Celebrating Mother's Day - Famous Texas Mothers

Famous Texas Mothers – Impacting Texas History and the Rest of the Nation

There are so many amazing Texas women, but for the month that we celebrate mothers, I wanted to highlight one famous Texas Mother who may not be known to you!  She stands out as someone who truly impacted Texas history.

Jane Long is known as ‘Mother of Texas’.  Without her contributions to Texas, this state may not be what it is today.

She gave birth to a baby girl on Bolivar Peninsula in December 1821.  She believed she was the first Anglo woman to ever deliver a baby in Texas! Census data contradicts her claim, but her nickname and legacy as the “Mother of Texas” stuck!

She followed her husband to Texas in 1819, who was already here fighting the Spanish for Texas freedom. He was captured by the Mexican forces and taken to Mexico City and shot and killed.

Jane went on to apply for title to land in Fort Bend County and a labor of land in Waller County in 1824. She sold a portion of her Ft Bend County land to Robert E. Handy who developed Richmond, Texas!

She is also famous for starting a couple of boarding houses, one in Brazoria and one in Richmond.  She hosted famous Texans like Sam Houston, Mirabeau Lamar and William B. Travis. Her boarding houses created central safe meeting places for Texas freedom fighters, and the Brazoria boarding house is said to be the location where Stephen F. Austin declared war!

She was also courted by a few of these same men, although she never remarried.  She was laid to rest in a Richmond, TX cemetery.

What a fierce, independent woman!

There are so many other mothers who impacted Texas and our country.  Did you know that a woman named Bette Nesmith Graham invented a product now known as Liquid Paper in 1956?!  She was from Dallas, Texas and developed it as a bank secretary to help other secretaries! And who doesn’t know Mary Kay Ash, founder of the business Mary Kay cosmetics in 1963! She was originally from Hot Wells, Texas. So many women have been impacted through her business!

So many stories of amazing women starting something amazing, and at any stage in life.  No matter what age you are, do you have a dream of doing something?  Starting a business or creating something no one has thought of?  It is NEVER too late!!  DREAM BIG, GIRL!!  You never know who you will impact just chasing your dreams!