Oscar Waldo (O. W.) Williams was a lawyer, surveyor, historian, and county judge, After graduating Harvard with a law degree, tuberculosis forced Williams to seek an arid climate. He moved to Dallas where he decided the last thing the city of approximately 2500 needed was another practicing attorney; it had 250 already. He joined a surveying crew and went on several surveying expeditions to West Texas laying out several counties and the site of the City of Lubbock. In 1884, Williams moved to Fort Stockton and accepted a job as deputy surveyor of Pecos County. In 1886, he was appointed as a surveyor for, and land agent of, the University of Texas. He was elected Pecos County judge the same year. He lost the 1890 election due to his attitude about prohibition but he was reelected county judge in 1892. In 1901, he conducted a field study of minerals, plant and animal life in the Big Bend region. In addition to surveying much of West Texas and practicing law, Williams became a significant landowner. He leased most of his land for oil exploration. Two of his sons were later involved with drilling the first oil wells in Reagan County. This book draws on the hand-written record left by this extraordinary man. Notes have been added by the editors o expand upon, and/or provide historical context for, Williams’ entries.

Abilene: Four-O Publishing, 2020. Limited (25 copies) Deluxe 1^st edition. 309 pages. Hardcover book with leather backstrip over linen covered boards, all housed in publisher’s clamshell. No dustjacket, as issued. FINE condition. SIGNED by both editors (Pollard is Williams’ Granddaughter and is longer able to sign). Also signed by editors’ assistant Clay Pollard, great-grandson of O.W. Williams and by Randy Armstrong, head of Four-O Publishing. One of few copies signed by all.