The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984 Page: 100

100 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
provides a good synthesis of the struggle of the Northwest Texas pio-
neers to civilize both themselves and the region. Holden, wife of pre-
eminent West Texas historian W. Curry Holden, weaves together the
story of the evolution of the Lambshead Ranch, a sketch of the overall
settlement of the Brazos Clear Fork country, and biographical infor-
mation on the central characters of Interwoven, the Reynolds and Mat-
thews families. Holden's review of the frontier's Indian problem is the
book's best feature. She reminds us of the harshness of the period, of
cruel men like John R. Baylor and John Selman, of inhumanity be-
tween Indian and settler, and of the tragic martyrdom of Robert S.
Neighbors.
Unfortunately, Holden presumes that readers are familiar with In-
terwoven, first published in 1936, and therefore fails to weave together
a complete story. With Interwoven in hand, however, one can learn in-
timately of Texas frontier life through the eyes of a gentle and intelli-
gent woman, Sallie Reynolds Matthews, and the delightful story of how
two pairs of sisters, first cousins to one another, married her four
brothers, and she in turn married the brother of two sisters. The
Reynolds-Matthews families made a tremendous impact upon the de-
velopment and culture of Shackleford County and near-West Texas,
and their descendants continue their finest traditions. A "Lambshead
After Interwoven" would certainly be in order.
Texas Tech University DAVID J. MURRAH
The Quarter Running Horse: America's Oldest Breed. By Robert M.
Denhardt. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. Pp. 290.
Photographs, bibliography, index. $22.95.)
If the American quarter horse has a spokesman, it is surely Robert
Moorman Denhardt. Since he helped found the American Quarter
Horse Association in 1940, he has written the foremost modern works
on the subject of these horses. His previous books have dealt with the
history of the breed, with emphasis on its evolution as a western stock
horse. This latest work, The Quarter Running Horse, rounds out his
previous writings by detailing the history of the quarter horse as a race
horse in America.
Having traced the development of the American quarter horse in
his earlier writings, the author's treatment of that subject here is some-
what repetitious. Once The Quarter Running Horse gets past the
oft-told story of the evolution of the breed, however, it develops into
an erudite collection of fact, legends, and lore regarding short racing.