The Long Shadow: The Lutcher-Stark Lumber Dynasty by Ellen Walker Rienstra and Jo Ann Stiles (review)

Extremely detailed and sourced with an impressive number of primary documents, this biography focuses on the family behind the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company. The authors, Ellen Walker Rienstra, a historian under contract with the Nelda C. and H. J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, and Jo Ann Stiles, associate professor emerita at Lamar University, have divided this work into three parts that discuss and analyze the lives of Henry Lutcher, the company's founder, William Stark, Lutcher's son-in-law who diversified the company's holdings and embraced conservation, and Lutcher Stark, Henry Lutcher's grandson, a philanthropist and regent at the University of Texas. The thesis is very straightforward: "In the course of their lives, separately and together, these three generations significantly altered the course of the economic and cultural history of Orange, Southeast Texas, and the University of Texas" (p. xvi).

Henry Lutcher, the son of German immigrants, created the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company with Gregory Townsend Bedell Moore in 1868. By the late 1870s both men, recognizing the increasing need for uncut lands, looked to the South. Lutcher left Moore to operate their Williamsport, Pennsylvania, holdings and moved to Orange, Texas, in 1877. Though a northerner, Lutcher was a Democrat and easily assimilated into his new home. In addition to creating jobs, he and his family did much for the community of Orange. William Stark married Henry Lutcher's daughter Miriam Melissa Lutcher in 1888. Stark masterfully expanded Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company with diversified endeavors like the Yellow Pine Paper Mill Company, Orange Rice Mill Company, and the Vinton Petroleum Company. A diversified farmer and passionate conservationist, Stark sought to protect younger trees and advocated replanting.

While the lives of Henry Lutcher and William Stark are thoroughly explored, the authors devote the bulk of the book to Lutcher Stark. The grandson of Henry Lutcher and son of William Stark, Lutcher Stark served almost twenty-four years on the board of regents at the University of Texas. His long tenure, including roughly twelve years as chairman, meant he was involved in a number of pivotal decisions relating to constructing Memorial Stadium and sanctioning oil revenue for a general university fund. Like his progenitors, Lutcher Stark was extremely charitable and donated substantially to the University of Texas and his hometown of Orange. He purchased a plane for the local hospital, built a country club, and opened an ornate garden to the public.

This book provides an informative, sometimes humorous, and always human account of a family who dedicated much of their lives to aiding the community of Orange, Texas—first, by creating jobs and, later, by funding a church, school, and hospital, to name only a sampling. Rienstra and Stiles are to be commended for their efforts to place the Lutcher-Stark dynasty in the context of the Civil War, Reconstruction, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. The authors grant that some stories may be more myth than truth. For instance, they address the lore that the original German spelling of the name Lutscher was changed to Lutcher so as to better fit on a sign. Excerpts from letters are often amusing, such as one referencing Carrie Lutcher teasing her brother-in-law, William Stark, for balding prematurely. In another letter, Susannah Mitchell gave John Thomas Stark, William Stark's widowed father, a rather wry refusal to his abrupt marriage proposal: "as you have forgotten me this long I am willing to remain forgotten" (p. 74). Ironically, while much of the book revolves around Lutcher Stark, his maternal grandmother, Frances Ann Lutcher, paternal grandfather, John Thomas Stark, and third wife, Nelda Childers Stark, are described more vividly than the main characters. Due to the thematic chapters there is some repetitiveness, but given the number of family members discussed, such reminders are handy. The main flaws are...