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J. Evetts Haley
James Evetts Haley, Sr. (July 5, 1901 - October 9, 1995), usually known as J. Evetts Haley, was a Texas-born political activist and historian who wrote multiple works on the Americ...view moreJames Evetts Haley, Sr. (July 5, 1901 - October 9, 1995), usually known as J. Evetts Haley, was a Texas-born political activist and historian who wrote multiple works on the American West, including an enduring biography of cattleman Charles Goodnight.
Born in Belton, Texas in 1901, the Haley family moved to Midland, Texas in 1906, where Haley worked as a rancher and as a young man competed in popular rodeos. He graduated from Midland High School and then West Texas A&M University (then known as West Texas Normal College) in Canyon, south of Amarillo. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, he was named field secretary of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society in Canyon, which operates the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest Western history institution of its kind in Texas.
He obtained his Master of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin, writing his thesis on early Texas cattle trails, and taught there from 1929-1936.
In 1937, Haley became manager of the Zeebar Cattle Company in Arizona. He also purchased a small ranch of his own in Hutchinson County near Borger in the northern Panhandle. He owned another ranch near Sequoyah, Oklahoma, and managed the Atarque and Clochintoh ranches in New Mexico. On the death of his father, he inherited the Haley Ranch in Loving and Winkler counties. In 1943, he published George W. Littlefield, Texan, a biography of cattleman George W. Littlefield. This was followed with Charles Schreiner (1944), about the Hill Country rancher and landowner, Jeff Milton, A Good Man with a Gun (1948), and Fort Concho and the Texas Frontier (1952), a reference to an early fortification in San Angelo.
Haley endowed his Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library (est. 1958) and the J. Evetts Haley History Center (est. 1976), which are dedicated to the preservation of America’s western heritage.
He died in Midland, Texas in 1995, aged 94.view less