly
knew nothing about the legacy left behind by Henrietta Chamberlain King.
However, everyone was able to see the embodiment of that legacy because he was
now standing in our midst.
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