Falfurrias, Texas

James Abijah Brooks, Texas Ranger captain, state legislator, and county judge of Brooks County, son of Dr. John Strode Brooks and Mary Jane (Kerr) Brooks, was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, on November 20, 1855. He is known in the annals of the Texas Rangers as one of the "Four Great Captains," the others being John R. Hughes , William J. McDonald , and John H. Rogers . Brooks had a lean frame, angular features, a mustache, a soft voice, and kindly yet determined manners. He worked as a cowboy and miner after he moved to Collin County, Texas, about 1876. He joined the service as a private at the beginning of 1883 and rose through the ranks–corporal, sergeant, and lieutenant–to become captain in 1889 of Company F in the Frontier Battalion . Of the "Four Great Captains" Brooks and Rogers received the least publicity, but they were said to be "dependable, intelligent, and wise in the ways of criminals." As the head of a ranger company in the field, Brooks had to recruit and fire personnel, order supplies, assign men to cases, and report to his superiors in Austin. From East Texas to the Rio Grande, Brooks and the rangers under his command, including Anderson Yancey Baker and Winfred Bates, tried to combat violent crime and disorder, such as the Catarino Garza troubles and the Reese-Townsend feud at Columbus. One incident, the killing of ranch owner Ramón de la Cerda by Baker in 1902, led to hostilities between political factions and ranger supporters and opponents. Brooks was commended for keeping the various factions under control. In addition, he and his rangers took part in policing oil-boom towns and stopping prizefights in El Paso in 1896 and Galveston in 1901. In his early ranger career, Brooks became involved in shootouts with fence cutters ( see FENCE-CUTTING ) in Brown County and with the Conner gang in the piney woods of East Texas. In the latter gunbattle one ranger was killed and three wounded, including Brooks, who lost several fingers on his left hand. He resigned his commission as head of Company A in the ranger force on November 15, 1906. After leaving the rangers and moving to Falfurrias, Brooks remained a faithful public servant. He was a Democrat. He served District 95—comprised of Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Zapata counties—in the House of Representatives in the Thirty-first and Thirty-second legislatures and chaired the Counties Committee during his terms. He was instrumental in establishing the new county named in his honor. He then became engrossed in his duties as county judge of Brooks County, being first elected on September 2, 1911, and serving until February 1939. He was preceded in death by his wife, Virginia (Wilburn or Wilborn), whom he married on September 16, 1890. They had two children. Brooks died on January 15, 1944, and was buried in Falfurrias Burial Park.

Pedro (Don Pedrito) Jaramillo, curandero or "faith healer," was born of Tarascan Indian parents near Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, in the mid-nineteenth century. He moved to South Texas as a young man in 1881 and settled on the Los Olmos Ranch, in the area of what is now northern Brooks County. He related that when he was still a poor laborer in Mexico he suffered an affliction of the nose. One night he was in such pain that he went out into the woods to a pool of water. He lay down and buried his face in the mud at the edge and remained there treating himself for three days. When he had cured himself he returned to his house and fell asleep. A voice awakened him and told him that he had received the gift of healing from God. He began his practice as a faith healer almost immediately, prescribing the first thing that he thought of and making no charge for his services. At that time the only doctor between Corpus Christi and Laredo lived in San Diego; therefore, Don Pedrito's powers were often sought. At first he treated only close neighbors, but soon he began visiting ranches throughout the region between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. Dressed as a Mexican peasant, wearing heavy shoes, a sombrero, and a cowboy vest, he either walked or rode a donkey on his healing missions. As his fame spread, an increasing number of patients came to his home. Most were poor Mexican Americans , and often Don Pedrito would provide the remedies he prescribed. He constantly received money through the mail in the form of donations, usually in the amount of fifty cents or a dollar. He made generous donations to several area churches and to the constant stream of poor people visiting his ranch. He bought food in wagonloads and kept his storeroom well stocked. More than $5,000 in fifty-cent pieces was found at his home when he died. Don Pedrito never married, but he adopted two boys. He died on July 3, 1907, and was buried in the old ranch cemetery near Falfurrias. His resting place has become a shrine and is visited by several hundred persons yearly. A biography of him, Don Pedrito Jaramillo: Curandero ,was written in Spanish by Viola Ruth Dodson and published in 1934.

