Frank Rabb: Building a House, Ranches and a Career Part III
By NORMAN ROZEFF and LAWRENCE LOF Special to the Star
Posted: Friday, February 14, 2014 3:07 pm
Posted: Friday, February 14, 2014 3:07 pm
In 1891 Frank Rabb, working with his mother-in-law Maria Vicenta Vidal Stark, began to build the large two-story Victorian house that dominated high ground overlooking the Rio Grande, a few miles downriver from Brownsville. Initially built next to the river it later was left high and dry when the river, in 1895, changed course and the residual water course became the La Canasta Banco Resaca. The Queen Anne Revival style house was built at a total cost of $15,000.00. At the time, it must have been one of the grandest homes in the region making a statement of wealth and prosperity for 25 year old Frank Rabb and his new wife… a couple anxious to make their mark on society and politics of the region. The house was well furnished. The dining table was always set with the finest china and crystal. Frank took great pride in showing off his teams of fine horses.
On 9/9/1892 the Brownsville Herald reprinted an article from the Corpus Christi Caller.
It read as follows: Magnificent Horses
“Mr. Frank Rabb has now in this city three as fine buggy animals as were ever seen in this section. Two of these are magnificent bays and were bought by Mr. Rabb for his own use while the third is a beautiful sorrel male which he bought for Mrs.Rrabb to drive her phaeton.
All of these animals were bought from Sedala, Missouri but are of Kentucky origin. The bays have a record as roadsters and wear the blue ribbon captured at the Northwest Missouri Fair for being the best double team exhibited. He will send them all overland to the Starck-Rabb plantation near Brownsville where he will have the pleasure of driving the finest team in Cameron County. In addition to these fine horses Mr, Rabb has also purchased a number of Holstein and Jersey cattle and several full blooded Poland China hogs which will be shipped to his home via Point Isabel and Brownsville.
He is a strong believer in fine stock and says he will not consider his sugar plantation complete until he gets it well stocked with thoroughbred horses, cattle and hogs.
With the horse he now has in the city, there is a large Newfoundland dog. He was reared in the stable with the bays and the attachment between the dog and horses has grown so great that it looked like a pity to separate them. As the man who sold Mr. Rabb the team finally agreed to let the dog go with them, the noble animal is now in the city and will accompany the horse to Brownsville.”
Later he brought the second automobile to the area. After Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan purchased land in Hidalgo County, he stayed as a guest at Rabb’s ranch during his occasional trips to the Valley. Later Bryan openly campaigned for Rabb when he became politically active in 1909.
A handwritten note recently found in the Newel Post in the front hall gave some detail to the house’s construction:
“The contractor, Jason Meboy McLery, guaranteed to have it finished before Christmas dinner 1892. Skilled carpenters who worked on the building were Charles Morrison, John Falls, Stafford Corkill, Josefoun Tonks; painters Gallahaut & Bensery; trim by Shaw, Spucha & Ed Lagats. The house was complete on April 8th 1892 . The note ended with: “In god we trust, the rest pay cash. Six month with fleas & ticks; San Tomas Ranch; March 28th 1892”
In 1892, Rabb purchased the two-storied ranch house hacienda at Santa Maria upriver close to the Cameron-Hidalgo County line from L. J. Hynes. At the time Santa Maria was a thriving river community that was the second largest population center in Cameron County. Only Brownsville was larger.
Rabb’s Santa Maria Ranch has become a historic landmark having served as a stage depot, general store, and telegraph office. A shipping wharf existed nearby on the river. Rabb Road extending from west of La Feria north toward Santa Rosa is a reminder of this pioneer. The buildings presently are owned by cane growers Harry and Kenneth Shimotsu.
A Texas Historical Commission marker near the site reads:
Rancho Santa Maria
Part of Spain’s 1777 La Feria Grant (12.5 leagues), partitioned into 6 units 1843. Here in 1850’s was a sub-post of Fort Brown (28 mi. SE) and Fort Ringgold (65 mi. NW). This was proposed site in 1860’s for “Homeville”, this locality’s first small-acreage promotion. Present compound, built 1870 by L.J. Hynes, has buildings for dairy, kitchen, ammunition. Hynes, first Postmaster (1876), had stage depot, general store, telegraph office, shipping wharf on river. Chapel was built 1880. In 1892, Frank Rabb bought the ranch. In 1916 border troubles, U.S. Army established headquarters here.
