El Rancho La Gloria
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U V A L C O U N T Y |
Marker No. 16001
Aluminum 27 x 42 Subject Marker
Geographic:
Location: 1747 CR 101, Freer
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Marker Text: In 1868, Captain Edward Nixon Gray and his wife, Rosa Garza-Graza Gray, began to operate a Duval County ranch. Through a series of land purchases and improvements. The Grays developed El Rancho la Gloria, one of the largest ranches in south Texas. Edward Nixon Gray was born on 1836 in Aukland, England, he immigrated to Texas with his family by 1836. Graylater voluteered in the Republic of Texas, U.S. and Confederate militaries; he was also a printer, poliyical leader and entrepreneur. Gray met Rosa Garza-Garcia while operating a mercantile business in Conception (Duval County), they marries in 1853 and had 14 children among their children were theree daughters who became teachers and a son whom Presient Theodore Roosevelt appointed as postmaster of Laredo.
At one time, El Rancho la Gloria extended to approximately 40,000 acres and spported thousands of sheep, cattle, oxen and horses. The propery contained a two-story, 22-room mansion and a school, which was attended by the children of the Grays and of ranch hands. By the 1890s, drought, animal disease and enomic depression led to the demise of this and other area ranches. Edward Gray died from infleuza in 1897 and was buried on the ranch property. Rosa Gray sold the homestead in 1901 and moved to San Marcos (Hays Co.); she died in San Antonio (Bexar Co.) in 1917 and is interred there. Many of the structures on the ranch fell into disrepair, though the Temple Ranch began preservation work on this property in the late 20th century. Today, El Rancho la Gloria is remembed as a major south Texas ranching operation whose owners played a vital role in the development of Duval County (2009) |