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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.
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