By NORMAN ROZEFF, Special to the Star
Peter Ebenezer Blalack was an individual from Hattiesburg, Mississippi involved in the early (start of the 1900s) development of the LRGV, yet he remains a man of mystery. The biggest mystery is the source of his wealth. A starting point would have been the June 1900 US Census of Hattiesburg and his occupation. Unfortunately the census taker spelled P. E’s surname as Blulack (newspaper accounts frequently misspelled the surname as Blalock), and it took some delving to find the correct information.
What was finally revealed was that he and his wife, the former Viola Vail, who had been married in 1887, had six children ranging in age from 1 to 12. There were also four Black servants and a sister-in-law living in the mortgage-free owned home. Most importantly is noted under occupation “Timberman”. Both the size of the household, the number of servants, and the size of a house needed to accommodate them indicates that Blalack was already independently wealthy.
In the 1870 Census Blalack was listed by the given name Patrick. He would be the second oldest of his siblings, having been born around 1862. He apparently disdained this name and later went by the name Peter or simply by the initials P. E. For whatever reason the census taker this year erroneously listed the family as being mulatto. He did the same with others in the census page.
P. E. Blalack first visited the LRGV about 1898. Between 1902 and 1909 Blalack and George L. Hawkins, at first in mercantile and later a farmer, was also from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, had bought 32,000 acres according to the Texas Historical Commission marker at Ebenezer. By 1908 they had built shipping pens at this site and named the railroad depot Ebenezer. The railroad line from Harlingen to Mission and just beyond was built primarily in 1904. Their ranching plans ended in 1909 when the tract was sold to the Alamo Land and Sugar Company. Ebenezer, now just west of Alamo, was the initial railroad stop for what would become the Alamo township.
By 1910 the 45 year old was living in San Antonio at 2001 San Pedro Avenue, now with nine children ranging in age from 2 to 22, two sisters-in law, and one servant. He listed his occupation as farming, for in 1904 he had purchased from Lon. C. Hill more than 2,000 acres in an area north of Brownsville called Jackass Praire. The area was so named because of the numerous wild burros that frequented the coastal rangeland from near Brownsville all the way to Point Isabel. It was about six miles north of the city along what is now Paredes Line Road.
Newspaper accounts described Blalack. He was the epitome of a “southern gentleman.” He was well over six feet in height, well-proportioned, and lent an air of distinction by his graying sideburns. Obviously he possessed a glib tongue to match his fine appearance, for he was to entice many into various enterprises.
At first Blalack, as well as others in the vicinity of Brownsville, tried to raise rice. They were so optimistic over its promise that a large and impressive rice mill was constructed in 1906 where the Cameron County Court- house now stands. The rice-raising venture failed on Hill’s Rincon farm (5-6 miles north of Brownsville) and elsewhere as the tremendous amounts of water placed on the land raised the shallow water tables and brought subsurface salts to the surface. In 1905 Blalack dug ditches to drain the salt water and lower the high water tables, but was later to have said “did not do too much good except to start the drainage business here in Cameron County.”
Mr. Blalack must have been making some money other than in the Valley or was independently wealthy, for in September 1905 the society page noted that he and his wife had left for a lengthy excursion to Colorado and the Pacific Northwest. In 1907 he and his wife Viola were listed in the San Antonio city directory at 820 Wyoming.
His real estate transactions this year included his making a second mortgage loan of $10,000 to J. P. Withers on 10,000 acres of Llano Grande land. In 1907 also, he apparently had mining interests in Mexico and visited them.
Blalack was to plant sugarcane on his land. It did impressively well on the virgin soil new to cropping.
In December 1906 Blalack sent a mammoth stalk of ribbon cane to Louisiana in oder to impress and possibly draw cane growers of that state to come to the Valley. During this period of the lower Valley’s development and the coming of the railroad; farmers were experimenting with numerous crops. The newspaper in Brownsville was equally a chamber of commerce type promoter of the area as it was a source of news.
