Harry Whipple and Los Fresnos Matured Together
Norman Rozeff, October 2010
As Valley towns and cities go Los Fresnos might be termed a "Johnny-come-lately" in that the area in the old Espiritu Santo Grant wasn't platted as a subdivision until a 9,100 acre tract to be known as the Fresnos Land and Irrigation Company Subdivision was submitted to Cameron County in 1914.
It had been on November 19, 1912 that it was announced that such a subdivision would be formed with a capital stock of $50,000 invested by Lon C. Hill of Harlingen and R.B. Rentfro and J.B. Scott of Brownsville. These same individuals also put out equal amounts of money in taking over the distressed Brownsville Irrigation Company and reorganizing it as the Rio Grande Canal Company. The latter came to own 33,000 acres of which the Fresnos subdivision would be carved from 9,801.8 acres in Shares 12 and 22. While the canal company retained some acreage for its system, it turned over the 9,100 acres for a $1.00. Lon C. Hill became president of the new entity. He shortly thereafter sold 1,964 acres he owned in the area to the land company for $20 an acre.
The canal company maintained its pumping station just north of Brownsville. In a survey conducted in September 1913 it was reported to have one 18" pump, two 24" pumps and one 36" pump. At that time it was operating 24 miles of main canal and 39 miles of laterals. Of the 33,000 acres it could potentially service only 3,000 had been cleared and 2,750 acres were being irrigated by that period.
One of the earliest block purchasers in the district would be Harry Harlan Whipple. As a 25 year old he had moved, along with his 24 year old wife Leona, to the area in 1915 from Quincy, Illinois. Quincy is adjacent to the Mississippi River in central western Illinois. After graduating from high school in 1910 he had married and then worked at bookkeeping and several clerical jobs, all low paying and with little upside potential. With several hundred dollars saved Harry and his wife left Quincy on July 4, 1915 and headed to a wholly different life in the somewhat untamed Valley. Two families from Missouri had reach the east San Benito area at the same time. For them all, there were no neighbors within 10 miles or more. San Benito was in fact eight miles from the east border of the subdivision and Barreda 3 ½.
The water rates had been established in June of 1914. "Water rental" was $1.00 an acre for the first year, $2 in 1915 and then 1916 and thereafter a "fixed water rental of $3/ac. However for agricultural uses the rate was $4/ac.for corn, cotton and broom corn for which four irrigations a growing season were projected. Sugarcane and sorghum cane would cost $6/ac.and fruits and vegetable crops $10/ac
The Whipples had purchased 20 uncleared acres of Block 159 eleven miles from San Benito in the new subdivision. The mesquite-covered land had to be grubbed which was just as well since the water system infrastructure took six months to reach the block. It was Harry and one Mexican ethnic laborer who commenced removing the brush. Harry had no farming experience whatsoever, but that may have played in his favor as experimentation on the virgin soil provided valuable life lessons. Harry learned to milk a cow and drive a team of mules. As the water reached his holding Harry was ready to plant corn and cotton, and he also put out a lot of tomato plants. Fortunately the demand for roasting corn was good that season, and his corn in the ear fetched $2.00 a bushel. Still the total income was miniscule, and discouraged he considered returning to Illinois. His wife however said, "We'll stick", and they did to commence a success story in the future years.
By 1920 Harry's in-laws had come south to live with him and his wife. This included T. E. (Theodore) Stabenau, 58, his wife Dara (Dorethea), 57, and (Leona) Ethel's sister Edith, 30.They would reside in the Whipple homestead for over a decade more. While Mr. Stabenau had worked at a stove foundry in Quincy, he began to assist Harry with the farming operations that had grown to 60 acres and would later expand to 180 before 1932.
In August 1921 a major change occurred. This as the establishment of the 45,000 acre Los Fresnos Irrigation District. It had included the purchase of the Rio Grande Canal Company.
By April of 1922 Whipple was planting a limited acreage of citrus. From the San Juan Nursery and Development Company he purchased 120 citrus trees at $1.25 each. This outfit, a partnership of Sam Baker and Arthur Pitt, operated 20 acres in the Los Fresnos vicinity. Both Pitt and Baker would go on to own major nurseries, the former in Brownsville and the latter in west Harlingen. By 1931 Whipple's ten acres of Marsh seedless grapefruit, navel oranges, and Valencia oranges, although not yet at full production, were claimed to be generating around $1000 a year.
Whipple's farming prowess was recognized in1929 when he was selected by the Progressive Farmer magazine published in Dallas as one of the state's ten Texas Master Farmers. The Texas A&M Extension Service also assisted in the selections. This year in addition to his citrus he was raising truck with potatoes being the main crop followed by tomatoes and beans. In the past he also grew cabbage, corn, and cotton. In 1927 M.F. Orr of Los Fresnos had been selected and in 1928 it was I.B. Corns of Stuart Place. Obviously Valley soils had something going for them.
Whipple was credited to be the first farmer in Cameron County to successfully grow potatoes. His 1931 crop averaged 200 bushels per acre, but one crop yielded up to 400 bushels. This was made possible by maintaining soil fertility by rotating a third to one half the land each year in nitrogen-fixing cowpeas and velvet beans and supplying high rates (500 lbs./acre) of superphosphate fertilizer. Enough corn together with cowpea hay was grown to feed the four mules. Cotton seed was exchanged for cottonseed meal to use as protein sources for poultry and the cow.
Because of their successes the Whipple were frequently selected for sales promotion literature. Their cottage was one of several featured in hand-colored photographs in a lengthy booklet put together in 1928 by the Irrigated Farm Corporation of Chicago. This outfit was selling land together with its development in the Bayview area. The Whipple country home amenities such as electricity, cooking stove, refrigerator, heater, washing machine, water pump, toaster, fan and radio were singled out in a 1931 article. In July 1931 also the Whipples were given a Certificate of Award by the publishers of The Farm Journal. It was in recognition that their home had been found to possess the nine essentials which constitute A Modern Farm Home. In 1950 the Whipples would give up their pioneer wood frame home and move into a spacious brick one that they constructed near the Cuates Resaca. It was excellently landscaped by Mrs. Whipple who, among other club activities, was president of the Los Fresnos Garden Club. Even in his sixties Harry remained active as Manager of the Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District No. 6.
As the community grew through the years, the Whipples continued to play active roles. They culminated in an idea Harry conceived in 1964. It was a gift to Los Fresnos of the Ethel Whipple Memorial Library. This loving tribute to his wife was completed in January 1966. An addition to it was dedicated on May 16, 1991. That month the Senate of the State of Texas, 72nd Legislature, honored 101 year old Harry with a resolution recognizing "his lifelong record of civic involvement and his outstanding contributions to the betterment of his community and his state."
His mind still relatively sharp after his 76 year residency in the community, Harry had become the "go-to" person when anyone wanted information on any aspect of the town's history. I can personally attest to that as I interviewed him in June 1992 while compiling information for a book. He told me of the deer, boars, and wild horses that roamed the area between Los Fresnos and Brownsville. It was north of Jackass Prairie along Paredes Line Road that the giant Ohio and Texas sugar mill had been built in 1908.
Born 16 April 1890, Harry was to die at age 103 ½ on 27 December 1993. He had lived to see a desolate rural area become a productive farm area then develop into a thriving beautiful community. An exception few live to see such a remarkable transition.