Oliver Hobbs did not homestead his own land, apparently because he was not inclined toward farming. Instead, he earned his living by making chairs. Examples of his handiwork can still be found in Wilson County (see photos on his multimedia page). Ollie served in the Mexican War for six months in 1846 and married Rhoda Ann Stringfield in Limestone county in 1847. Some time between 1867 and 1870, Ollie and his wife Ann (sometimes called Rosanna or Kesy Ann) split up. In a letter to the author dated June 24, 1985, Ollie's great granddaughter Ann Hobbs Allen said:

"Ollie was very harum-scarum and though he made a decent living, he was always looking for a non-work scheme to make money. My father was 19 when he died and of course knew him pretty well, but did not think highly of him. I don't know the reason for his split with Rhoda Ann, but less than a month after her father had died in Houston, she apparently told Ollie to go and he was living with Lawson in 1870. In 1870 she moved to Lometa (where her daughter Joanna and husband Jim Mauser lived) in Erath County, where she died in 1873. Ollie's second wife (whom he married in 1882)[1990 Census of Wilson County Texas] was Mrs. Laura Elby Arnold from Erath County, so he may have followed Rhoda Ann."

In 1880, Ollie was back in Nockenut, living with daughter Syrinda, then eighteen years old. The same year that Ollie remarried (1882), his son Joseph filed a claim for a 160-acre homestead in the name of his deceased mother Rosanna Hobbs. In an affidavit that is part of the homestead file,206 Joseph stated that his mother had settled on the land and cultivated it for three years beginning on June 15, 1870 (about the time Ollie disappeared). The affidavit alleged that Joseph Hobbs and the other heirs were entitled to the land "...because the said Rosanna Hobbs, deceased, had not and her heirs now have not a homestead other than the above." The Rosanna Hobbs homestead was adjacent to the T. J. Smith and Alfred Heathcock homesteads and was a tract originally surveyed for John Asbury and later for James Shelton. The case dragged on until the early 1890s when the Hobbs heirs sold their rights to the claim to Joseph Robinson, who applied for a patent. Henry S. Hastings, one of the original Nockenut settlers, wrote an indignant letter to Governor J. S. Hogg in 1894, pointing out that the land in question had been abandoned for some time and that he had assisted a widow named N. C. Robbins in filing the tract. Records show that the land was finally patented in 1896 to S. Gallagher.

CENSUS RECORDS FOR OLLIE HOBBS

He is listed twice in the 1850 census, once with his first wife and once in the home of his sister. Possibly his real home was in Limestone Co and he and his wife and son were visiting his sister when the census was actually taken.-

1850 Census of Pct 1, Limestone Co TX (25 Oct 1850)

Name Age
Amary O Hobbs 22 IN
Kezy Ann Hobbs 23 IL
Wm B Hobbs 2 TX

1850 Census of Leon, Leon Co TX (25 Oct 1850)

Name Age
James Ridgeway 33
Carilla Ridgeway 26
Eliza Ridgeway 7
Lawson Hobbs 35
Olive Hobbs 22 IN
Rosanna Hobbs 21 IL
William Hobbs 2 TX

1860 Census of Nockenut, Guadalupe Co TX

Name Age
A O Hobbs 29 IN
Ann Hobbs 22 IL
Willm Hobbs 11 TX
Pleasant Hobbs 8 TX
Rhoda Hobbs 5 TX
Jos Hobbs 4 TX
Joanna Hobbs 1 TX

1870 Census of Pleasanton, Atascosa Co TX (listed with his brother Talman Hugh Hobbs)

Name Age
T H Hobbs 36
Nancy Hobbs 27
May Hobbs 10
Laurence Hobbs 8
Almeda Hobbs 2
Dan Hobbs 7/12
A O Hobbs 42

1880 Census - not yet located

1900 Census of Just Pct 4, Wilson Co TX

Name Age
Ollie E Hobbs 72 IN
Laura F Hobbs 53 AR wife m 18 years

HOBBS-WILEY CEMETERY207

Located west of Nockenut this cemetery is on the first county road paralleling FM 1681 about a mile from HY 123. There are only seven graves, three of which have full inscriptions...the others marked by small concrete slabs with names only. Additional information is supplies in brackets.

WILEY, Maudie & Opal [infant daughters of Louis and Sarah Jane (May) Wiley]
BURRIS, baby [actually interred between the two above whose names are on a single slab]
WILEY, B[eulah] L. [Smith], 3 Jun 1871 - 9 Apr ____
WILEY, Louis W., 18 Sep 1869 - 26 Jul 1945
WILEY, Jenny [Sarah Jane May], 8 Jun 1874 -
HOBBS, Ollie "Maker of Chairs" [11 Apr 1828 - after 1900]
HOBBS, Laura [Elby-Arnold]

1870 Census of Wilson Co TX

Name Age
Crina Hobbs 8
Blanche Hobbs 6
Nancy Hobbs 3
Anna Hobbs 43
William Hobbs 23
Pleasant Hobbs 17
Luna Hobbs 16
Joseph Hobbs 13
Anna Hobbs 11

1880 Census of Goliad Co TX

Name Age
Louisa Hawkins 54 head widowed
Allice Hawkins 15 dau
Laura A. Arnold 35 dau widowed AR AR AR
Daniel Arnold 14 grandson
Washington Arnold 5 grandson
Henry Arnold 4 grandson
Maddi Arnold 1 granddau