The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 55, July 1951 - April, 1952 Page: 521

Book Reviews

serving the history of the famous army post which has meant so
much to thousands of soldiers and the city of San Antonio through
the years.
HARRY M. HENDERSON
The Life and Times of Timothy Dwight Hobart, 1855-1935. By
L. F. Sheffy. Canyon, Texas (The, Panhandle Plains His-
torical Society), 1950. Pp. 322. $5.00.
A majority of readers should agree, after digesting this study
of the life of Timothy Dwight Hobart, that it is a unique biog-
raphy. Certainly Hobart, as a "builder of foundational institu-
tions" in the colonization of West Texas, emerges clearly as one
in these pages. But what makes this biography so enjoyable as
well as informative is that the man is blended; he emerges at
times from the setting of the book, early days in West Texas, and
at other moments with Hobart the vehicle, Dr. Sheffy deals in
great detail with background, sideground, and foreground. Cer-
tainly the author's intimate familiarity with such collateral ma-
terial, evidenced in the personal warmth of his style, has lent a
uniqueness to the work.
Hobart worked for the New York and Texas Land Company,
Ltd., then for the White Deer Lands and the JA Ranch. He was
a versatile administrator. Ranching, stock farming, oil, irrigation,
forestry, and land reclamation fell within the realm of his duties
and interests in a lifetime in West Texas, but at the core of West
Texas history lay land. There are almost ten chapters in this
work dealing with the background of Texas' land policies, and
these are a veritable book in themselves. A chapter, in addition,
covering the emergence and growth of county government and
another on the oil and gas industries token the conquest of dis-
tance in West Texas, as well as a new era in the life of a land
company agent. Paralleling the growth of the towns of the early
days, Fort Elliott, Old Clarendon, Mobeetie, Marietta, and Old
Tascosa, is the story of Hobart's life as intermediary between
land corporation and settler. Hobart became spokesman for both,
and with practicality his standard, maintained that company and
settler alike would ultimately benefit from the growing commu-
nities. New York stockholders, and while he was with the JA

521