DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Frank Rabb, out in Cameron County. Now, some men are born into a story already in motion. Frank Rabb came into the world in 1866 in Corpus Christi, the son of Texas ranching pioneers John and Martha Rabb.
That's a particular kind of inheritance — the land in your blood before you've ever worked a day of it. He didn't stray far from that world. Frank married Lillian Starck, granddaughter of a ranching neighbor by the name of Mifflin Kenedy, and together Frank and Lillian put down roots at a place called San Tomas, on twenty thousand acres of south Texas ground.
Twenty thousand acres. Let that settle for a moment. But here's the thing about that land — it wasn't exactly cooperative.
Agriculture in the area was scarce up through the late nineteenth century, the harsh climate keeping most of the country stubbornly unfarmed, except for a few small plots hugging the river banks. The soil wasn't the problem. The water was.
Frank Rabb set out to change that. He worked to develop one of the first irrigation systems in the area — the kind that could push water out to property far from the immediate river banks, opening up ground that nobody had been able to farm before. And he didn't stop there.
He became a charter member of the Chatfield Irrigation Co., an early attempt at spreading that water wide, getting the whole region in on it. Then there was the matter of getting goods to market. Rabb and other growers lobbied vigorously — and I do mean vigorously — to have rail lines extended out to their region.
They needed a way to move what they were growin'. By 1904, with the coming of the railroad, irrigation canals and farmland sales had become a major enterprise. The harsh, quiet ground of south Texas was becoming something else entirely.
And Frank Rabb wasn't a man who stopped at one arena. He became a leader in the south Texas Progressive Democrat machine and found himself pulled into the turbulent orbit of the Mexican Revolution. Politics in that time and place was not a gentleman's hobby — it was contact sport played with real stakes.
The heated election of 1914 seems to have been the thing that finally wore through his patience, because after that, Rabb stepped back from politics and returned to ranching, farming, and real estate. But there's one more chapter here, and it might be the one that outlasts all the rest. In 1917, Frank Rabb offered a two-hundred-acre sabal palm grove to the United States government to establish a national park.
The government wasn't ready. It would take almost sixty years before his vision — to preserve that unique natural heritage of the Rio Grande delta — finally came to fruition. Sixty years.
The man offered the land in 1917 and didn't live to see it happen. Frank Rabb died in 1932. He's remembered for the irrigation that made large-scale agriculture possible in this region.
He's remembered for the conflicts and politics of early twentieth century south Texas and Mexico. And somewhere along the Rio Grande delta, there's a palm grove that remembers him too — in its own slow, patient, sixty-year way.
What the marker says
Frank Rabb (1866-1932) was born in Corpus Christi to Texas ranching pioneers John and Martha Rabb. After marrying Lillian Starck, granddaughter of ranching neighbor Mifflin Kenedy, Frank and Lillian settled at San Tomas on 20,000 acres. Except for a few small plots, agriculture in the area was scarce until the late 19th century when the introduction of steam pumps and irrigation systems offset the harsh climate. Rabb worked to develop one of the first irrigation systems in the area that allowed for property to be farmed and irrigated in areas away from immediate river banks. Rabb was also a charter member of the Chatfield Irrigation Co., an early attempt at wide-spread irrigation. In addition, Rabb and other growers lobbied vigorously to have rail lines extended to their region to transport goods and export produce. By 1904, with the coming of the railroad, irrigation canals and farmland sales became a major enterprise. In addition to agriculture, Rabb also became a leader in the south Texas Progressive Democrat machine and was involved in the turbulent Mexican Revolution. Following the heated election of 1914, Rabb left politics and returned to ranching, farming and real estate interests. In 1917, Rabb offered a 200-acre sabal palm grove to the U.S. government to establish a national park. It would take almost 60 years before his vision to preserve this unique natural heritage of the Rio Grande delta came to fruition. Frank Rabb was instrumental in initiating a significant change that made large-scale agriculture in this region possible. He is remembered for his involvement in conflicts and politics of the early 20th century in south Texas and in Mexico. (2012)