Edward Cunningham Lasater, South Texas rancher, dairyman, and land developer, son of Albert Hezekiah and Sarah Jane (Cunningham) Lasater, was born at Valley Farm, near Goliad, Texas, on November 5, 1860. As a teenager, with his father's health failing, he was forced to abandon his schooling and his dream of becoming a lawyer in order to help with his family's sheep operations in Atascosa County. Lasater and his father purchased a ranch near Oakville in Live Oak County in 1882. Following his father's death in 1883, Lasater spent several years buying and selling large lots of cattle, establishing his credit, and broadening his knowledge of Texas rangelands. In 1895 he turned his ambitious plans toward South Texas, where he made the first of the many land purchases that made his Falfurrias ranch one of the biggest in the state; it reached its maximum size of some 350,000 acres a decade later. Lasater's purchase of 7,000 brood cows from the Kenedy Pasture Company in 1895 launched him on a course that made him known as one of the leading cattle breeders of Texas. With the extension of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway south from Alice to his ranch in 1904, Lasater founded the town of Falfurrias and subdivided a sizable portion of his ranchland for sale to farmers. After four years of effort he and his supporters succeeded in 1911 in forming Brooks County, with Falfurrias as the county seat. Lasater achieved fame for the size and quality of his Hereford and Shorthorn herds, his pioneering use of Brahman bulls for cross-breeding, and his ownership of the largest herd of Jersey cattle in the world. Sweet cream butter and other products from his Falfurrias Creamery Company made the town a familiar name throughout the state. Lasater was elected president of the Cattle Raisers Association of Texas (now the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association ) in 1911, and the following year he was the Texas Bull Moose party's candidate for governor. In 1917 Herbert Hoover named him chief of the Department of Livestock and Food Production in the United States Food Administration. Lasater soon resigned, however, because of differences with the president. He married Martha (Patti) Noble Bennett in 1892, and they had two sons. Martha died in childbirth in 1900. In 1902 Lasater married Mary Gardner Miller of Galveston; they had five children. His three surviving children became well known: Garland as president of the Falfurrias Creamery Company, Tom as originator of Beefmaster cattle, and Lois as the wife of Houston industrialist John F. Maher. Lasater died on March 20, 1930, in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Founded as a cattle shipping point by Edward C. Lasater, 1904, town bears name of a village on land he purchased in 1893. When the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad extended its lines, Lasater (1860-1930) platted present townsite, built a hotel, general store, water and power plants, and cotton gin. He opened area to truck, citrus, and dairy farms. He founded South Texas' first creamery--now widely recognized. A post office, newspaper, churches, and schools were opened. A citrus packing plant was built in 1914. Still later the city became an oil and gas production center. (1971)

(1.5 miles northeast) The first permanent settlement in Brooks County, Los Olmos was located at the southwest corner of El Paisano Land Grant, given to Ramon de la Garza about 1830 by the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Situated near the main route to the Rio Grande, the village served a region settled originally by ranchers from northern Mexico. By 1880, it had a post office, stores, and a school, which operated until 1945. The schoolhouse was the site of services conducted by traveling priests. As the town of Falfurrias grew, Los Olmos began to decline. Descendants of its founders still reside in this area. (1976)

The Rev. C. W. Perkins (1853-1942) organized this congregation in 1904 with 7 charter members. Early services were conducted in temporary quarters including the railroad depot and the 1905 frame schoolhouse, shared by all denominations. In 1906 the Methodists erected their first church building on land donated by Edward C. Lasater (1860-1930), founder of Falfurrias. Damaged by hurricanes in 1916 and 1919 and remodeled in 1935, the frame structure was replaced in 1950 by the present edifice. (1976)