About

Roscoe Hobbs, born in Northwest Arkansas (Bentonville) in 1881, began his career in the railroad business around 1908 with the Arkansas & Oklahoma Western Railroad (renamed Kansas City & Memphis Railway) running 61 miles from Siloam Springs to Rogers. His career blossomed over the next two years as he progressed from an entry level brakeman to become a locomotive fireman, depot agent and later traffic manager.

Realizing the need for lumber to provide railroad ties, Hobbs together with four partners formed Ozark Land and Lumber Company. The Company acquired 12,500 acres of the former Van Winkle timber land and the lumber mill in 1912, and began construction of a railroad bridge over the White River and eight miles of track from near Monte Ne to a point near War Eagle. Unfortunately, in 1914 the collapse of the Kansas City & Memphis Railway, to which the new bridge and track were leased, triggered a foreclosure of the property. In 1915 the bankruptcy court appointed Hobbs as the receiver and general manager of the railroad company until 1917. The company was liquidated and the track removed in 1918.

In 1917, Hobbs and five partners formed the Ozark Tie Company in Rogers with Hobbs as president. The company continued in the tie business until 1922 when it was dissolved and Hobbs formed the Hobbs-Hussy Tie Company in St. Louis the same year.

In 1928, fourteen years after foreclosure of the timber land mortgage, the Hobbs Tie and Timber Company formed in St. Louis in 1927 acquired the mortgage and note thus returning the 12,500 acres of the former Van Winkle property back into Hobbs’ ownership.

Hobbs Tie and Timber Company prospered in the timber business and merged with the Hobbs – Western Company in 1939. The company became the nation’s largest supplier of railroad ties, and the second growth of timber on the old Van Winkle lands supplied much of the wood for the company. Railroad ties had long been a source of income to area farmers, who were always clearing land anyway. But Hobbs turned ties into a major business.

Timber continued to be cut and processed at a saw mill on the property until the early 1960’s. Roscoe did not believe in the use of herbicides, and was very particular about the tactics used to manage and harvest the timber off the tract, thus selective harvesting became the primary method.

Hobbs died in 1965. The heirs of the Hobbs estate sold Peter Van Winkle’s house materials to Harvey and Bernice Jones. The hand-made bricks from the three chimneys were used to construct a small church, the first building at what has become known as Harber Village in Grove, Oklahoma.