Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1877-11-10
COL. KNEES RANCH.
Farm of 16O, 900 Acres on the Rio Grande
How the Proprietor Manages HIS Vast
Estate-His Personal Peculiarities.
From the Chicago Tribune.

From the Chicago Tribune.l
WASHINGTON, d. c., Oct, live
are likely to hear some very extrava-
giant stories about the Mexican border
during the next few months. The adj
venturers who are seeking to incite the
two countries to trouble along the Rio
Grande for the sake of booty or am
bition are here in considerable numbers,
and are sometimes able to attract a
curious crowd to listen to the stories of
the wonders of their Eldorado.
These are colored by warm i'm
aginings, but have reason to
think that the one which follows is sub
stantially true. At all events, have 1t
from one of the gentlemen who spent a
considerable time in the service of the
Government along the Rio Grande bor-
der, and who could have no special in
terest in calling upon his imagination
for his facts. At any rate, the story of
this big ranch, as told to me, runs in
this way:
A FEUDAL BORDER FARMER.
Col. King is a fair type of one Of the
fermer feudal Knights of our Mexican
border. He found his way to Mexico
during the Mexican War, as a camp
follower in the wake of the army. Sub
sequently he became a cabin-boy on q
steamboat on the Lower Rio Grande.
He picked up little money in this pur-
suit, and soon had accumulated enough
to begin steamboating on his own ac-
count. The accumulated earnings Of
his steamboat he invested in Spanish
land grants, saving his grants until he
had secured q large amount of "acre-
age" which he settled in one locality.
From the time of the Mexican War un-
til our late Civil War, he devoted him
self to agricultural pursuits. At the out
break of the last War he commenced
operations in cotton, in which he made
another fortune. The excitements of
the border, and the love of speculation
together, helped to make him rebellious
during the War, and he became Rebel
of that passive sort which permitted
other people to do the fighting while he
pocketed the gains. l am informed by
! an officer in command along the border
that during the War Col. King found a
more congenial residence south of the
Rio than north of it. He is man 50
years of age, of Irish parentage. He
has family of three daughters, whom
he is educating at Louisville, KY, and
who are the heiresses to the most
MAGNIFICENT FEUDAL ESTATE
in Republican America As might be
expected from. his life, King is man OF
little education, but possesses much
natural ability, and has acquired con-
siderable polish from contact with the
world. He has had no time for cultiva-
ton. He now owns most of the steam
boats on the Rio Grande, and controls
the Gulf trade between Galveston and
New Orleans. His ranch possesses the
magnificent proportions which can be
best appreciated by the ambitious West
ern farmer. His estate itself comprises
100000 acres. OF this, 100,0 are I'M
der fence. In one inclosure there are
! 100 miles of fencing, built at cost OF
5000 per mile. The ranch is situated
in diversified country on the Lower
Rio, made UP in part Of rich low lands,
and in part of wooded rolling hills.
The figures which represent his stock
are of such 4 character that the addition
of u cipher or two would make no
appreciable difference in the imagination
OF the ordinary reader. He has 22,O0O
horses, $4,000 cows, 10000 stock cattle,
$4,000 mules, $4,000 sheep, and jack
asses and pigs in countless numbers.
He employs 800 Mexicans TO manage his
ranch. They are of a peculiar tribe or
clan, from which the horsemen of the
border are usually chosen, and are of a
very different character from the rowing
bandit clans whose occupation consists
in predatory incursions upon our terri
tory. These herders are tame, quiet,
inofiensive, and faithful, and constitute