Clayton Wheat Williams West Texas oilman, rancher, civic leader, veteran of the Great War, and avocational historian was a risk taker, who both reflected and molded the history of his region. His life spanned a dynamic period in Texas history when automobiles replaced horse-drawn wagons, electricity replaced steam power in the oilfields, and barren and virtually worthless ranch land became valuable for the oil and gas under its surface.

The setting for Williams s story, like that of his father before him, is Fort Stockton in the rugged Trans-Pecos region of Texas. As a youngster...