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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Duval County, Texas.
Official Website
Overview
Rich with Mexican origins, a Mexican first surveyed it in 1804, Jose Contrerras, surveyor general of San Luis Potosi. The first colonists came from Mier, Tamaulipas - and Anglos later respected their descendants as the old Mexican families.
The Texas Legislature established Duval County on February 1, 1858. The Texas Almanac of 1867 reported that Duval and nearby Dimmit County had only four stock raisers and their population was unlikely to grow much absent the discovery of mineral wealth. Not long after, a wave of Anglo immigrants entered the county to raise sheep. Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Irishmen, and Scots came. During this boom, the county seat enjoyed formal balls and haute cuisine. The Hotel Martinet's Sunday feast drew patrons from Corpus Christi, 50 miles to the East. The death rate rivaled Tombstone, Arizona's. Some died under the code duello but more by foul play; the victims were usually Mexican. A vigilante group from Duval and McMullen County found a great pile of cowhides (presumably from stolen animals) near the county line; they lynched 15 Mexicans there. Prosperity in the 1880s eased ethnic animosities. After the Texas-Mexican Railway was built in 1881, its San Diego station was important for hides, wool, and cotton. But in 1886 the sheep began to die, and the boom died down.
The corrupt Parr family political machine dominated Duval and nearby Jim Wells counties during the twentieth century, and were instrumental in the 1948 election of Lyndon B. Johnson to the US Senate, and to some extent the 1960 presidential election which threw Texas to John F. Kennedy.
Adjacent Counties
Cities & Communities
- Benavides
- Concepcion
- Crestonio
- Freer
- Pila Blanca
- Ramirez
- Realitos
- Rios
- San Diego (County Seat, part)
- Sejita
- Sweden
Links
Texas Genealogy & History Network
