42 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • March/April 2018 TheCoastalBend.com Once one of the most powerful South Texas families, four generations of tragedy and misbehavior have brought the Morgan—Tarlton—Farenthold era to a dubious end. eorge Farenthold was not born into any of the deep, South Texas, dynastic clans that owned and controlled the region’s plentiful natural resources, ran its industries and dominated its politics, by the first half of the 20th Century. Some of them date back to Spanish conquistadores who discovered what is today the southern United States over four hundred years ago, and who still own land that was originally granted to their an- cestors by the King of Spain. Others can trace their roots to the original Texians who came here from the United States and Europe in the 1830’s when this land was part of Mexico. They fought for independence and won, forming the Republic of Tex- as in 1836, that a decade later became the 28th state. George was not born into any of that, but he was smart enough to marry into it—twice. Borne of Belgian aristocracy, George Farenthold left Europe in 1936 to work in the oil busi- ness in Corpus Christi, became a U.S. citizen in 1940, and was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942 to fight the Nazis, ending up a decorated captain by the end of the war. George was the grandson of a successful Belgian inventor and indus- trialist and lived an apropos life. He was educated at a Swiss academy like the kind Kim Jong-Un went to, was chauffeured most places he traveled, and enjoyed the service of a personal manservant. By the time German tanks were rolling through the streets of Brussels in May, 1940, thousands had already fled to the countryside, or out of Belgium entirely, depending on their means. For George Farenthold, his timely emigration to America led him to a new home in South Texas, where his namesakes would achieve fame, and infamy, over the ensuing eighty years of high peaks, and very deep valleys. George’s first marriage was to Annie Blake Morgan, the daughter of Randolph “Rand” Morgan, the wealthy landown- er and oilman whose name is familiar to modern day Corpus G