Jane Herbert Wilkinson
Long (1798-1880) was often called
the “Mother of Texas” by earlier generations, then
“Mother of Anglo Texas” by those who suddenly
remembered Native American and Spanish women.
Yet—on the evidence of several census records—
she is not the first Anglo woman to give birth in Texas.
Her life, nevertheless,
includes many notable stories:
keeping up with a wandering, revolutionary husband
until his death; dining with the infamous Jean Laffite;
enduring loneliness and starvation, Indian assaults and
deaths of children; running boarding houses; becoming
a landowner and plantation operator; experimenting with
sheep raising in early Texas; and (mostly in her words)
being romantically approached by Ben Milam, Sam Houston,
and Mirabeau B. Lamar. Not at the same time.
She refused them all.
Last modified
May 1999
© copyright 1999
The Institute of Texan Cultures