From Pioneer Hall to Stevenson Motor Company
The Deyo, Ray, and Stevenson Families in the Early Rio Grande Valley
Stevenson Motor Company and employees, 10th and Adams Streets, Brownsville, Texas — c. late 1920s. Hand-tinted archival reproduction.
The history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley can often be traced through the experiences of the families who helped build its early communities.
Few stories illustrate that transformation more clearly than the lives of the Deyo, Ray, and Stevenson families, whose experiences span the Valley’s transition from brush frontier to modern town.
The Deyo Family Arrives in the Valley
In 1904, pioneer settler Asa M. Deyo brought his family south to the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The region was still largely undeveloped. Mesquite brush, cactus, rattlesnakes, and open prairie surrounded the scattered ranches and newly forming towns.
Among the family members was Deyo’s daughter Irma, who married Robert Ray, a railway postal clerk who traveled widely across Texas.
In February 1908, the family loaded their possessions into a freight railcar — furniture, horses, a cow, and even coops of chickens — and journeyed south to the small settlement of Lyford.
They would soon become part of the first generation of settlers shaping life in the Valley.
Building Lyford
The community of Lyford grew from only a handful of families.
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One of the earliest buildings was Pioneer Hall, built in 1907, which served as the center of community life.
The building was used for:
• church services
• school classes
• public meetings
• social gatherings
Before permanent churches were built, residents worshipped in Pioneer Hall and organized civic activities there.
The women of the community played an important role in this early organization. Through church work and community groups, they helped create the cultural foundations of the settlement.
Life on the Brush Frontier
Life for the first settlers required endurance and cooperation.
Brush clearing was done by hand using axes, mattocks, and pitchforks. Wildlife often destroyed early crops, and rattlesnakes were a constant hazard.
Farming experiments included peanuts, beans, corn, and broom corn, though the most successful crop eventually became onions between 1910 and 1916.
Flooding also posed serious danger. A major storm in 1909 caused the Rio Grande to overflow, forcing settlers to build levees around homes and livestock.
Transportation was often unreliable, and settlers sometimes built makeshift boats from lumber to travel between communities when trains could not reach the area.
Daisy Glick Stevenson — Artist and Valley Historian
One of the most colorful figures connected with these early years was Daisy Glick Stevenson of Lyford.
The daughter of a Methodist minister, she arrived during the Valley’s earliest settlement period and became deeply involved in community life.
A 1949 newspaper article described her life as unusually adventurous. As a young girl in Colorado she once sang at the funeral of an outlaw connected with the Jesse James gang — an experience that later became part of her personal story.
In the Valley she helped establish church life, taught music, and encouraged cultural activity in the new settlements.
Later she became known as a painter of Texas landscapes and wildlife and began writing historical accounts about the Valley’s earliest settlers.
Her work preserved the memories of those who came to the region between 1904 and 1910, when the Valley was still largely untamed brushland.
Education in Early Cameron County
Another document preserved by the family is a 1909 Cameron County teacher’s certificate issued to Miss E. Marie Deyo.
The certificate authorized her to teach in the public schools of Cameron County for one year. It reflects the formal process used at the time to certify teachers and also illustrates the segregated structure of Texas public education during that period.
Such documents offer a rare glimpse into the educational institutions developing alongside the frontier settlements.
The “Year of the Bandits”
One of the most dramatic episodes remembered by early Valley residents occurred in 1915, widely recalled as the “Year of the Bandits.”
Tension had been growing between settlers and outlaw groups operating near the border.
During that year:
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livestock and machinery were stolen
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railroad bridges were burned
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trains were fired upon
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night riders moved through the countryside
One tragic incident involved Sebastian Postmaster A. L. Austin and his son Charles.
Bandits rode to their home, searched it for weapons, and then took the two men away. Both were later found murdered within earshot of Mrs. Austin.
The killings shocked the region.
Residents armed themselves and gathered in town for protection. Soldiers were stationed throughout the area, and patrols moved across the countryside.
Night trains began running with their lights turned off to avoid becoming targets.
Many families temporarily moved into town or stayed with relatives until the danger passed.
The Last Hanging in Brownsville
The violence remembered by settlers as the “Year of the Bandits” in 1915 continued into the following year and produced some of the most controversial episodes in the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
One of the most dramatic occurred in Brownsville on May 19, 1916, when two men — Melquiades Chapa and José Buenrostro — were executed at the Cameron County Jail on East Van Buren Street.
Their deaths marked the last legal hanging carried out in Brownsville.
