Kingsville Transplant: Life, observations, and discoveries from a new Kingsville resident
BY Missy McClure - March 2025
This month’s issue is The Women’s Issue. I have been blessed, as I’m sure many of the readers have, to have many strong women as examples in my life. The first one is my mother. While Alzheimer’s has stolen her mental and physical strength in recent years, she is still one of the strongest women I know. She always told all four of her children that we could be and do anything we set our minds to and she believed in us. Yes – I know. That’s a “mom” thing but it still helps to build confidence and strength in children.
Another strong support was my sister, whom we lost in September of 2021. She was probably the absolute strongest woman I was privileged to have in my life. As a two-time breast cancer survivor, she endured chemo and radiation while working, being a wife, and raising two young boys. She also pushed forward when her husband, at age 51, was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). She spent the next five years caring for him while working a full-time job. To this day – I miss her dearly and I don’t know that she ever knew how much I loved her and how very proud of her I was.
There are several other women in my life that I admire but our daughter is at the very top of that list. She is a beautiful, strong, highly intelligent woman. She is a wonderful wife to her husband of over 18 years, mother to our five beautiful grandchildren, an amazing teacher to those grandchildren (homeschool teacher), and a tremendous cook and gardener. She can do anything she sets her mind to, including taking on local politics when they decide to promote ideology that goes against her beliefs. She is definitely a force to be reckoned with then.
When my spouse and I moved to east Texas in 2012 and started a cattle operation, I had women I admired and looked up to for guidance. I had never lived or had any real experience with cattle or ranching, so everything was new. At 52 years of age, I learned how to help build a fence, work cattle, watch calves being born, learn about cattle handling (that is an entirely different topic!), and had so many new experiences. One of those women – Mary Lou Bradley Henderson – gave me great advice. She told me that everybody has bad days, including the most experienced cow person. In jest and a little bit of a dig at my spouse, I told her that I bet she could help me learn to back a trailer without making me cry. He just rolled his eyes, but Mary Lou told me again that everyone has days that it works great and other days it takes multiple times to get that trailer backed into the correct spot. Probably the best piece of advice she gave me was this – get your own set of tools that are just yours and ones that you can work with. Instead of fencing pliers for barbed wire, get a small set bolt cutters as they don’t require as much hand strength but will get the job done much easier. I got tools that would fit my hands and helped me do the jobs I needed to do with a little less mental and physical stress. I still love to get to see and talk with Mary Lou when the opportunity arises.
Another friend from the business, Susi Thompson, was always checking in to see how I was doing and if I needed anything. She knew I was far outside my element and wanted to be a support whenever she could. She did this while also operating their own cattle operation, helping her husband with his various enterprises, and raising a family.
In history, we can find plenty of examples of strong women doing whatever was necessary to take care of their family, the family business, and their communities. There are a couple of women that were instrumental in the history of our state and in the history of the cattle industry.
Henrietta Chamberlain married Captain Richard King in 1854. He purchased the initial land grant in 1853 that was the beginning of the famous King Ranch. They managed and expanded the ranch until Captain King died in 1885. Henrietta became the sole owner and managed the ranch with the help of her son-in-law, Robert J. Kleberg, Sr. for the next 40 years. Henrietta donated money and land to establish the city of Kingsville.
She was also the push behind the establishment of many of the churches here in South Texas through monetary and land donations. Henrietta was in charge of the ranch and protected it from Indians and bandits frequently when her husband was away. She died in 1925, but the ranch still stands today as a testament to the strength and character of Henrietta King!*
Another woman of strength and character from the history of Texas is Mary Ann (Molly) Goodnight. Mary Ann Dyer married Charles Goodnight in 1870. The couple lived in Colorado for a time but in 1877 moved back to the Texas panhandle to establish the first ranch household in partnership with Cornelia and John Adair. The famed JA Ranch was located in the Palo Duro Canyon just three short years after the Comanche Indians were driven out of the area. The ranch took in the entire Palo Duro Canyon, which was 1,500 feet deep, 10 miles across and over 100 miles long. Molly was the only woman on the ranch after the Adairs pulled out. She is called “Mother of the Panhandle” as she was a nurse and a surrogate mother to the cowboys on the ranch, some who were just boys. Charles was often away on cattle drives so Molly was left alone and had the responsibility of caring for and managing the ranch while he was away. One of the legacies we have in modern times is that Molly took in orphaned bison calves and raised them. (Side note – there are no buffalo in North America. We have North American Bison.) This became the Goodnight herd of bison and is the foundation for current bison we have today. The state bison herd for Texas is located in Caprock Canyons State Park outside of Quitaque, Texas. Charles and Molly eventually established an academy that later was named Goodnight College and settled in the current Armstrong County where their home is still located. The town was eventually named after them, and they remained there until they passed away. You can see the home as it is now a museum in Goodnight, Texas.**
Just one interesting tidbit about Charles Goodnight – the character of Woodrow Call in Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and later made into a miniseries was loosely based on the life of Charles Goodnight. The character of Gus McRae was based on Goodnight’s partner, Oliver Loving.
In this month of celebrating women, I hope you can take encouragement from the strength and resilience of these examples.
*Biographies are reprinted from the Foundation for Women’s Resources (now Women’s Resources), Dallas, Texas. They originally appeared in "From Gutsy Mavericks to Quiet Heroes: True Tales of Texas Women," video study guide, Austin: The Foundation for Women's Resources, 1997.
**Biographies are reprinted from the Foundation for Women’s Resources (now Women’s Resources), Dallas, Texas. They originally appeared in "From Gutsy Mavericks to Quiet Heroes: True Tales of Texas Women," video study guide, Austin: The Foundation for Women's Resources, 1997.