Cornelia's Empire: The Ja Ranch of Texas and the Global West
One of the storied Wadsworths of western New York, Cornelia Adair (1838-1921) was very much a woman of her time and privileged social circle. And yet, wielding her wealth and power in her own way, she also became a singular force in international business and finance, a transatlantic trendsetter who managed properties in England and Ireland--and, as the owner of the legendary JA Ranch, made an improbable and lasting mark on Texas history. As the first book to tell her story, Cornelia's Empire draws a complex portrait of an extraordinary woman at a historic moment--and, through her unlikely, adventurous life, offers a surprising perspective on the global nature of empire and business at the turn of the twentieth century.
After the death of her father and first husband during the Civil War, Cornelia took her sons and moved abroad, where her travels and association with important leaders in the US and Britain tied her into an international financial web. Authors Alex Hunt and William E. Green describe her second marriage, to Irish financier John George Adair, and her participation in developing the vast JA Ranch, which, following John's death, she owned and managed through the vicissitudes of frontier challenges, changing markets, and world war. They follow Cornelia as she traverses continents, becomes involved with an array of influential figures, and takes up philanthropic efforts that span the Boer War, educational projects, and beyond.
But it was at JA Ranch, which she considered her true home, that Cornelia made her indelible mark. Once spanning over a million acres and home to over one hundred thousand head of cattle, the JA Ranch also included much of the terrain of Palo Duro Canyon, the second-largest canyon in the United States, within its boundaries. There she deployed the business strategy and tactics that ensured the ranch's long success and established her place in the development of the Texas Panhandle.
A fresh look at the making of modern-day Texas, Cornelia's Empire reveals how this exceptional woman represented a new kind of modern global woman who moved between frontiers and empires in search of freedom and fulfilment.
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