Background
William Pettus Hobby was born on March 26, 1878 in Moscow, Texas, United States. He was the son of Edwin M. Hobby and Eudora Adeline Pettus. The family moved to Livingston, Texas, in 1879, when Edwin Hobby won election as district judge.
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( The first Congress of the Republic of Texas met October...)
The first Congress of the Republic of Texas met October 3, 1836, in Columbia in a large dog-trot house "meager in every respect." The fourteen senators who convened there must have been amazed at the circumstances that brought them together and fearful of the impermanence of their offices. Only a year earlier the representative body of their territory had been a provincial government of the Republic of Mexico, and not too long before that, residents of the region had sworn fealty to a Spanish king. On this autumn day, however, the inhabitants of the lands north of the Rio Grande were calling themselves Texans, creators and citizens of a country recognized only by themselves as the Republic of Texas. So begins The Texas Senate, which charts events, both grand and small, that have marked the legislative history of the republic and the state. This volume, the first of five, is written by members of the Senate Engrossing and Enrolling Department and edited by Enrolling Clerk Patsy McDonald Spaw. Leading off the volume, which covers the period up to secession, is a foreword by Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby. Sources for the history include the Senate journals, the letters and private papers of senators, newspapers of the era, committee reports, and other primary sources, as well as general and specialized histories of the topics. More than fifty illustrations and eighteen appendices listing members of the legislative bodies (ten compiled by Thomas Phillips, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court) add significant details. The professionally researched text tells the story of the young republic and state with forthrightness, drama, and humor. It presents information on who the members of the Senate were, vignettes of the more colorful members, issues of the day and their resolution, and interesting Senate proceedings and controversies. From the details emerges a realistic and intriguing picture of our forebears that includes rowdy drunkards, buffoons, criminals, and ne'er-do-wells, but also men and women of great courage and determination–educated, intelligent, self-sacrificing people who served Texas at great cost to themselves.
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William Pettus Hobby was born on March 26, 1878 in Moscow, Texas, United States. He was the son of Edwin M. Hobby and Eudora Adeline Pettus. The family moved to Livingston, Texas, in 1879, when Edwin Hobby won election as district judge.
Hobby attended school in Livingston. In 1893 the family moved to Houston. After two years of high school Hobby received his parents' permission to leave school and accept a job as circulation clerk with the Houston Post.
Hobby's obvious interest in and aptitude for newspaper work earned him the financial column assignment in 1901. He organized a young Democratic club and in 1904 became secretary of the state Democratic party's executive committee. He was promoted to the city editorship of the Post, and in 1905 became managing editor.
In 1907 Hobby became publisher and half-owner of the floundering Beaumont Enterprise. Local Beaumont businessmen subscribed to the remainder of the stock, hoping to keep the town's only newspaper in operation. Hobby immediately launched a drive to make Beaumont a deepwater port. He filled the pages of the Enterprise with editorials and articles on the subject, worked closely with Congressman Samuel Bronson Cooper, and made frequent visits to Washington to help secure federal permission and funding for the project. In 1914, while visiting Dallas, Hobby was asked to run for lieutenant governor of Texas.
Hobby had never sought public office but agreed to run. He was elected in November and reelected in 1916. In 1916 James E. Ferguson was elected governor of Texas; but in August 1917 the Texas House of Representatives impeached him on twenty-one counts. In September the state senate convicted Ferguson on approximately half of these counts. He resigned one day before the decision was announced.
Hobby had assumed Ferguson's duties on August 24, 1917, the day after Ferguson's impeachment. Upon Ferguson's resignation, Hobby set out to restore confidence in the governor's office. After the United States entered World War I, Texas became the major center of training for military recruits. Although personally opposed to Prohibition, Hobby got the legislature to stop the sale of alcohol within ten miles of military posts, which made 90 percent of Texas "dry. " Hobby felt that valuable grains should not be used for alcohol during the war.
During the Ferguson administration the legislature had created a highway department; Hobby appointed its first effective administrators and helped get Texas drivers "out of the mud. "
In 1918 Hobby was elected governor, defeating Ferguson by the largest majority ever achieved up to that time. In 1921 Hobby returned to Beaumont and the publication of the Enterprise. He bought a competitor, the Beaumont Journal, publishing both in a morning-evening tandem considered innovative. In administrative matters the papers were the same; in editorial policy they frequently differed. In 1924 Hobby returned to the Houston Post as president, and in 1939 he acquired ownership as well as control, including its radio and eventually its television affiliates.
Hobby died in Houston.
( The first Congress of the Republic of Texas met October...)
(A Classic in its field!)
Hobby was active in Democratic politics.
In 1915 Hobby was elected president of the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Association.
Hobby had a quiet nature, and his actions were soft-spoken but firm.
On May 15, 1915, Hobby married Willie Cooper, the daughter of Congressman Cooper.
After Willie Hobby's death in 1929, Hobby married Oveta Culp of Houston in February 1931. (During World War II she commanded the Women's Army Corps, and in 1953 she became the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. ) They had two children.
His son William P. Hobby Jr. also served as lieutenant governor of Texas from 1973 to 1991. His daughter, Jessica, was married to Henry E. Catto Jr. , the former Ambassador of the United States to the Court of St James's. His grandson, Paul Hobby, narrowly lost the election for comptroller of Texas in the 1998 general election to the Republican Carole Keeton Strayhorn.