Kleberg County, Texas

Kleberg County Education, Geography, and History

Kleberg County is a county located in the state of Texas. Based on the 2010 census, its population was 32,061. The county seat is Kingsville. The county was organized in 1913 and is named for Robert J. Kleberg, an early settler.

Kleberg County is included in the Kingsville, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX Combined Statistical Area. Most of the county's land lies within the famed King Ranch, which also extends into neighboring counties.

Etymology - Origin of Kleberg County Name

Robert Justus Kleberg, an early German settler and soldier at the Battle of San Jacinto

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: CensusBureau Quick Facts

Kleberg County History

Kleberg County is a county located in the US state of Texas. The county seat is Kingsville and it is part of the Kingsville Micropolitan Statistical Area. The county is named for Robert J. Kleberg, an early settler.

Handbook of Texas Online
Kingsville grew much more rapidly than the other towns, largely because the railroad placed its general offices and shops there. The railroad employees made up a third of the population of the town and were the main source of income. As the population in the area increased, the citizens of Kingsville and the other communities began agitating to break away from Nueces County. In 1913 the Texas legislature responded to this pressure and organized Kleberg County, named for Robert Justus Kleberg, whose son, also named Robert Justus Kleberg, was manager of the King Ranch. The law setting up the county named five residents to take care of organizing it, including hiring a surveyor and arranging for the first election. Anton Felix H. von Bl?her was employed to do the surveying, and within a short time he delineated the boundaries of the county and drew the lines of the precincts. An election was scheduled for June 27, 1913. Precinct and county officers were chosen, and Kingsville was designated the county seat. The new public officials met in rented offices in downtown Kingsville and began their work. The commissioners' court proposed that a courthouse and hospital be built; the voters approved bond issues for their construction, and both were completed by 1914. A movement was started to improve existing roads and build others. In 1919 the citizens voted a $350,000 bond issue to construct a hard-surfaced highway. When it was finished, the road ran southward from the Nueces County line through Kingsville and Ricardo to Riviera. Oil exploration began early in the county; in 1919 the first producing well was discovered. During the next fifty years county wells produced around 178 million barrels. The first industry in the county was a cotton mill started in Kingsville in 1921. An additional stimulus occurred in 1925, when South Texas Teachers College (now Texas A&M University at Kingsville) was established. More at
George O. Coalson, "KLEBERG COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hck10), accessed January 24, 2016. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Geography: Land and Water

As reported by the Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,090 square miles (2,824 km²), of which, 871 square miles (2,256 km²) of it is land and 219 square miles (568 km²) of it (20.12%) is water.

Neighboring Counties

Bordering counties are as follows:

• Nueces County (north)
• Gulf of Mexico (east)
• Kenedy County (south)
• Brooks County (southwest)
• Jim Wells County (west)

Education

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