Members of a prominent Laredo family, the three Benavides brothers were the descendants of Tomas Sanchez, who founded the city in 1755. Santos (1823-1891) and Refugio Benavides (b. 1824) and their half-brother Cristobal (1839-1904) were best-known . . . — — Map (db m203037) HM
Born in the Cataluna region of Spain, the Most Rev. Peter Verdaguer de Prat studied in the United States. He was ordained (1862) in San Francisco and ministered at Catholic Indian missions in California. While serving at Our Lady of the Angels . . . — — Map (db m203096) HM
Laredo experienced substantial growth in the late 1800s and soon the city needed a new cemetery. The process of creating Laredo's fourth Camposanto, however, was not an easy one. Efforts to build the cemetery date to the 1880s, but political . . . — — Map (db m203078) HM
A seventh Texas flag marks this adobe as the 1839-1840 Capitol, Republic of the Rio Grande. Federalists opposed to regime of Santa Anna in Mexico City were headed by Jesus Cardenas as president. Recruited aid in Texas, won victories in Mexico, after . . . — — Map (db m203018) HM
The earliest burial grounds in Laredo were known as Camposantos (Saints' Fields) by Spanish settlers. Laredo's first Camposanto was probably the one at San Agustín Church. In 1892 the Laredo city council decreed that the cemeteries . . . — — Map (db m203100) HM
In the early 1880s several railroad lines were built into Laredo from both the United States and Mexico, resulting in major economic boom for the city. Laredo's population tripled in size with the arrival of U.S. and Mexican immigrants, and city . . . — — Map (db m202955) HM
In the late 19th and early 20th century, shifting racial hierarchies, large-scale property transfer, and agricultural industrialization led to an extended period of conflict between Texans of Mexican descent and those of Anglo origins. Economic . . . — — Map (db m202960) HM
Established March 3, 1849, by troops of the 1st U.S. Infantry from Ringgold Barracks, under command of Lt. E.L. Viele. The star-shaped earthen fortress built on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande (1/2 mile NW), was first called Camp Crawford, in . . . — — Map (db m202962) HM
The last remaining of three brick barracks constructed in 1880 by the U.S. Army to quarter troops engaged in scouting and escort duty along the Rio Grande. The structure originally had four large rooms, divided by a central stairway. The exterior . . . — — Map (db m202966) HM
The Women's Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and missionaries Annie Williams and Rebecca Toland, established the Laredo Seminary in 1880 as a boarding school for young women. The school opened in 1882 at a site near the . . . — — Map (db m202972) HM
New York native Samuel Matthias Jarvis (1822-1893) received an engineering degree from Columbia University and joined General Zachary Taylor's army when the United States declared war against Mexico.
After the war Jarvis worked in Vallecillo, . . . — — Map (db m118787) HM
Born in Laredo, Texas, on September 7, 1885, Jovita Idar was a journalist, educator and activist on behalf of the Mexican origin population in south Texas. Born to Nicasio and Jovita (Vivero) Idar, Idar and members of her family participated in . . . — — Map (db m202957) HM
Annual elections for city officials, held here since 1767, were followed by rioting in 1886. Citizens were divided among two rival parties. The Guaraches, named for the Mexican Indian sandals, were led by Dario Gonzales. Raymond Martin, a French . . . — — Map (db m203026) HM
The first Laredo Fire Company was organized in 1883. It was known as the Gate City Volunteer Fire Department and initially was comprised of only two men, O.P. Reid and Mauricio "Frenchy" Didieu. Reid and Didieu worked with two independent hose carts . . . — — Map (db m202932) HM
Telephone service came to Laredo in 1884, just eight years after Alexander Graham Bell obtained the first telephone patent. Housed here in the home of Lázaro and María del Refugio de la Garza (later the home of the Bruni family), the exchange housed . . . — — Map (db m202980) HM
In memory of the heroes of Laredo
who gave their lives during the World War
1917 — 1918
Honor Roll
Maurice Akabass • George Bigden • Adam Bold • Moises Carrejo • Jack Correu • Alfred J. Cousineau • Leonardo Diaz • Louis F. Folsom • . . . — — Map (db m195556) WM
