The Armendaiz Ranch of Willacy and
Cameron Counties
Norman Rozeff, January 2006, updated 4/09
Those interested in the stage coach line and the Paso Real will inevitably encounter the name of the Armendaiz Ranch (pronounced locally A-men-dice), for the coach ferry crossing was located in the midst of this sprawling ranch.
This ranch had several branches and was named after the Spanish family of the same name. The total acreage of approximately 25,600 acres was acquired in the last half of the 19th century by the Madrid-based Armendaiz family which operated out of properties owned in Monterrey, Mexico. They were neither recipients nor descendents of original Spanish/Mexican land grantees of the San Juan de Carricitos Grant in which their land lay.
In 1897 Guadaloupe Potilla de la Potilla sold Francisco Armendaiz 11, 470 acres on April 3, 1897 at the 91 cents an acre or the total being $10,437.70. In any event Manuel Cavazos, son of the original grantee of the land from the King of Spain, passed part of the property to his son-in-law Juan de la Portilla. The land then came down to descendent Guadalupe Portilla de la Potilla. The property had been awarded to Inocencio (also spelled Ynacencio) and Guadalupe Portilla by the District Court of Cameron County in May 1889. The interest to Guadalupe Portilla de la Potilla by last will and testament of Inocencio Portilla, probated in Cameron County, Texas. Share 4 was allotted to Inocencio and Guadalupe Portilla by the District Court and in said Share 4 was contained: one tract of 8,454 acres, including within its limit’s the ranches of "Los Quatizones" and "Boca Chica"; tract 2 of 2,616 acres of land including within its limits the west half of Ranch (Paso Ranch) tract beginning at a point on the Arroyo Colorado south from the crossing called "Paso de las Tavernas" running westward along the bank of the Arroyo Colorado to the old ford and bend called "Capitaneo" to a corner of a surgery (?) for Mrs. Morgan Barclay. By District court in 1889 Mrs. Barclay was awarded 2,845.5 acres of land embracing within its limits the east half of Ranch "Paso Real" (Share 3).
The land that Armendaiz owned extended north from the Arroyo Colorado in what is today southeast Willacy County. The family also owned the La India Ranch located in the northwest corner of Cameron County in the former La Feria Grant. The working families there resided in only three or four houses in this remote and hard to access area. [There are at least three ranches in Cameron County bearing the name La India.] All the land was, for the most part, unimproved and uncleared ranch and grazing land for well into the 20th century.
The community of Paso Real surrounded by the Armendaiz Ranch likely had some privately owned parcels. A crude map drawn by Cameron County surveyor J. J. Cocke on May 29, 1884 and amended/annotated in 1904 by Miss Isabel Lopez, a native of Paso Real, showed the J. Lopez general store; a church; residences of C. Balduf (postmaster and store/inn keeper), Estevan Garcia, the Olvera family, and Mrs. Barclay's house (her husband and she ran the ferry); about six jacals; and the small school and grounds. The two-story Paso Real Inn did not exist yet as indicated by Cocke's 1884 plat map. A cemetery which came into being is also not shown on the plat map.
Being on the outside edge of the meander sine curve which streams and rivers naturally create, Paso Real was subjected to erosion whenever arroyo flooding occurred. Parts of the property were lost during periodic flooding. Much later even structural losses occurred.
The patriarch of the Armendaiz family was Francisco Armendaiz, Sr. Having acquired land in Mexico, including the Canelo Ranch, he set up a large office in downtown Monterrey. When he later returned to Madrid to reside, his disabled son, Francisco Armendaiz, Jr., together with his brother Eugenio administered the estates in North America. Their sister was to return to Spain with her father. To look over the properties north of the border they employed a new general manager or aporderado. This was Gregorio Zamarron, who with his family, came from San Luis Potosi in 1926-27 to take the place of the previous manager who was ill with tuberculosis. Gregorio resided at Paso Real and worked out of an office there. His son Francisco was to reside there as were Francisco's family including the 1933 addition of a daughter and her twin brother Cecil B. Zamarron, who would later work for the First National Bank in Harlingen. The family, following several years of consideration, moved into relatively urban San Benito after the 1933 Hurricane and Arroyo Colorado flooding swept away portions of Paso Real, inundated dirt roads, and left the small community in isolation for over a week. In 1942 the family was to move to Harlingen where Gregorio was then later to work out of an office in his home at 211 W. Tyler. Three additional children were to bless the family. Gregorio never did master English but managed to successfully communicate in any case.
Naturally various gates and parts of the ranch were given names. The 4,000 acre area around Paso Real was termed "Cuatro Chiquito" or Little Four. The 8,000 acre tract to the east bounded by the King Ranch on its north side was called Las Cuatezonas or twin zones. The Ojo de Agua Ranch would later exist in this parcel.
The area surrounding Paso Real was sold by the children of Francisco Armendaiz Sr. to E. D. Richmond, Jr. He was later to sell the land to Hale Schaleben. By the decade of the 1970s the old Paso Real Inn on its two acre site had come into the hands of Mrs. Hale O. Schaleben of Edinburg. She made a gift of the property to the Rio Grande Valley Historical Society. After trying to raise funds to restore it in place and even place it into a state park setting, an alternate plan was decided upon. In 1975 the badly deteriorated Paso Real Inn structure was brought to the Rio Grande Valley Museum in Harlingen. It has been restored and is a featured attraction at the renamed Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum.
In 1946 and 1947 portions of the ranch began to be cleared in order to upgrade the property and put it into agriculture with a higher return on investment. Much of the estate was improved with the exception of the Cuatezonas section. Portions of the clearing were conducted under the direction of Francisco Zamarron before a Corpus Christi contractor with the name of Kerr took on the job. Herman Cramer, who was also responsible for erecting the large cotton gin in Sebastian after having purchased an older one there from Mr. Sibson, later entered the clearing scene too.
Although some oil/gas explorations were conducted on the ranch, especially in the Cuatezonas area, drilling was not greatly successful and the few wells which hit were for whatever reason capped.
In 1954-55 Donald Stone purchased the La India and the Little Four tracts from the Armendaiz family. This area apparently consisted of 36 lots encompassing approximately 720 acres in Subdivision D of Adams Gardens. The site would have ranged from the current Gene Farr Road on its south boundary to one "twenty" width north of Dick Niles Drive. Citrus grower Brad Crockett would eventually farm most of this area. Jack Funk, his two sons, Tommy and Jerry, all of whom resided in Harlingen, bought 15 to 16,000 acres of the old ranch near San Perlita. In 1974-75 the Funks were to buy the balance of the estate.
In modern times, the Armendaiz family may have suffered some financial reversals related to an investment gone bad in a Fiat automobile plant in Mexico. This followed earlier setbacks when the Government of Mexico confiscated large land holdings to distribute small parcels to peasant farmers. The Armendaiz holdings were affected. In the Valley the Armendaizs treated their employees well and fairly. As a result there was a great degree of affection afforded them.
As a footnote it is noted that Frank Pierce in his book Texas' Last Frontier writes this about Matamoros, Mexico history: The street railway was constructed and began operating during the year 1872. The owners and builders, Francisco Armendiaz and brother."