Title: TSHA | Rio Grande City, TX
Headings: Rio Grande City, TX
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Rio Grande City, TX
Borderlands Curanderos: The Worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo (Used)

Content: Despite the town's isolation and lack of transportation facilities for most of its history, external influences have affected it significantly. During the nineteenth century Rio Grande City had an active passenger and cargo ship trade with New Orleans and flourished as a cattle center. Frequent encroachments from Mexico, most notably those of Juan Cortina in 1859, forced the community to rely often on the Texas Rangers and the United States Army for protection. In 1884 the town had a population of 900, a doctor, two lawyers, a saloon, three carpenters, three grocers, nine general stores, a wagon maker, a druggist, two blacksmiths, two churches, a district school, a tailor, a furniture maker, a cornmill, and a hotel. By 1896 Rio Grande City had a population of 1,800, and by 1914 it had a bank and 2,100 residents. Race relations were so tense that they helped give rise to the Rio Grande City Riot of 1888, in which the Mexican population was pitted against the White-controlled sheriff's office. In another racial incident, members of the Black Ninth United States Cavalry fired toward the town in 1899, amid reports of a civilian attack on the garrison. A series of investigations produced inconclusive findings but culminated in the withdrawal of the troops ( see FORT RINGGOLD ). In 1925 Rio Grande City reported a population of 3,000, but by 1931 it had 2,283 residents and ninety businesses. In August 1926 residents voted for incorporation, but the city went into debt during the Great Depression, and residents voted to unincorporate in May 1933 to avoid repayment of the sizable debt accrued for improvements to the town.