Interview with Diane White

La Pryor, Texas is at the intersection of U.S. Highways 83 and 57, this is where the Missouri Pacific tracks sit. La Pryor is estimated to be four miles west of the Nueces River in Zavala County. Ike T. Pryor was the man who started La Pryor, he had the biggest ranch there and owned all the land. There was an attempt to colonize the area at the proposed townsite known as Nuvalco, six miles north of the site of La Pryor. This attempt failed, so the property was sold to the Western Livestock and Land Company, which then was sold to Pryor around 1880. (The Handbook of Texas Online)

After Pryor had the land he went north to advertise his land to farm owners. When the people there heard about this wonderful land people started piling into La Pryor by the hundreds. The town was not even built up when too people started coming. The crops that grew best in La Pryor at this time were, cotton, milo, corn, small grains, and red-top cane for hay. People started making money on their crops, so they started building up the townsite. In early 1910, there were general stores, black smith shops, and a three level hotel. In 1912 the first school was built. La Pryor is an extremly small town, but a very busy one too. The people that I talked to all said that La Pryor was a booming town back when it first started, and now it is just a peaceful and quiet one. (Handbook of Texas Online)

Origins:

The founder of La Pryor,Ike T. Pryor, went from orphan to cattle king. Pryor was born on June 22, 1852 in Tampa, Florida, and was the youngest of three brothers. At the age of five he was orphaned. He tried living with relatives, but it never worked out. So, his cousin Sally Lightfoot took him in at the age of nine. Sally ran off and got married and moved to Nashville, leaving Pryor alone. He soon found himself searching for her and walked right in the middle of the Civil War. He was offered a job in the 3rd Ohio Cavalry regiment selling the newspaper. He stayed with this job for about three years, and was involved in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Murfreesboro. Pryor was having a very adventurous and exciting life right now, and the best part was that he had money. He finally found cousin Sally when he was twelve. Pryor lived with her and her husband for the next six years, helping out with bills when her husband was out of a job. At age eighteen, he met with one of his brothers, who told him stories about all the land and opportunity in Texas. Pryor made his mind up and was on the next steamboat from New Orleans to Galveston. Once in Texas, his first job was in Austin, as a farmhand. After a year of plowing he was now a cowpuncher with Bill Arnold of Llano, Texas, and before he knew it he was on his way to Coffeyville, Kansas with 25,000 head of cattle. This is where Pryor's passion for money and ranching started.

Next, he became a trail boss with Charles Lemberg of Mason County. A year later he was the ranch manger, and after returning from a cattle drive, the boss announced he was leaving the cattle business. At the age of twenty four Pryor found someone the help him out and he became the ranch owner. About 1880, he doubled the size of his ranch and in that same year he and his brother went into partnership. The Pryor brothers broke the record and set a new one, which was 45,000 head of longhorns over a trail. After a blizzard in Colorado the brothers lost thousands of cattle. Soon after this happened they found themselves in debt. Pryor and his brother sold land, cattle, and horses to pay off the debt, and before he knew it, he was back in business. He bought a large tract of land in South Texas, he named it 77 Ranch.

During the Spanish American War, Pryor loaded some cattle and shipped them to Cuba, the going rate for cattle then was fifteen dollars a head, but with Pryor being such a smart man, he sold them for eighty five dollars a head. This is how he paid for his 77 Ranch, in Zavala County. Pryor became the President of the Zavala Land and Water Development Company. He also owned about 100,000 acres. He and the others made different efforts to populate the area. La Pryor started growing when the Crystal City and Uvalde Railroad company was built. In 1809, this railroad company in was a depot and unloading station. Pryor had 30,000 acres set aside west of the Nueces River to have people start small farms. "Colonel Pryor also designated the land in section 34 be subdivided into lots, locks, avenues, streets and alleys, plazas, parks and school house sites to be known as the town "La Pryor" in Zavala County, Texas." ( Looking Back at La Pryor ) He told the people of the land and water development that all of this was to be used by the public forever. The people who worked for Pryor said that "He was a stern businessman, but was kind and generous with the employees". ( Looking Back at La Pryor, Texas )

Pryor sent some land agents up into North Texas and various other states, to let everyone know of the great land and opportunities in La Pryor. People were coming to La Pryor expecting houses, businesses etc. Unfortunately when they came there was a lack of facilities. The only facility was a brush arbor on the east side of town, this was used to feed them. The trains were used as sleeping quarters. Pryor kept the people here by showing them all the different types of crops La Pryor soil could grow. These people liked the warm and mild climate, for better and long growing seasons. By this time La Pryor was starting to expand. By the spring of 1910 people started buying land to start farming in order to produce crops. Others that came were there to provide the necessary services. Two general stores, a hotel and a blacksmith shop were among the town additions. In the early 1920's the Zavala County land and water company no long existed. Pryor started taking on the business deals personally. Before passing away in 1936, Pryor was able to see his town expand and begin to prosper, his ranch and the lots were then passed down to his children Ike Jr., Hal Mangum, and David Pryor. Pryor's children have since passed away, some property has been sold but some still remains in the Pryor family.(Looking Back At La Pryor pg.170-175)

