Falfurrias

Falfurrias, the county seat and principal trading center of Brooks County, is on State Highway 281 sixty miles southwest of Corpus Christi and ninety miles from Laredo in the northern part of the county. Its founding and development were largely the effort of Edward C. Lasater, pioneer Rio Grande valley rancher and land developer, who in 1895 started a cattle ranch in what was then northern Starr County; his spread came to be known as Falfurrias Ranch, after La Mota de Falfurrias, the grove of trees he chose as the site of his headquarters. To increase settlement in the area Lasater encouraged the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway to extend a line to his ranch in 1904. At the railway terminus four miles east of his ranchhouse he founded Falfurrias; he also changed the name of his ranch to La Mota. His Falfurrias Immigration Company set about attracting settlers by offering subdivided ranchland near the railroad at low prices and advertising extensively in the East and Midwest.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.