Two Little Mothers of Texas

Believe me, you'd rather see a picture of a building than either of these women.

     While doing research on Jane Long, believed to be the “Mother of Texas,” I discovered that Sam Houston, in a speech in 1856 or so, named Margaret Theresa Wright the “Mother of Texas.”  I wondered how could there be two “Mothers of Texas.” 

     Upon further investigation, I learned that Jane Long had designated herself the “Mother of Texas.”  She based this claim on the birth of her daughter at Galveston on December 21, 1821, which Jane decided was the first Anglo child born on Texas soil.  I imagine she repeated the story so often that she got to believing it.  According to the census records between 1807 and 1826, Jane was way down the list of English-speaking mothers in Texas.

     We’ll get back to Jane Long.  For now, understand that almost everything we know about her comes from stories she told Mirabeau Lamar for his book about the history of Texas.  You should not doubt the veracity of this information, anymore than you doubt what I tell you about being a “hell of a man” when I was young.

     Margaret Theresa Wright’s claim to the “Mother of Texas” title stems from her activities during the Texas Revolution, immediately after the Goliad Massacre.  Maggie was an abandoned wife at the time, living alone on a league of land adjacent to the Guadalupe River, about five miles from Victoria.  A few of the Goliad survivors, wounded and hungry, hid in the woods near the river on her property.   A detachment of General Urrea’s Mexican soldiers camped near her house as they searched for the rebels.

     Maggie discovered the survivors and worked out a way to feed them and nurse the wounded back to health, virtually under the nose of the Mexican army.  In a hollow tree, the Texians left notes advising her of their needs, and she carried supplies for them in her buckets as she went back and forth to the river for water.  Punishment for what she was doing was death, and she risked her life daily to help the men.  She even stole a gun from the Mexicans and gave it to the rebels.

     Imagine the scene in the Mexican camp.

     Sergeant Lopez, noticing Private Arreando has no weapon.  “Private, you miserable s.o.b., just exactly where is your piece?”

     “Sir, which piece do you mean, sir?  The private thinks he has all his pieces right here, sir.”

     “You complete idiot!  Privates are not allowed to think.  I’m speaking of your rifle.  Where is your rifle?  You cannot have misplaced it.  That is against army regulations.  Where is it?”

     “Sir, the private don’t know, sir.  The private went in the woods to take a dump and leaned his gun against a mesquite tree.  When the private came back, the gun, she was gone, sir.”

     “All right, Arreando!  That’s it!  You know the drill.  Get out in the middle of the parade ground; hold your rifle out with your left arm, and your male part in your right hand.  Say, ‘This is my rifle, this is my gun.  This is for fighting, this is for fun.’  Keep doing that till Thursday.”

     “Sir, the private don’t have no rifle to hold out, sir.”

      After being abandoned by her husband in 1835, Margaret Wright lived in isolation on a land grant she had obtained as a widow.  She had been married twice previously—James Williams Hays, her first husband died in 1812, and may have been killed in the Battle of New Orleans.  Her second union, a common law affair, was with Felix Trudeau, the commander of the garrison at Natchitoches, Louisiana.  Trudeau died in 1822 and soon after, Margaret moved to Texas with her five children. 

     She applied as a widow for a league of land in the De Leon Colony near Victoria, and married John David Wright in 1828, before the final title to the land was granted.  She and Wright had two daughters, but the marriage was unhappy and he stayed gone much of the time.  He abandoned her in 1835 and moved to the Rio Grande valley and lived for seven years in Mexico to escape prosecution for bad debts.

     In 1842, Maggie’s errant husband returned to take over her ranch.  Wright was, in today’s jargon, a real piece of work.  He had secretly obtained title to her land grant before he left for Mexico.  Wright discovered, in his absence Maggie had purchased an additional half league of land and deeded six hundred forty acres of it to her son, Peter Hays. Wright was furious and filed suit to reclaim the property, even though he had never owned it.  He lost the suit and he lost the first appeal.

     Before the second appeal was heard, in 1847, Maggie’s son, Peter Hays, was killed in an ambush.  Margaret was convinced that her husband did it.  She filed for divorce on March 6, 1848, charging Wright with habitual cruelty, fraudulent land transfer, and the murder of her son.  Divorces were hard to come by back then, but after a bitter court battle and three appeals to the Texas Supreme Court, Margaret was granted a divorce and awarded half of the joint property, over 5,500 acres and almost 600 head of cattle.

     Margaret Theresa Robertson Hays Trudeau Wright may deserve the title, “Mother of Texas.”  Sam Houston bestowed the name on her in a campaign speech in Victoria as he ran for Governor.  She was probably the first female in Texas to register a cattle brand, the C T, which she registered with the Republic of Texas in 1838.  She risked her life to help Texas soldiers during the revolution.  In 1848, she was granted what may have been the first divorce in the new state of Texas.  She was a courageous Texas pioneer and patriot, a long suffering wife, and the mother of seven children.  She died at age 89 in Victoria on October 21, 1878. 

You may pretend Nicole is either Maggie or Jane.  Ain't she cool?

      We will examine Jane Long’s claim in the next post.