John Scull Chattin was born on 7. Jul. 1807 at Beesley's Point, Cape May County, New Jersey. He was the son of
John Chattin and
Rachel Scull. John Scull Chattin married
Harriet Somers. John Scull Chattin died on 19. Sep. 1863 at Beesley's Point, Cape May County, New Jersey, at age 56. JOHN SCULL CHATTIN 1807 -1863 John Scull
Chat tin was born 7 July, 1807 at Beesley's Point, New Jersey. He married Harriet Somers 3 April, 1831 and they had four children; John Richard, born 26 March, 1843, and three daughters, Amanda, Ledora, and Somers. I have no information on his daughters. Harriet was born 18 September,
1810 and died 10 June, 1867 John Scull loved the sea, as did his grandfather, Captain James Chat tin, as hip inspector at Somers's Point. .He became a Captain of a merchant ship called the Desdemona. The Desdemona was his flagship, said to be one of seven in his fleet. ~ Discovered a stowaway on board ship but they were too far from port and so he was made a cabin boy and went to Texas where he founded the huge King Ranch......... his name was Richard King......King Ranch
c.1,000,000 acres (404,700 hectares), S Texas, SW of Corpus Christi with headquarters at Kingsville, Texas; one of the largest ranches in the world. It has several divisions, of which the best known is Santa Gertrudis, the “home” ranch. The Santa Gertrudis, the only true cattle breed developed in North America, was developed there. Thoroughbred racehorses are also raised. The ranch was founded in 1853 by Richard King, a steamboat captain. After King's death, the giant holdings were managed by his son-in-law, Robert Kleberg; later, Kleberg's son succeeded to the management. The property was divided in 1935, but the central ranches are still large enough to resemble a semifeudal domain. Profits from oil and natural gas rights and farming have been added to income gained from the great beef herds.
Corpus Christi History
By Murphy Givens
Aug. 19, 1998
King's fortune was made during the Civil War
Richard King, a runaway from an Irish slum in New York, owned a big chunk of South Texas by 1860. He also owned part of a lucrative steamship line on the Rio Grande.
King's ranching partner, "Legs" Lewis, was shot to death in 1855. In 1860, King's Quaker friend and steamboat partner, Mifflin Kenedy, joined him in the ranching business. While the steamboat line was called M. Kenedy & Co., the ranching operation was R. King & Co.
When the Civil War broke out, King and Kenedy had 3,000 horses and 20,000 cattle. Cattle were selling for $12 to $18 a head. In a short time, longhorns were being trailed to New Orleans to help feed the Confederacy. As the U.S. Navy tightened the blockade on Southern ports, cotton from Arkansas, Louisiana, and East Texas traveled down the Cotton Road to Mexico, with gold bullion and lead to made bullets coming back.
The Cotton Road passed through King Ranch. The ranch supplied the caravans with horses, mules and provisions. Then, at Brownsville, King's and Kenedy's steamboats ferried the cotton bales to cargo ships anchored off Bagdad at the mouth of the Rio Grande. In the middle of the war, King and Kenedy put their boats under Mexican registry, flying the Mexican flag.
In late 1863, a Union force captured Brownsville; a few days before Christmas in 1863, a rider arrived at King Ranch and warned King that a detachment of Yankee cavalry was headed that way to arrest him. King had his horse saddled, and told a Kine o, Francisco Alvarado, to look after his family. He rode into the night. At dawn, shots were fired and Alvarado ran out, yelling, "Don't fire on this house There is family here" He was shot dead on the porch.
When the raiders didn't find King, they plundered and vandalized the house and rounded up cattle to drive to Brownsville. A month later, Henrietta King had her fifth baby, a boy whom she named after the old family friend, Robert E. Lee King. (The Kings' other children were Nettie, Ella, Richard and Alice.)
Richard King stayed busy through the rest of the war, moving cotton bales to the waiting ships. He even served for spell as a private in James Richardson's cavalry unit. (It was a reversal of roles, since Richardson had been one of King's top hands on the ranch.)
When Lee surrendered, King went to Matamoros to see what peace would bring. Former Confederates who owned taxable property valued at more than $20,000 had to apply to the president for amnesty. In his request for a pardon, King valued his holdings at $300,000. King and Kenedy also had 300,000 acres in three ranches -- the Santa Gertrudis, the Laureles, the Agua Dulce. Their pardons were granted. Three years after the war, they divided the holdings and the Laureles went to Kenedy.
Reconstruction was a tough time for King. Between 1866 and 1869, he reported the loss of 34,000 cattle to border rustlers and hide peelers. It was a lawless time. King Ranch had lookouts atop the 75-foot watchtower day and night and the ranch's two brass cannon were primed to fire. One ambush laid for King killed his traveling companion.
A Texas Ranger who met King during this time said he didn't look like the legendary captain; he had brown eyes and a brown beard; he was five and half feet and weighed 130 pounds. But he said that King had that rare ability to look at you and tell what you were thinking. A Kineo said the captain once rode up at full speed and said, " `Boys, have you ever seen a man mount a horse better than me?' We said, `No sir, your mount is very beautiful.' He grinned and showed all his teeth and rode off."
Robert E. Lee King died in St. Louis of pneumonia when he was 19. King started drinking "Old Rosebud" heavily after that. He developed stomach pains which the whisky didn't help. He died on April 14, 1885, at the Menger House in San Antonio. He was not quite 60.
He willed his land and assets to "Etta." He had 614,000 acres at the time of his death, far short of his ambition to own all the land between Corpus Christi and Brownsville. He left a debt of $500,000. His fortune in gold gained during the war had been spent on fencing, horses, land, and more land. He never forgot one piece of advice from Robert E. Lee -- "Buy land, and never sell."