| History
in a Pecan Shell
First settled by Spanish ranchers in the late 1770s,
the land was granted in 1789 to Juan José Ynojosa de Ballí. It was later acquired
by Ramón and Manuel Cavazos, who founded the Anacuitas ranch in 1850. The land
continued to be owned by the Cavazos family until developer Lon C. Hill, Jr. appeared
around 1900. Hill bought 45,000 acres that extended sixteen miles from the Rio
Grande, including property that would become Mercedes.
Hill constructed the Estarito Canal and in 1904 he developed a town (one mile
east of present-day Mercedes). Hill modestly renamed the town Lonsboro and after
developing it, sold it to new owners who renamed it Diaz (perhaps after the Mexican
head of state Porfirio Diaz). The community underwent several more changes of
name until Mercedes was (mercifully) agreed upon. Some sources say that Mercedes
was the wife of Porfirio Díaz, but no documentation backs up the claim.
In July of 1904, Mercedes became a stop on the Sam Fordyce spur of the St. Louis,
Brownsville and Mexico Railroad.
Northern settlers were brought down
by an aggressive promotional campaign. After 1907 large-scale citrus fruits and
vegetable crops were introduced. Around that time the town had a enviable population
of 1,000 residents.
The Rio Grande flooded in 1908 and Mercedes was one
of the towns hardest hit. The population reached 2,000 by 1915.
Border
incursions and unrest caused by the Mexican Revolution required a military presence
on the border and Camp Mercedes and Camp Llano Grande were laid out – just outside
the Mercedes city limits. The two camps had a combined population of 15,000 soldiers,
dwarfing the town. By 1925 the population had increased to 3,414 in 1925.
The 1940 population
grew to 7,600, bolstered by an oil discovery in 1935. In 1952 the B&P Bridge Company
was formed by local businessmen and a contract was signed for a new international
bridge. Construction was begun in the fall of 1952 and the bridge was completed
in one year.
Mercedes’ population reached 10,065 in 1952, increasing to 10,943 by the early
1960s. The 1980 census reported 10,354 residents, growing to 12,694 for 1990. |
