In 1908, Charles P. Taft, director of the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company, also known as Taft Ranch, invited his half-brother, newly elected President William Howard Taft, to visit the 165,000-acre ranch and the Taft community, and the President agreed to come in October 1909. Charles Taft and ranch manager Joseph F. Green then prepared for the visit by having a nine-hole golf course built at Green's La Quinta estate near Gregory, where the President would stay, and by building the 22-room Green Hotel in Gregory to house the press corps and other visitors. President Taft's special railroad car arrived in Gregory on October 20, 1909, and an automobile procession took the presidential party to La Quinta, where Texas Governor Thomas M. Campbell greeted them. The following day, the President visited Taft, spoke to citizens gathered at the local school, and ate ice cream at the company creamery. A barbeque and rodeo were then held at Rincon Ranch in his honor, and he later visited Corpus Christi, where he spoke to a crowd of 15,000 people.