Question: Who is recognized as the “Mother of Texas”?
Answer: Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long. The title originated from her false claim to be the first English-speaking woman to give birth in Texas. She was born in Maryland in 1798 and moved to Mississippi as a teenager, marrying James Long at the age of 16.
She followed him to Texas a few years later and gave birth to their third daughter, Mary James, in Bolivar on December 21, 1821. Her husband died the following year, and Long claimed to have been courted by Ben Milam, Mirabeau B. Lamar, and Sam Houston.
