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Top:
Sarita Kenedy East
Photo Courtesy Kenedy Ranch Museum
Left: Flora near Sarita
TE Photo |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Sarita was once part of the Kenedy Ranch and John G. Kenedy
named the town after his daughter when it was established in
1904 as a center for the ranch and the Kenedy Pasture Company.
Sarita became a stop on the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad.
The town moved one mile east in 1905, when the railroad was resurveyed
and tracks had to be relaid. Midwestern land companies promoted Sarita
to northerners and ran excursion trains into the area for prospective
buyers. Those that were smitten by the landscape could buy lots right
then and there from the Kenedy Town and Improvement Company.
Sarita was granted a post office (in the company store) in 1904 and
three years later the town had a depot, a one-room school and a cotton
gin. The railroad maintained a section house and water tank for the
trains.
Many settlers worked for the Kenedy Ranch, while others purchased
or leased pasture from the Kenedy Pasture Company to raise
cotton. The Pfau store, one of two in Sarita at the time, was bought
by John G. Kenedy and served as a courthouse until it burned.
Sarita had originally been in Cameron County and became the county
seat of the newly formed Willacy County in 1911.Then in 1921 when
Kenedy County was formed, it served as county seat again.
A hurricane struck the coast in 1916 and many residents abandoned
their farms. The land then reverted back to the Kenedy Pasture
Company.
The road from the north ended abruptly (and rudely according to other
sources) at Sarita and it wasn't until the 40s that highway 77 was
completed to Brownsville.
Sarita Kenedy East died in 1961.
Kenedy County
Courthouse
"Ten County
Seats You're Not Likely to Visit"
Book Your Hotel Here & Save
Kingsville
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The Kenedy Pasture Building, now the Kenedy Ranch Museum
TE Photo October 2003 |
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The water tower and an early building
TE Photo October 2003 |
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A sign in Sarita
TE Photo October 2003 |
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