ROSITA, TEXAS (San Patricio County). Rosita was a short distance from Nueces Bay in central San Patricio County. Eddie and Frank White began running cattle in the area sometime before 1856. Darius C. Rachal, who drove a herd of cattle from East Texas in 1857 for the White brothers to graze, liked the area and settled on land that he purchased from the Whites. The yellow fever epidemic of 1867 killed fourteen people, including most of the White family. Boards were ripped off of the house, which White had just completed, to make coffins. The white bluffs on the coast are called White Point, and the name is variously attributed to their color and to the White brothers. The community was on the stagecoach route that hugged the coast.
Rachal became one of the largest cattle producers in the area; he was also a substantial cotton farmer and had large landholdings in Nueces County. In 1879 he built a store and a gin, and as the community grew he petitioned for a post office; it was granted on May 19, 1892, with Rachal as the postmaster. The names White Point and Rachal were rejected by the postal department, which accepted Rosita, the Spanish word for "little rose." The post office was discontinued in 1919, and mail was sent to Taft. A huge natural gas blowout occurred in White Point on April 28, 1915. A school was authorized by the county board in 1916 and existed until 1920, when most of the town's residents moved to Odem. Land in the White Point area was still owned by the Rachals in 1988, but nothing remained of the community except a well-kept cemetery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Keith Guthrie, History of San Patricio County (Austin: Nortex, 1986).
