Dr. Deborah Liles
STEPHENVILLE — Tarleton State University’s Dr. Deborah Liles will present “The Stock Master: The Texas Cattle Industry Before and During the Civil War,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, at the W.K. Gordon Museum and Research Center for the Industrial History of Texas in Thurber.
The free presentation, part of the Tuesday Talks series, focuses on the history of Texas ranching, followed by a Q&A. It will spotlight a group of rural elite cattlemen on the Texas frontier between 1845 and 1865.
To reserve a seat or attend via Zoom, call 254-968-1886 or email gordoncenter@tarleton.edu.
Dr. Liles became Tarleton’s W.K. Gordon Endowed Chair in Texas History in 2018. She teaches history with an emphasis on Texas, women, slavery, local communities and ranching; works with the W.K. Gordon Museum and Research Center; and serves on the board of several historical associations statewide.
She co-authored the award-winning books Women in Civil War Texas: Diversity and Dissidence in the Trans-Mississippi (2016), the first book to examine the role Texas women played in the Civil War, and Texas Women and Ranching: On the Range, at the Rodeo, and in their Communities (2019), the first to examine contributions women have made to Texas ranching. She’s also the co-editor of African Americans in Central Texas History: From Slavery to Civil Rights (2019), a critical study of Black lives in the center of the state.
Dr. Liles’ latest book, Thurber, co-written with several of her students, was released this year. Works in progress include Southern Roots, Western Foundations: The Peculiar Institution and the Livestock Industry in Texas and a biography of Oliver Loving, a noted rancher who lived on the Texas frontier.
The W.K. Gordon Museum and Research Center, a facility of Tarleton State University, is at 65258 Interstate 20, Exit 367, and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. A combined museum and special collections library, it’s at the site of the Thurber ghost town. Visitors enjoy interactive exhibits that explore the birth, operations and death of the town owned by the Texas and Pacific Coal Co.
For more information call 254-968-1886, email gordoncenter@tarleton.edu, or visit https://web.tarleton.edu/gordoncenter/#upcomingevents.
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