The Ranchero

The Ranchero was a newspaper published in Corpus Christi and elsewhere in south Texas during and after the Civil War. The publication’s editors were ardent supporters of the Confederacy and they later used the newspaper to express their opposition to federal military rule in Texas during the period of Reconstruction.

The publisher of the Ranchero was Henry Alonzo Maltby (1830-1906), who arrived in Corpus Christi in 1852 as a circus promoter. Maltby settled in the city and became a highly respected member of the community, serving as district surveyor, deputy county clerk, deputy sheriff and mayor. When the Nueces Valley ceased publication in 1858, Maltby seized the opportunity to begin his own newspaper the following year; his brother, William (1837-1880), joined Henry in Corpus Christi to aid in the venture.

The four-page weekly, originally published in a building at the corner of Water and Lawrence Streets, included a register of area cattle brands, as well as editorials, poetry and recipes. A yearly subscription cost $3.00. By 1861 the Maltby brothers were committed secessionists, but the resulting Civil War caused periodic disruptions in the newspaper’s publication.

William was captured by Union soldiers while defending Mustang Island, and Henry fled with his press and type first to Santa Margarita, in northern Nueces County, and later to Matamoros, Mexico and then to Brownsville, where he continued to publish the Ranchero. In federally occupied Brownsville, the Ranchero was suppressed for a time by order of Col. Ranald Mackenzie because of its controversial editorials.

Maltby sold the Ranchero in 1870, the same year that Federal occupation of Texas ended and the state was readmitted into the Union. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011