The comings and goings of visitors were duly noted as a way to generate excitement over the prospects of the area. Blalack and others realized that a sugarcane industry would not only serve as a “source of profit for themselves, but it could also serve as a drawing card for the Rio Grande Valley.” As president of the Brownsville Business Men’s Club Blalack both gleaned and generated publicity.
Blalack was able to entice Ohio investors, primarily with the Columbus Brass Works, on the idea of constructing and owning a sugar mill together with a sugarcane plantation. A corporation was formed in April 1907 with capital stock issued at $1,500,000. Lon C. Hill was a principal partner, having invested $165,000.(Hill must have thought highly of Blalack for in 1918 he gave him one share in the newly formed Harlingen Land and Water Company). It was also this month that Blalack deeded to the corporation 1,884.26 acres. He took over onsite operations both as vice president and general manager. Soon a contract was let to Payne and Joubert of New Orleans to build the plant.
The state of the art mill was projected to cost $300,000 and be designed by A. T. Delbert, a civil engineer from New Orleans. It was to be located 3 ½ miles north of Brownsville. Railroad tracks to the mill would facilitate deliveries.
From its main line the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway constructed a short spur to the sugar mill. A community, named Blalack, Texas then arose at the track’s intersection. Blalack, Texas was four miles northwest of Brownsville and five miles south of Olmito. In 1907 a school at the site had twenty-four students under the instruction of one teacher. In 1948 the community comprised several scattered dwellings. By 1983 it no longer existed, and the site was in the Brownsville city limits.The mill began its operation in the winter of 1908.
The mill’s construction was supervised by Sam Robertson. Its exterior bricks were all made on the site. This might have been a signal that the area’s heavy clay was unsuitable for cultivation, but no one picked up this signal. Cane eventually was shipped to it from as far away as Harlingen, points west, and San Benito as its mill was not yet completed. Later when a railroad spur was constucted around Brownsville cane was delivered from farms near that city as well as southmost.
The mill operated for four straight winters, was down for four more then resumed for three years until the winter of 1918-19. Over capacity with too many LRGV sugar mills hurt the industry as well as periodic freezes.
By May 1917, according to a telephone directory,part of the Blalack family had moved to California. Viola, one son and four daughters, one married, are noted in the January 1920 Los Angeles U. S. Census. For a time the family, or P. E., at minimum, may have lived in Yuma, Arizona, for The Yuma Daily Sun and The Yuma Arizona Sentinel in that city noted on their front pages Blalack’s death and that “at one time had large real estate holdings here and visited here frequently.” His two sons, Charles Edward and Victor Ebenezer Blalack were residents of Yuma and the former was involved in a seed and feed business. By 1930 the Blalacks are living alone at 925 Geary Srtreet in a rented apartment.
P. E. Blalack died at age 70 (this newspaper reported age does not jibe with earlier census reports that put his birth date as around 1862) following a stroke on May 12, 1936. At he time he was living at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Wooten in San Francisco. His wife Viola Victoria Vail had died three years earlier.
Surviving children, in addition to those already noted, included Robert of Merced, Calif., and daughters Mrs. William E. White of Beverly Hills, Calif., Mrs. Dan Hawkins of San Francisco, and Mrs. Joseph R. Burres of Seattle, Wash. The Find A Grave website notes: Body lost or destroyed. This itself offers up a mystery.
Blalack apparantly had investments in California as he did elsewhere. When his daughter Viola died at an age 24 in 1919, she left her father the Cornelia Hotel Apartments and an adjacent lot in San Francisco. The January 1920 Census of Los Angeles shows the mother and six of the childen, some married, residing there. Their father may still have been active in Arizona.
The abandoned Ohio And Texas sugar mill structures stood for a number of years until the Labor Day 1933 Hurricane demolished most of it. The Bingley brothers of Los Fresnos secured a number of steel beams and used them in part to constuct the attractive building still standing at the southwest corner of the inter- section of Tyler and F Streets.
The massive concrete block that once supported the first set of mill rolls was left untouched for many years until it was blasted to make room for a water kiosk along Las Paredes Line Road. The area surrounding the mill became the large Cameron Park colonia, one of the poorest in the Valley.
