Though Captain Richard King never set foot in the main house, his vision continues in the legacy he began more than 160 years before. Courtesy King Ranch archives, King Ranch, Inc., Kingsville, Texas.


Robert Justus Kleberg and Alice Gertrudis King


fi rst met in 1881, after Captain Richard King brought Kleberg to the ranch to discuss business. Though they were engaged in 1884, Robert and Alice did not marry until 1886, after a respectable mourning period follow- ing the death of Captain King. In the early hours of Jan. 4, 1912, the home at Ran-


cho de Santa Gertrudes caught fi re. Eighteen-year-old Alice King Kleberg ran to the bell tower by the kitchen building and rang the big bell, long and hard. It awak- ened everyone around the headquarters. It was said that the sound carried to Kingsville and that the fi re was visible for miles around. The family and house guests quickly escaped the


burning building, but Robert Justus Kleberg, Sr., and Sam Ragland went back into the corner offi ce and threw some of the ranch’s records out the window to safety. When they tried to move some of the furniture, Mrs. King was reported to say, “We can build a new home. We can’t replace a life.” News of the house fi re was carried in both state and


national newspapers. It was reported that the house was recently being fi tted with electric wires so it could be illuminated by electricity. The loss on the building and contents was estimated at over $50,000. The exact cause of the fi re was never determined. Three days after the fi re, Robert Justus Kleberg,


94 The Cattleman December 2015


Sr., sent a telegram to a friend who had wired his con- dolences over the family’s loss. Kleberg wired back, “They may destroy. They may burn the buildings of Santa Gertrudis if they will, but the spirit of hospital- ity and friendship will hang around her still. Her gates are open wide and all her friends may enter and none will be denied.”


Rebuilding after fi re The family vowed to rebuild their home. Henrietta


King’s primary instruction was that she wanted them to “build a home that anybody could walk in – in boots.” The rest of the specifi cations she left for her son-in-law, Robert Kleberg Sr., to determine. His aim was to build what he termed “a monument to Mrs. King’s hospitality.” Many notable architects were consulted, but none of


the plans offered met with Henrietta King’s approval. Finally, the relatively unknown fi rm of Adams and Adams submitted a sketch that was adopted. The men of Adams and Adams Architects were an uncle, Carl C. Adams, and nephew, Carleton Adams. Robert Kleberg recalled that, “In their sketches was


embodied what Mrs. King had sensed through the years. The glory of the sunsets, the restless pulsing of the mighty gulf, the night winds bringing the lowing of thousands of cattle, the melody of the bird-haunted


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