DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — this one's mine to pass along. Now, Del Rio didn't just appear out of nowhere. It had founders — five of them, according to the record — and one of those five was a man named James H.
Taylor. He and his wife Paula, born Paula Losoya, a native of Mexico, made their way here from Uvalde around 1870. They put down roots, and when I say roots, I mean adobe roots — a one-story adobe residence that would outlast more than a few of the people who walked through its door.
James was no small figure in the territory. Prominent landowner, merchant, and the man owned a local gristmill on top of it all. That is a particular kind of busy that commands attention.
But James H. Taylor died in 1876, and the story — well, the story belonged to Paula from there. She remarried.
Her second husband was Charles Rivers, and he too passed on, in 1879. Two husbands gone, and Paula Losoya Taylor Rivers was still standing in that adobe house, deciding what came next. What came next was something worth remembering.
She opened the home as a boarding house. And beyond that — beyond the practical work of keeping a household running — Paula became a benefactress to Del Rio's Mexican community. She contributed land for a school.
She contributed land for a cemetery. Those are not small gestures. That is a woman shaping a community's future from the ground up, one deed at a time.
The Taylor-Rivers house stayed in her family all the way until 1939. One house, one woman, one long story of survival and generosity — and the marker is still out there on the road to prove it.
What the marker says
James H. Taylor (d. 1876), one of the five founders of Del Rio, and his wife Paula (Losoya) (d.1902), a native of Mexico, moved here from Uvalde about 1870 and built this one-story adobe residence. A prominent landowner and merchant, Taylor also owned a local gristmill. After his death, Paula married Charles Rivers (d. 1879) and later operated the home as a boarding house. She also became benefactress for the city's Mexican community, contributing land for a school and cemetery. The Taylor-Rivers house remained in her family until 1939. (1982)