Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long
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Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long (1798–1880) is considered to be the “Mother of Texas.”
Jane Herbert Wilkinson was born 23 July 1798 in in Charles County, Maryland. Around 1811, her family moved to the Mississippi Territory from Maryland. There she married James Long, a doctor and a native of Virginia. In 1819, James Long used his own money to raise an army to secure Texas from Spain for the United States. Jane Long later followed him to Texas. On 21 December 1821, at Bolivar Peninsula near present-day Galveston, she gave birth to her first child, Mary James Long. It is often claimed that this was the first child born to an English-speaking woman in Texas, and while it is likely there had been earlier births, Long came to be known as the "Mother of Texas.”
In 1822 Long's husband died after being captured by Mexican forces. Stephen F. Austin gave her grants of land in Fort Bend and Waller counties, but instead of farming, she opened a boarding house in San Felipe, Texas. She sold part of her land in Fort Bend County, on which the town of Richmond was built. Long later moved to Richmond, where she opened a boarding house and started a plantation nearby. She died on 30 December 1880 in Fort Bend County, and a marker was erected in her honor in 1936.
In World War II the United States liberty ship SS Jane Long was named in her honor.
[edit] External links
- Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Jane Long historic materials from the Fort Bend Museum, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