The execution followed a period of widespread unrest along the border. Bandit raids, train sabotage, and attacks on settlers had frightened communities across Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy counties. Armed posses, Texas Rangers, and federal troops were operating throughout the region.
Chapa and Buenrostro were accused of involvement in one of the violent incidents connected to the unrest. Their trial and conviction moved quickly, reflecting the tense atmosphere of the time.
Yet even in 1916 many residents questioned the verdict.
Newspaper coverage across Texas reported that a number of local citizens believed the two men may have been innocent, or at least not the principal figures responsible for the crime. The controversy surrounding the case lingered long after the execution.
The hanging took place in the yard of the Cameron County Jail, located on East Van Buren Street in Brownsville, before witnesses gathered to observe the sentence carried out.
Today the event is remembered as a symbol of the turbulent years along the border when fear, violence, and justice sometimes collided in tragic ways.
The Stevenson Family in Brownsville
As the Valley matured, the Stevenson family became prominent in the commercial life of Brownsville.
By the 1920s Tom Stevenson operated Stevenson Motor Company, a Chevrolet dealership located in downtown Brownsville.
Photographs show the dealership expanding as automobile ownership spread across the Valley. Employees worked in sales, parts, service, and body repair departments, reflecting the growing demand for motor vehicles.
One image records a Chevrolet endurance and economy promotional run, while another shows a fleet of Chevrolets delivered to government agencies working in the Valley.
A newspaper photograph even shows a large delivery of vehicles for federal agricultural inspectors — described humorously as “bug control experts.”
The dealership building at 10th and Adams Streets became a recognizable part of the city’s commercial district.
Automobiles and a Changing Valley
The growth of Stevenson Motor Company reflects how quickly the Valley changed during the early twentieth century.
Within a generation the region moved from mule wagons and brush trails to paved streets and automobiles.
These changes brought new economic opportunities, and businesses like Stevenson Motor Company helped supply the vehicles that connected Valley communities.
From Automobiles to Appliances
In later years the family business evolved again.
The Stevenson enterprise expanded into home appliances, operating a retail store in downtown Brownsville that sold brands such as:
• RCA
• Westinghouse
• Norge
The store at Elizabeth Street and 8th Street became another familiar part of the city’s commercial landscape.
This transition reflected the continuing modernization of the Valley as homes filled with new electrical appliances.
Dale working at Tom Stevenson Co. [Appliances] E Elizabeth and 8th St
Priscilla Stevenson — “Two-Gun Priscilla”
Another member of the Stevenson family gained national attention during the 1930s for a very different reason.
Priscilla Stevenson, sometimes known in newspapers as “Two-Gun Priscilla,” served for several years as a guard on the Texas–Mexico border near Brownsville. During that time she earned a reputation for accuracy with firearms and for her confident presence in a profession then dominated almost entirely by men.
After seven years working along the border, Stevenson was appointed a U.S. Customs inspector in San Francisco in 1935, a move that drew considerable newspaper attention. One San Francisco article described her as a “real gal from Texas,” highlighting both her shooting ability and her energetic personality.
In the accompanying photograph she appeared in contemporary 1930s fashion — wearing a dark hat and coat while posing confidently with her firearm.
Journalists of the time portrayed her as athletic and spirited, noting that she enjoyed dancing and sports and possessed a quick sense of humor. She reportedly joked that her success sometimes came from the “flutter of beautiful eyelashes” she used to disarm skeptics.
Her story reflects a broader trend of the era, when newspapers began celebrating “modern women” entering fields traditionally reserved for men, including federal law enforcement.
A Valley Story Across Generations
From the brush country settlements around Lyford to the automobile showrooms and appliance stores of Brownsville, the story of the Deyo, Ray, and Stevenson families mirrors the broader transformation of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
In only a few decades the region evolved from isolated frontier ranches into thriving towns connected by highways, businesses, and modern technology.
The memories preserved in family manuscripts such as Robert Ray’s Our First Half Century in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas help keep those early experiences alive for later generations.
Through these recollections and photographs we can still glimpse the determination, creativity, and community spirit that shaped the Valley’s earliest years.
Sources
Family photographs, documents, and research materials provided by Dale Stevenson
Including:
• Robert Ray manuscript: Our First Half Century in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas
• 1935 "Two-gun Priscilla, a Real Gal from Texas, on Water Front" article from San
Francisco Chronicle or The San Francisco News.
• 1935 RGV newspaper article on Daisy Glick Stevenson.
• Stevenson Motor Company photographs and business records
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