Welcome To the South Texas Archives

Welcome to the South Texas Archives, a division of the James C. Jernigan Library of Texas A&M University-Kingsville. The archive was established to preserve and make available to the public university and documentary materials regarding the cultural, geographical, political, and natural history of South Texas.

Kenedy Family Collection now open for research at South Texas Archives.

The Kenedy Family Papers were transferred to South Texas Archives, Texas A&M University-Kingsville on February 23, 1994 from the John G. Kenedy, Jr. Charitable Trust. The custody of the Kenedy papers by the archive was not intended to be a permanent gift. Nor was the collection open to the public due to on-going litigation against the trust by relatives of the Kenedy family and others contesting inheritance.

Twenty-two years later, on January 11, 2016 the Senior Vice President & Trust Office of the Frost Bank and Wealth Advisors gave permission to open the family papers for scholarly research.

The Kenedy family contributed in the settling of South Texas and the introduction of large scale ranching to the coastal plains. Mifflin Kenedy, a Quaker from Pennsylvania, ferried supplies up the Rio Grande in a steamboat to the Texas troops during the Mexican-American and Civil Wars. Captain Mifflin Kenedy and Captain Richard King were friends and became partners in acquiring huge tracts of land in South Texas where immense herds of wild horses roamed the plains. In 1875 Kenedy and King became chief supporters and financial backers of Colonel Uriah Lott in building a railroad from Corpus Christi to Laredo which became known as the Corpus Christi, San Diego & Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad Company. During the last half of the 19th century Mifflin Kenedy created a huge fortune and left a legacy to his family and South Texas.