Soash, W. P. (William Pulver), 1877-1961

A real estate developer and land colonizer in the early twentieth century, Soash was born in 1877. He founded the W. P. Soash Land Company in 1905. Operating from Waterloo, Iowa, and later in Florida and West Texas, he sold land developments in the Midwest, the Plains States, and Florida, but principally in Texas. Soash founded, with members of the C. C. Slaughter family, the Lone Star Land Company in 1924, and was extensively engaged in the sale and purchase of oil leases and royalties, generally for others, in the late 1930s. He opened West Texas and Panhandle ranch lands for colonization, including lands in Hockley, Cochran, Lamb, Hale, Borden, Martin, and Howard counties. The towns of Ware and Olton, Texas, were two of his successful projects. He was married to Minnie Hasse, and served in World War I as a second lieutenant in the Texas Cavalry. Soash was also a member of the Methodist church and a Mason. He died in 1961.

The Handbook of Texas has published a more in-depth online biography of William Pulver Soash at http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/search.html

...