Another nearby THC marker tells of an additional Hynes connection. It reads:
Our Lady of Visitation Catholic Church
A rare South Texas snowstorm marked the cornerstone laying ceremonies for this church building, Dec. 29, 1880. The Gothic Revival edifice was constructed of bricks made at nearby Rancho de Santa Maria, owned by L.J. Hynes, who gave land for the church. Built from plans drawn by Father Peter I. Keralum, O.M.I., the structure was dedicated June 29, 1882. The wooden steeple was blown off during a 1933 hurricane. Residents of Bluetown, Santa Maria, and neighboring communities worshiped here.
Rabb House begins new life as visitor center
Posted: Saturday, November 30, 2013 10:15 pm
More than a century after its construction, the Rabb Plantation House remains at a prominent crossroads for the Rio Grande Valley.
Its newest role is the visitor center for Sabal Palm Sanctuary as the renovated mansion recently became the entry point for eco-tourists, biologists and — increasingly — historians interested in the biodiversity and cultural background of the region, according to Larry Lof, president of the Gorgas Science Foundation and longtime instructor for the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.
The visitor center’s grand opening Nov. 17 put the house in the spotlight at the sanctuary long known for its subtropical habitat and species. Lof said he hopes the revitalized facility will attract an increasing number of local residents because “the local
history is too often taken for granted.”
The project cost an estimated $200,000 and took about 18 months to restore the two-story house that features as much as 6,000 square feet of space, Lof said. The final remodeling budget is not complete, but he thanked the many private individuals and companies who made donations or provided free labor and materials for the project.
Major funding sources include the Gorgas Science Foundation, The Meadows Foundation, Texas Historical Foundation, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and the Brownsville Foundation for Health and Education.
Lof’s vision is now focusing on the Rabb House’s new mission to enhance public education.
“This house is going to serve as the point of departure for tours interested in the biodiversity and cultural legacy of the Rio Grande Valley delta,” he said.
Gradually, there will be more PowerPoint presentations and visual exhibits in Spanish and English to make the facility a “touchstone for land use in South Texas,” Lof said. “With the young people, we’ll try to ignite their imagination … with the history-making things that happened in the Rio Grande Valley.”
The characters — such as Frank Rabb — in the Rabb and Starck families that founded the original plantation’s 20,353 acres between the Rio Grande and the Arroyo Colorado played important economic, political and cultural roles in Mexico and the United States. The sanctuary’s 527 acres, with about 30 acres of sabal palms, offer a glimpse of the Valley’s terrain along the Rio Grande before the land was cleared for agriculture.
The river was once considered to be the second Mississippi River of North America due to its transportation and business connections, Lof said. The house will enrich visitors by adding the story of how flooding from the snow melts in the Rocky Mountains once controlled the Rio Grande environment.
“The river was a highway that tied together the region,” he said.
Steamboats docked at the Rabb Plantation because the Rio Grande once flowed very close to the existing structure. The plantation also featured irrigation pump stations in the 1890s that could draw up to 10,000 gallons of water per minute from the river, said Lof, who is co-author with Seth Patterson of the book “El Valle: The Rio Grande Delta.”
Agricultural interests developed the irrigation system with its canals to provide regular nourishment for crops because the flooding and drought cycles were unreliable for crop production. The irrigation network allowed South Texas to become “an agricultural dynamo,” he said.
Lof noted that Mexico called the river “Rio Bravo” and the translation for “bravo” is “ferocious,” but the “ferocious” meaning faded as dams and management practices tamed the river.
To build the house, the Rabbs and Starcks transported materials from New Orleans — such as southern yellow pine, a much stronger wood than typical southern pine.
Two 10-foot-tall mirrors and ornate fireplaces are original artifacts from the Rabb House. Furniture from the period occupies some of the rooms. There are some working kerosene lamps that display the technological advancements of the late 1800s, and the home was among only the few in the bygone era to include a kitchen, as most food preparation occurred in a separate building near the ranch or plantation houses.
The renovation work added a grid pattern of steel rods to the floors and ceilings for structural strength, Lof said.
Work continues on butterfly and hummingbird gardens, a water feature and new paths connecting the Rabb House to the sanctuary’s existing trails. Likewise, the house’s path through history now takes a new turn as the visitor center.
“A building like this only has a reason to survive in the modern world if it has a purpose,” Lof said, “and this house tells a story.”
My great great grandfather, Judge William Stafford Corkill, was one of the carpenters who helped build the house. I can’t post his picture here (the only known one to exist), but it was nice to come across his name in the article. Thank you so much. -Joseph Arnold Corkill
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