JA Ranch - Troubles With Timothy Hobart

Troubles With Timothy Hobart

On Wadsworth’s popular-vote election to the Senate under the new Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Timothy Dwight Hobart (1855–1935), a Vermont native living in Pampa, the seat of Gray County in the eastern Panhandle, became the new manager. Hobart discouraged Cornelia’s young grandson, Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth "Montie" Ritchie (1910–1999), from remaining at the ranch, perhaps because Hobart’s son wanted to become the manager. Montie, who held dual British and American citizenship, was hence given all the toughest horses to ride, and he was once abandoned by the hands after a bronco bucked him.

Cornelia Adair designated Hobart and Dallas lawyer Henry C. Coke as executors of her estate. She died in England in December 1921. Earlier in the year, Cornelia had been at the JA and posed for a picture with the ranch hands on the celebration of her 84th and last birthday. In her will, Cornelia left most JA properties to son Jack Ritchie, and his heirs, including Jack’s sons. Her estate also put a financial burden on the JA for payment of her other debts. Not until 1948 was the Adair estate, with its accompanying debts and inheritances, finally settled.

Cornelia at one point had ordered Jack to vacate the ranch, motivated by Goodnight’s allegations that Jack had been caught drinking and shooting craps with the cowboys. She intended for Jack to pursue a business career beyond “punching cows”, but instead Jack became a sportsman and worldwide adventurer. Jack had told Montie how his own brief time at the JA had been the happiest of his entire life, and he encouraged his older son to consider management of the JA.

Hobart had operated the White Deer Land and Cattle Company from 1903-1924 in Pampa and was more experienced in the sale of land than the management of cattle. He had recommended selling the ranch, as it sunk into financial problems stemming from the Great Depression and a decade of drought, but Montie Ritchie persisted with the first goal of paying off the debt. When problems persisted with Hobart, Montie Ritchie returned to England to secure power of attorney from the then eight heirs to the ranch. When he returned in 1935, Hobart died, and Montie took over the ranch and remained there for the rest of his life. (The White Deer Land and Cattle Company maintains a museum in Pampa.)