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LA
FERIA, TEXASCameron
County, Texas Gulf Coast
Highway 83 and FM 506
24 Miles NW of Brownsville
Population: 6,115 (2000)
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History
in a Pecan Shell
The area dates to 1777 when the Spanish crown deeded
the land to Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí. The Ballí family kept their headquarters
for their farms and ranches here through the mid-1800s. It remained a ranching
center well into the twentieth century.
A local land developer named G.
J. Schoenberg, developed the town of La Feria in 1909. That same year a post office
was granted under the name - which means "the fair" in Spanish. When the St. Louis,
Brownsville and Mexico Railway was building through the county in 1911, they established
a town of their own named Bixby and erected a depot. Bixby was a threat to La
Feria and so, in 1912, the city fathers of La Feria physically moved the Bixby
depot to La Feria.
By 1915 La Feria's population was around 200, and was
estimated to be between 200-800 through the 1920s. La Feria incorporated in 1933.
The population had increased to 2,600 by 1948 and by the 1960s it was still only
3,000. The Rosita Longoria house (c.1909) now serves as the La Feria Museum and
the town celebrates an annual fair every year. | |
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