The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975 Page: 182

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

or disappeared, and river towns like Kemper's Bluff, to the south, and
Clinton, to the north, vanished. Surrounding rural communities like Mis-
sion Valley, Salem, Raisin, and Colettoville became more dependent on the
new commercial and employment opportunities in Victoria. The current
revival in several of these sites only verifies the previous attraction of the
county's central city, for the capital which supports the revival derives
largely from occupational trends in Victoria.3
A village that had begun its life as an empresario headquarters and cattle
center prospered as a result of its distance from Gulf storms and direct con-
nections with larger towns to the east and north. Professional services, later
military installations, and financial strength, the latter quality being re-
flected in state-wide recognition of Victoria's extraordinarily large number
of wealthy families, have guaranteed the city's position as a regional center,
the foundations for which had been established by the second decade of
the twentieth century.34
33H. Bailey Carroll and Walter Prescott Webb (eds.), The Handbook of Texas (2
vols.; Austin, 1952), I, 363, 374, 883, II, 215, 395, 433, 533, 537; Grimes (ed.), 300
Years, 496-505, 513-514.
34"Victoria, Texas: The Air Forces Come to a Rich Texas Cattle Town Whose Wor-
ries Turned into Warm Welcome," Life (June 29, 1942), 56-61; Frederic J. Ericson
(comp.), "History of the Army Air Forces Pilot School, Foster Field, Texas," Archives
Branch, Research Studies Institute, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, I944.

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