DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for the City of Pharr is what I'm workin' from here, so let me tell it straight from the stone. Now, before there was a city, before there was a plat or a deed or a single stake in the ground, the Lower Rio Grande Valley had already been home to people for many centuries. The Coahuiltecans — nomadic, moving with the land — lived through this region long before anyone drew a line on a map.
Then came the Spanish explorers in the 1500s, riding through, taking note. And by the late 1700s, the Spanish government was colonizing both sides of the river in earnest. The Rio Grande wasn't a boundary yet — it was just a river.
That changed at the close of the U.S.-Mexico War in 1848, when the Rio Grande was established as the official boundary. Same river. Different world.
Now fast-forward to 1905. A railroad comes through the area. Nobody's called this place Pharr yet.
There's no town, not officially. But a railroad has a way of making people start thinkin' about what could be. And four men were thinkin' hard.
In 1909, John C. Kelly, Henry N. Pharr, W.E.
Cage, and R.C. Briggs formed the Pharr Townsite Company — platting and registering a brand new town right there in Hidalgo County. Now, Kelly, he wasn't just a businessman with a surveyor's eye.
He donated lots right out of the original plat for early churches — Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal, and Presbyterian. Five denominations, all accounted for before the town had barely drawn its first breath. That's a man who understood that a community needs more than streets.
The schools came next. Pharr schools opened in 1911, and in time the community joined hands with San Juan and Alamo to build something bigger — the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo School District. Three towns, one future.
But here's where the story really turns. Those same city founders were also behind the Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company, organized in 1910. Their ambition?
Furnish irrigation and domestic water to forty thousand acres in the Pharr area by means of a Rio Grande pumping plant. Forty thousand acres. You bring water to land like that, and the land doesn't stay the same.
The economy shifted — shifted right away from ranching and toward crop production. And with that railroad already layin' track through the area since 1905, there was a way to get all that produce out — shipped around the country. Water and rails.
That's a combination that builds cities. Pharr was incorporated in 1916, and it kept on growin'. Agricultural shipping and packing businesses became the mainstays of the city economy.
And given its location at the intersection of two major developing highways, with commercial transportation expanding all around it, Pharr earned itself a title: the Hub City of the Valley. That name carries weight out here. Centuries of nomadic life, Spanish colonization, a war that moved a boundary, four men with a plat and a vision, forty thousand acres of irrigated land, a railroad, a school district, and a city incorporated and runnin' — and it's still runnin'.
The Lower Rio Grande Valley kept growin', and Pharr grew with it. Today an international bridge provides an important commercial link to Mexico, connectin' the Hub City to the world on both sides of that same river the Spanish explorers once crossed and the treaty makers once named a border. Some towns get built.
Some towns get earned. Pharr, it seems, got both.
What the marker says
For many centuries, nomadic Coahuiltecans lived in the Lower Rio Grande area. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers came through the region, and the Spanish government began to colonize both sides of the river by the late 1700s. At the close of the U.S.-Mexico War in 1848, the Rio Grande was established as the official boundary. In 1909, John C. Kelly, Henry N. Pharr, W.E. Cage and R.C. Briggs formed the Pharr Townsite Company, platting and registering the new town. Kelly donated lots in the original plat for early churches, including the Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal and Presbyterian denominations. Pharr schools began in 1911, and the community later joined with San Juan and Alamo to create the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo School District. The city founders were also involved with the Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Co., organized in 1910 to furnish irrigation and domestic water to 40,000 acres in the Pharr area by means of a Rio Grande pumping plant. The water system led the economy to shift from ranching to crop production, and the railroad, which came through the area in 1905, made it possible to ship produce around the country. The city of Pharr was incorporated in 1916. Given its location at the intersection of two major developing highways and the growth of commercial transportation, Pharr became known as the "Hub City of the Valley." Agricultural shipping and packing businesses were mainstays in the city economy. With the continued growth of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Pharr remains a vital business center, and an international bridge now provides an important commercial link to Mexico. (2004)