Governor James Edward Ferguson_Governor Miriam A. Ferguson
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Governor James Edward Ferguson (August 31, 1871 - September 21, 1944) Governor Miriam A. Ferguson (June 13, 1875 - June 25, 1961) James Ferguson, son of a Methodist preacher, and Miriam Wallace, daughter of a wealthy farmer, were Bell County natives. They married in 1899 and later settled with their two daughters in Temple. James, running as "Farmer Jim", won the governorship in 1914. His first term saw improvement of rural schools and the prison system, and relief for tenant farmers. In 1917 he began a second term, but within months he was impeached on charges that included mishandling of state funds; convicted by a special session of the 35th Legislature; and removed from office. In 1924 the Texas Supreme Court upheld a law barring him from state office. So Miriam ran for governor in his place. Called "Ma" by the press, Miriam campaigned under the slogan "Two Governors for the Price of One". She beat the Ku Klux Klan candidate and in her first term (1925-1927) supported an anti-mask bill that broke Klan power. Critics attacked her liberal pardoning policy. She defeated Gov. Ross S. Sterling to win her second term (1933-35), In the midst of the Depression. After losing the 1940 Democratic primary, the Fergusons retired from long and colorful political careers. (1977)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James "Farmer Jim" Ferguson won the Texas governorship in 1914 on rural-reform promises but was impeached and removed from office in 1917 amid charges of misusing state funds, and later barred from holding state office. So in 1924 his wife Miriam ran in his place, and "Ma" Ferguson became the first woman elected governor of Texas, campaigning on "Two Governors for the Price of One." She defeated a Ku Klux Klan-backed candidate and backed an anti-mask law that broke the Klan's power.
Why it matters
The Fergusons' intertwined careers mark a milestone for women in American politics and a decisive moment in Texas's fight against the Klan.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early twentieth century, Texas was still a deeply rural state, its politics dominated by cotton, tenant farming, and the fortunes of ordinary country people. This was the Progressive Era, when reformers across the country pushed to clean up government, improve public schools, and soften the hard edges of an economy that often left small farmers at the mercy of landlords and creditors. A candidate who could speak convincingly to those farmers held a powerful key to statewide office.
It was also a one-party state. In this period, the Democratic primary was where Texas elections were effectively decided, so a fight for the party's nomination was a fight for the governorship itself. That made personality, slogans, and loyalty enormous forces in Texas politics.
And it was a time of national reckoning over two great questions: the place of women in public life, and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. The decade that opened with women winning the vote nationwide also saw the Klan swell into a mass movement in many states, reaching into local offices and courthouses. Both currents would run straight through the story told on this marker in Austin, the seat of Texas government.
People & events
James Edward Ferguson and Miriam Wallace both grew up in Bell County, he the son of a Methodist preacher and she the daughter of a well-off farmer. They married in 1899, raised two daughters, and made their home in Temple. In 1914, campaigning as "Farmer Jim," James rode rural discontent into the governor's office, and his first term delivered on that promise: better country schools, reform of the prison system, and relief for hard-pressed tenant farmers.
Then came the fall. Early in his second term, in 1917, James was impeached on charges that included mishandling state funds, convicted by a special session of the legislature, and removed from office. Years later, in 1924, the state's highest court upheld a law that barred him from holding state office again. For most political families, that would have been the end.
Instead, Miriam ran in his place. The press dubbed her "Ma," and the couple campaigned on the cheerful, audacious slogan "Two Governors for the Price of One." She won — beating a candidate backed by the Ku Klux Klan — and in her first term supported an anti-mask law that struck at the Klan's power to operate in anonymity. Critics hammered her generous use of pardons, but she returned to office for a second term in the depths of the Depression before the Fergusons finally left the stage after a lost primary in 1940.
Its place in the American story
Miriam Ferguson's victory placed her among the very first women to serve as governor of an American state — an office reached only a handful of years after women won the vote nationwide. Whatever one makes of the "two governors" arrangement, a woman now held the highest post in one of the largest states in the Union, and the country took notice.
Her stand against the Klan matters just as much. In the 1920s the Klan was not a fringe curiosity but a powerful political machine in many parts of the country, and defeating its candidate and backing a law that tore off its mask was a real blow to its influence in Texas. It is a reminder that the fight against the Klan's second rise was often waged at the ballot box and in the statehouse.
The Fergusons' tangled careers also capture something enduring about American democracy: the way voters can punish and forgive, the strange afterlives of disgraced politicians, and the growing, uneven entry of women into the highest levels of public power.
If you visit
You are standing in Austin, the capital city, where the drama of Texas government has always played out. This is a marker to read slowly, because the story it tells is almost too improbable to be true: an impeached governor, a barred candidacy, and a wife who simply ran in his place and won.
Let yourself sit with the two portraits the marker draws — the country preacher's son turned "Farmer Jim," and the farmer's daughter the newspapers called "Ma." Their intertwined lives are a doorway into the politics of an entire era, from rural reform to the collapse of the Klan's power in Texas.
If you are making a day of the capital's history, this stop pairs naturally with the other landmarks nearby that trace how power was won, lost, and contested here. It is a small sign carrying an outsized chapter of American political life — proof that some of the boldest stories in our history are hiding in plain sight along a city street.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · James Edward Ferguson
- · Miriam A. Ferguson
Themes & tags
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