Hill, Lon C. (Lon Carrington), 1862-1935

Leonidas Carrington Hill, Sr. (1862–1935) was a lawyer, politician, farmer, and water and land developer born in Gilleland Creek in Travis County, Texas, on July 31, 1862. He attended Add-Ran Male and Female College before marrying Eustacia Dabney in 1882. After managing a general store in Manor, Texas, he studied law at the University of Texas and completed his degree at the University at Virginia. He moved to Beeville, Texas, in 1891. He practiced law and quickly rose to become a leading Democratic leader.

Hill developed an interest in the lower Rio Grande Valley area while traveling. He started a rice plantation in the Brownsville area while still practicing law in Beeville. After acquiring 300,000 acres of land in the Hidalgo-Cameron County area, he founded the city of Harlingen on land that had been school lands and part of the King Ranch. Hill raised money for the construction of a railroad while operating a hardware and impellent store in Brownsville.

Hill chartered both the Lon C. Hill Town and Improvement Company and the Capisallo Town and Improvement Company, which laid out the town of Lonsboro (later sold and renamed Mercedes). In 1904, Hill also helped incorporate McAllen. He chartered the Harlingen Land and Water Company in 1907, which operated 36 miles of canals and had 75,000 acres. Hill participated in passing the original state law governing irrigation districts and worked with the Texas rangers as a border scout to fight Mexican bandits, some of who burned the Hill Sugar Mill in 1917.

Red Beach used Hill as the model for the main character of the 1915 novel "Heart of the Sunset". Hill befriended William Jennings Bryan and bought some land in South Texas from him. The Lon C. Hill Park was dedicated in 1950 in Harlingen, Texas, and designated a state historical landmark twelve years later. By the early 1990s, Hill’s home, the first residence in Harlingen, had become a museum.

Source:

McKenna, Verna J. Handbook of Texas Online. Hill, Leonidas Carrington, Sr., Accessed May 25, 2010. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhi25.

From the guide to the Leonidas Carrington Hill Family Papers 72-2., 1853-1970, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)