Jane Elkins
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Jane Elkins is significant to Dallas County and statewide history. Born into slavery around 1800, she was the first documented enslaved person purchased in Dallas County, which was created by the Texas Legislature in 1846. On March 17, 1844, Edward Welborn transferred ownership of Jane to John Young for $400. Around 44 years old, she was described as being “sound in body and mind, and a slave for life.” Young then sold Jane to Smith E. Elkins and his wife America. After her husband died, the widow Elkins leased Jane out to Andrew Wisdom, a widower with young children. Jane worked as their caretaker. Wisdom was found bludgeoned to death in 1853. Contemporary accounts are meager, but a Galveston Daily News article published on August 28, 1880, reported that Jane had accused a “prominent citizen of the county” of committing the crime. Despite Jane being the one to alert authorities, she quickly became the sole and primary suspect. In the case of State of Texas vs. Jane (a slave), case #188, Jane was indicted on May 10, 1853, convicted and tried by an all-white, male jury on May 16 and sentenced to murder in the first degree on May 17. Jane had no representation during her trial, no witnesses were called and no formal investigation took place. She was hanged just ten days later outside the Dallas courthouse, on May 27, 1853. Records indicate her body was buried in a shallow grave near the courthouse but later exhumed and used for medical research. Many details of Jane Elkins’ life remain unknown. But her place in history is secured as the first recorded enslaved person purchased in Dallas County and as the first woman to be legally hanged in the State of Texas. (2021)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born into slavery around 1800, Jane Elkins was the first documented enslaved person purchased in the newly created Dallas County, sold and leased between owners until she was hired out to care for a widower's children. When that man was found bludgeoned to death in 1853, Jane — who alerted authorities and later said a prominent citizen was the killer — became the sole suspect. Tried in a single week by an all-white male jury, with no lawyer, no witnesses, and no investigation, she was convicted and hanged ten days later.
Why it matters
Jane Elkins was the first woman legally executed in Texas, and her case exposes how the machinery of law offered enslaved people the form of a trial without any of its protections.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Jane Elkins
Related events
- · State of Texas vs. Jane
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Juanita Craft House
Dallas, TX
Juanita Craft joined the Dallas NAACP in 1935 and became one of Texas's most influential civil rights organizers, mentoring generations of young activists as advisor to the South Dallas NAACP Youth Council. From this 1925 craftsman bungalow she hosted Thurgood Marshall, Roy Wilkins, and touring artists like Duke Ellington and Marian Anderson, who could not stay in the hotels of Jim Crow Dallas. Her home became a hub of activism, community, and hospitality that shaped the city's struggle for equality.
Fire and Lynchings of 1860
Dallas, TX
In the brutal summer of 1860, a fire on a 115-degree day destroyed much of downtown Dallas as the nation edged toward civil war over slavery. Amid panic and unfounded suspicion of abolitionists, a self-appointed vigilance committee bypassed any trial and condemned three enslaved men—Sam Smith, Patrick Jennings, and 'Old Cato'—who were hanged on July 24, 1860. Generations later, in 1991, the ground was consecrated as Martyrs Park to honor them and confront the inhumanity of slavery in the city.
Alexander Cockrell_Sarah Horton Cockrell
Dallas, TX
Alexander Cockrell arrived in the Dallas area in 1845, fought in the war with Mexico, and by 1852 had bought the remainder of the townsite from Dallas's founder, John Neely Bryan, building brickyards, a sawmill, and a Trinity River bridge. When he was killed over a debt in 1858, his wife Sarah Horton Cockrell took the reins, finishing the St. Nicholas Hotel, running the ferry, and adding a flour mill — becoming the first woman in Dallas to wield real economic power.
John Neely Bryan, 1810-1877 and Margaret Beeman Bryan, 1825-1919
Dallas, TX
In 1839 Tennessee lawyer John Neely Bryan chose this high bluff and shallow ford on the Trinity River for a trading post, and when he returned in 1841 he platted a town, installed a ferry, and named it Dallas. The Republic of Texas soon opened its Central National Road from here, drawing settlers with liberal land grants. Margaret Beeman, who married Bryan in 1843 and bore six children, and her Illinois-born family were staunch supporters of the man remembered as the "Father of Dallas"; she lived to age 94 and saw the city grow past 150,000.