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Lambshead Legacy The Ranch Diary of Watt R. Matthews Edited by Janet M. Neugebauer Introduction by Frances Mayhugh Holden |
The diary of Watt R. Matthews, scion of the family that established the famous Lambshead Ranch west of Fort Worth, provides behind-the-legend details about modern cattle ranching and one of its most successful figures. Janet Neugebauer’s carefully researched annotations place Watt and his ranching efforts in the larger context of the industry—from the branding pens to a board meeting of a national breed association.
Selected entries from Matthews’s diary chronicle his life from 1951 to 1980. Because ranching was his life, these entries contain such records as the number and kind of cattle on the ranch, the various pastures in which they grazed, the types of care they needed, the prices at which they sold. Also part of Watt’s recorded life were weather events and social events, with lists of all who attended. For Watt, the diary became a convenient reference document that could refresh his memory or even help settle disputes over facts.
Frances Mayhugh Holden’s introduction focuses on Watt himself—his early years, education at Princeton, family responsibilities, and commitment to preserving the ranch’s heritage and natural environment.
In keeping with the tradition of the previously published books Interwoven and Lambshead before Interwoven, this new volume illustrates one man’s commitment to a special legacy that is so much a part of ranching and, thus, of American history.
JANET NEUGEBAUER, editor of Plains Farmer: The Diary of William G. Deloach, 1914--1964, is the author of several publications about farm life in West Texas. She is associate archivist for the Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
FRANCES MAYHUGH HOLDEN of Lubbock is the author of Lambshead before Interwoven. She was appointed by former Governor John Connally to the Texas Commission on the Arts and is a founder of the Ranching Heritage Association and Center and the Women’s Council of the West Texas Museum Association at Texas Tech University.
Number Sixty-six: The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students Texas A&M University
Lambshead Legacy
ISBN 0-89096-738-5
$34.95s
LC 96-41415. 6 1/8x9 1/4. 304 pp.
24 b&w photos. Map. Apps. Bib. Index.
Texas History. Ranching.
Publication Date: January 1997.
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