In 1897, Laredo's local lodge of the Great Council of Texas of the Improved Order of Red Men decided to organize a celebration of George Washington's birthday. On February 21, 1898, the Red Men held a two-day festival featuring a mock battle, . . . — — Map (db m202954) HM
John Z. Leyendecker, a German immigrant who settled in the Texas Hill Country in 1845, came to Laredo between 1848 and 1850. A prominent merchant, Confederate Army officer and civic leader, he built this house in 1866. His first wife was Maria . . . — — Map (db m202978) HM
Founded by Tomas Sanchez May 15 1755 by Order of Jose De Escandon Colonizer of Nuevo Santander
(Reverse Side)
Chartered by the King of Spain and Organized as Villa De San Agustin De Laredo in 1767 Incorporated in the State . . . — — Map (db m203019) HM
Born in Laredo on March 31, 1899, David Bennes Cantú Barkley was the son of Josef Barkley, a career Army man stationed at Fort McIntosh, and Antonia Cantú. After the birth of David's sister Amelia, the family moved to San Antonio in 1904. At the age . . . — — Map (db m202964) HM
In the 1930s, Laredo's growing scholastic population dictated the need for a new high school, as students outgrew the campus built on Zaragoza Street twenty years before. Superintendent William Patrick Galligan oversaw construction of a new high . . . — — Map (db m202930) HM
A native of Laredo, Jose del Refugio Benavides was a descendant of Tomas Sanchez, who founded the city in 1755. As a member of one of Laredo's most celebrated families, he was instrumental in the city's development during the 19th century. He was . . . — — Map (db m203097) HM
This congregation, the second Catholic Church organized in Laredo, began in 1897 as an English-speaking parish to serve non-Spanish speaking families who arrived in Laredo during the 1880s. The church structure, designed by German craftsman Heinrich . . . — — Map (db m202961) HM
San Bernardo Avenue, which began as a commercial road in Laredo, became known as the San Antonio Highway by 1938, replacing the earlier route along Santa Maria Avenue. Due to the anticipated increase in tourism, San Bernardo Avenue property started . . . — — Map (db m202924) HM
Santos Benavides, son of Jose Jesus and Marguerita Benavides and great-great grandson of Laredo founder Tomas Sánchez, was born in Laredo on November 1, 1823. He married Augustina Villarreal in 1842.
Benavides, appointed Procurador . . . — — Map (db m203093) HM
The arrival of the railroad in Laredo in 1881, along with the influx of exiles into the city after the Mexican Revolution, contributed to an increase in the city's population and the need for another Catholic school. In 1922, the Oblate fathers were . . . — — Map (db m195564) HM
Villa de San Agustin de Laredo, founded here by area rancher Tomas Sanchez in 1755, was an agrarian-based community for its first 125 years. The convergence of three railroad lines here in the 1880s significantly expanded business activity in Laredo . . . — — Map (db m203070) HM
Engaged in much of Laredo's early history, the Ramón family occupied residential property at this site by 1869. Patriarch of the family was Ildefonso Ramón, who was in the Laredo area by 1800 and served as Alcalde for several terms. His son, José . . . — — Map (db m203046) HM
In January 1840 Señor Antonio Canales and other Federalists met near Guerrero to found the Republic of the Rio Grande. Canales and friends were loyal to the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which had been set aside by Centralists in Mexico City. The . . . — — Map (db m203001) HM
Leading merchants in Corpus Christi began planning the Corpus Christi and Rio Grande Railroad in the 1850s to boost the south Gulf Coast as a center for commerce. Lack of funding and an economic slump prevented progress until 1875 when Uriah Lott . . . — — Map (db m195565) HM
This handsome Classical Revival structure was constructed in 1907 by the United States Treasury Department. Under the supervision of architect James Knox Taylor, the federal building symbolized the modernization of Laredo associated with the rapid . . . — — Map (db m195557) HM
Formed from Nueces County
Created January 28, 1848
Organized March 16, 1848
Named in honor of
James Webb, 1792-1856
Attorney General and Secretary
of State of The Republic of Texas
1838-1841
Laredo, the County Seat
Founded in . . . — — Map (db m117587) HM
1000 Houston Street
Built in 1909
Listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
— — Map (db m118760) HM