Economy:

On December 11, 1909 a deed was dated and recorded in Volume K of Deeds Records of Zavala County, this was given to the public for its use and benefits known as the Town Plat. After the lots, blocks, avenues, streets and alleys, plazas, parks, and school house sites were platted, Zavala Land and Water Company built a hotel which was three stories tall. Also, there was a community building which was a 40 X 60 foot box. This was used for dances, town meetings and the school. Businesses started infiltrating La Pryor in 1912-1915, starting on the west side of town going east.

The first church in La Pryor was The Church of Christ. On Edith Street the Blanchard Blacksmith Shop was established, and next to that was the Cowan Hotel, later called W. W. Hotel. Next to the hotel was Child's Restaurant and adjacent to that was a rooming house where the railroad workers often stopped to eat and sleep.

The La Pryor post office was set up in the back room of the land office building. Mrs. Bradley was the first to handle La Pryor's mail. In 1910 Steve Grant and his wife Charlotte became post masters of the La Pryor post office. They operated the post office until 1932. The post office moved to the Schawlem and Grant building and remained there until a new building was constructed in 1929. Then in 1932, W. D. Cornett took over duties of post master for the following three years. In 1935, Toss and Bertha Peace became the post master and clerk for 20 years. In 1955, Verner and Tina Salmon took over the duties for the next 14 years. After the Salmons retired in 1969, Mrs. Manerva Andrews served the town of La Pryor as post master until her retirement in October 1976. Helen Dill and Valeska Smith are presently the post masters as of 1978.

The old rock building designed and built in 1909 by Ike Pryor is one of the oldest and least changed buildings in La Pryor. This is a two story building made with selected rocks, sand and gravel that was hauled from the Nueces River (Looking Back at La Pryor pg.28). Other materials came by train from Uvalde, Texas. The building had indoor plumbing, a separate men and women's bathroom which was considered the most facinating feature of this building. The upstairs was mainly used as living quarters, the ground floor served as a variety of stores throughout the years. In 1913, Will Dietrich had a grocery store and a fix-it shop, a farm implement store which was owned by C. C. Richey and a meat market owned by Emzy Moore. Lamb's Café and filling station was also in this building, and the same year King Drug Store, Mayhem Lumber Company and many other businesses were moved to Bonnie Street. When I visited La Pryor I asked if this business was still standing and to my astonishment it was. It now has a porch on the 2nd floor and is presently used as a casino.

When the Drug Store was first started by Mr. Couser, then Dr. King took over. In the book "Looking Back at La Pryor" there was not very much information written. So, when I visited, I found the old Drug Store still standing, now it is run by Diana White. Mrs. White made this into an ice cream shop. From personal experience, the shop has really good chocolate shakes. Mrs. White was very helpful, she answered questions and told me a little bit of history about the Drug Store. From what she knows Dr. King was the only doctor in town. He had a Drug Store up front and in the back had a little family practice. He saw patients, gave shots, and anything else the townspeople needed.

Stories:

The stories I heard about La Pryor were pretty interesting. I don't know exactly if they are true but they are good! Melinda Almendarez told me about this one: Richard was a ranch hand on the Peace Ranch, he worked for the Peace family for many years, until their workers started disappearing. Richard went to Mexico to gather workers, offering food, room, and a good pay check. He then brought them back to the ranch. He treated them fairly until the work was done. Before giving the men their pay checks, he told them he wanted to show them something. He took them to a cave and this is where he shot them and left them for dead. This went on for years, no one knows why, but the FBI came to the Peace Ranch and did a full investigation and found the bodies. No link was found, and this story was passed down through the years from generation to generation. No sign of Richard was found though, some say he fled to Canada and no one has seen him since.

Thomas Equivel has lived in La Pryor for about forty years. His grandfather told him the story of Mack Pryor. Mack Pryor came to La Pryor before it first started growing. Somewhere along the way to La Pryor, he came across some treasure, no one knows where or how he got this. When he came by the Nueces River, it was low at the time, he found a cave and hid the treasure there. Mack hid that treasure so well that no one even to this day can find it. Thomas' grandfather told him, Mack wanted to go and get the treasure, but when the flood came, it covered the cave and Mack was not able to find it. Thomas says even to this day he sees people going to the Nueces River searching for the lost treasure, and no one has been lucky.

Diana White, the owner of the ice cream shop, told me a story about her father. She said that her father thought he was a tough young fellow. He went to what they called "the badlands" and some villains captured him. When his mother found out about this, she was horrified. She paid Pancho Villa 2,000 dollars to go and rescue him. I thought this story was very interesting, because it was about a very well known figure saving someone from a small town. It just happened to be my town.

