Hoover, William Peery (1854–1922)

William Peery Hoover, early rancher and settler of Crockett County, one of five children of Henry Fox and Mary Alice (Peery) Hoover, was born in Hamilton County, Texas, on April 25, 1854. His parents had moved to the county in 1850. When Hoover was a young man, he and his brother Henry established a ranching operation on Cow House Creek in Hamilton County. On January 7, 1878, Hoover married Laura Carolyn McNutt, daughter of Jim McNutt of Tennessee; they had fourteen children. A few years after the marriage, the couple moved to unsettled land in West Texas. They gathered their cattle and drove them over trackless terrain to Beaver Lake in Val Verde County, where they found water for the livestock. They settled east of the Pecos River in Crockett County, and Hoover built the first house in that county in 1881. It was built in a large oak grove from cedar pickets, mud, and grass. Hoover leased land along the Pecos River from the railroad for five cents an acre. Through purchasing land from the railroad and homesteading, he acquired a 157-section ranch. Hoover was one of the founders of Ozona. He was a Mason. He died on June 4, 1922.