Cotulla Ranch

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Cotulla Ranch in La Salle County. Joseph Cotulla came into this world in Poland in 1844, and by 1856 he was crossing an ocean and then rattling across land by oxcart, a twelve-year-old boy with his family, headed toward a country that had no idea what was coming. Now, most kids that age are worried about supper.

Joseph was apparently already sizing up the horizon. He worked on ranches in the area, learned the trade from the ground up, and in 1863, still a young man, he registered his own brand: the BAR JF. That's a man staking a claim with his initials before he even has the land to go with them.

Then came the Civil War, and Joseph made a choice that was not the easy one in Texas. He enlisted in the First Texas Cavalry of the Union Army and served two years. Two years in a uniform that put him on the opposite side from most of his neighbors.

That takes a particular kind of conviction, or a particular kind of stubbornness, and out here on the brush country those two things look about the same. After the war, he drove cattle from the Nueces River up to Kansas, year after year, learning every mile of hard country between here and there. In 1869, he partnered with four other men to start a ranch in the area.

That partnership did what partnerships do, it ran its course, and by 1874 Joseph had established a ranch of his own. Then he just kept buying. Thirty thousand acres, spread across La Salle, Dimmit, and Webb counties.

Thirty thousand. That's not a ranch, that's a principality. And here's where the story takes a turn that most men with thirty thousand acres wouldn't even consider.

In 1881, Joseph donated a hundred and twenty of those acres to the railroad so they could develop a townsite. A hundred and twenty acres, given over to build a town, a town that now bears his name and serves as the La Salle County seat. The man gave away a piece of his empire so a community could take root.

The original ranch land, all these years later, remains in the family. A Polish boy arrived by ship and oxcart in 1856, and more than a century and a half on, the land he built still carries the family name, on the deed, and on the map.

What the marker says

Polish immigrant Joseph Cotulla (1844-1922) came to America in 1856, traveling with his family by ship and oxcart. He worked on area ranches and registered his own brand, the BAR JF, in 1863. Joseph enlisted in the First Texas Cavalry of the Union Army and served for two years during the Civil War. He drove cattle from the Nueces River to Kansas for several years. He started an area ranch with four other men in 1869 before establishing his own ranch in 1874. Cotulla continued to buy land and amassed more than 30,000 acres in La Salle, Dimmit and Webb counties. He donated 120 acres of the ranch to the railroad in 1881 to develop a townsite, which bears his name and became La Salle county seat. The original ranch land remains in the family today. (2009)