Events:

La Pryor has a yearly event that happens with the church, they raise money for the church repairs. The other one they have is the Fire Department's Bar-B-Que to raise money for their equipment. The school also has sporting events; Mrs. White informed me that La Pryor has one of the best track teams in Zavala County and people from the surrounding towns go there to have the track meets.

Theme:

La Pryor is mostly considered a country style town, since they still do mostly all the business with the crops.

1.) Melinda Almendarez grew up in La Pryor and graduated with only 28 people in her class. Almendarez was a big help in finding interesting historical facts. She is the one who told me about a man named Richard (didn't know the last name) who worked on the Peace Ranch. Richard went to Mexico and get illegal immigrants to come work on the Ranch. He told them the pay was great. After the work was done, he took them to a cave that was on the ranch, to "show them something." This is where he supposedly shot them and kept the money. After a number of years, the FBI found out and came down there to investigate, but it is believed that Richard fled to Canada.

2.) Diana White works at the only Ice Cream shop in La Pryor. This ice cream shop used to be the old drugstore. Mrs. White told me that back in the day they would have a doctor come and do check ups. She was somewhat helpful, she said a lot about the buildings, the ones that were still there and where the ones were and got torn down. The one really interesting thing she told me was that her dad, which lived until he was 106, was captured, because he was in the so-called badlands, by some bandits. His family then paid Pancho Villa two thousand dollars to go and rescue him. She did also mention that the town was a very booming town back in the day.

3.) Thomas Esuqivel has lived in the town for a long time. He and his wife Elaine were really nice and answered the questions I asked. Esquivel did tell me a pretty interesting story about Mack Pryor. Mack Pryor moved to La Pryor in the early days of the town somehow he came across some treasure. No one really knows where he got it from, but he had it and didn't want anyone the take it from him. So when the Nueces River was low, he found a cave and put the treasure there. But unfortunately he died before telling anyone where it was. To this day, no one has found it.

4.) Crystal City Library was not at all any help. I talked to this older lady about any kind of newspapers from La Pryor. She was unable to help me. I looked for books and all I found was "The Handbook of Texas Volume II" This book mainly talked about the founding of La Pryor and who founded it. It also talked about the vegetables begin canned and shipped raised, as with livestock. La Pryor has some natural gas nearby but no one made a production from it. In 1946 La Pryor had about 1200 people.

5.) "Looking Back On La Pryor" written in 1978 by the townspeople. This book had so much information and interesting history. It talked about the very first settler in Zavala County, Ed Westfall. It also had some information about the founder, Ike T. Pryor, his family and the company his was the president of. It shows so many old pictures of the town, the people, and the buildings. The last few pages has some fokelore. This book was really interesting.

6.) Mrs. Gonzalez is a helper at the ice cream shop. She has lived in La Pryor all her life. She really didn't have anything new to tell me, but she did say that her grandmother went on rides with Pancho Villa.

7.) Mary Allan is an older lady who owns L&M groceries. A friend told me she would know a lot about the town, but she mainly just told me to go read the book. She didn't want to answer any of my questions.

Links:
8.)The Handbook of Texas Online of La Pryor- This gives a brief article about La Pryor. I talks about where La Pryor is exactly located, how it came to be a town, where crops and businesses were there etc.

9.)The Handbook of Texas Online on the Nueces River- The tells where the Nueces River is and where it runs. Its also gives some background information about when are how it was discovered.

10.)Ike Pryor- This website mainly just tells the life story of Ike T. Pryor. It talks about his life and his family, what he did for money and how he became a ranch man.

11.)Battle of Lookout Mountain- This website is mainly for the history of the battle of Lookout Mountain. It gives the background about how this battle started and why.

12.)Battle of Missionary Ridge- Here it shows pictures of where this battle took place, again it gives the history of this battle and why and how it started.

13.)Battle of Murfreesboro- Just gives information about this battle and shows a few pictures.

14.)Galveston- Here at this website it shows the good things about Galveston. It tells some history about the town and much more.

15.) Llano, Texas- Here it shows the things you can do in Llano and places you can stay. It also tells history about the town also.

La Pryor prospered very quickly and by 1914 some of the first country's automobiles and telephones were in use. The townsite had different churches Christian, Baptist, Lutheran, and Methodist. It also had a cotton gin which is no longer standing, a bank, the one there now is The Zavala County Bank, and their very own weekly publication called the "Zavala County Sentinel" Mrs. White informed me that La Pryor is not even a town, it is just a town site. She also told me that the townspeople are in the process of trying to get La Pryor to be recognized as a town. The reason is because the state will not give them any money to help with the school or to fix the town. Above all, this town or town site is a pretty nice little town, it is clean and very tranquil.

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