Las Moras Ranch (Tex.)

The Las Moras Ranch (1879-1913) was located mainly in Menard County, Tex., but also included property in Comal, San Saba, Tom Green and Concho counties. The genesis of the Las Moras Ranch can be traced to about 1875, when a French immigrant, Ernest Carlin, purchased 30,000 acres of land at the head of the Las Moras Creek in Menard County, Tex., where he established a ranch, sometimes called King Carlin's Ranch . Unfortunately, Carlin 's lavish lifestyle led to his loss of the property 21 Dec. 1879, when the property was forclosed upon by the Galveston, Tex. banking firm of Kaufmann and Runge .

Kaufmann and Runge was owned by Henry Runge (1816-1873), head of a prominent German family, several members of which had emmigrated to Texas in the 1840s. After Henry Runge 's death, his oldest son, Henry J. Runge (1859-1922) took over running most of his father's businesses. Louis Hermann Runge (1861-1936), Henry J. Runge 's youngest brother, and his family took over the Carlin property soon after the bank foreclosure, making Carlin 's ill-fated mansion house the headquarters for the newly christened Las Moras Ranch . Other properties, also foreclosed upon by Kaufman and Runge, which had been the result of the financial failure of the German Emigration Company in 1847, were incorporated into the original Carlin property to enlarge the Las Moras Ranch .

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