Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long
Port Bolivar, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
JANE HERBERT WILKINSON LONG (JULY 23, 1798 – DECEMBER 30, 1880) BORN IN CHARLES COUNTY, MARYLAND, JANE HERBERT WILKINSON LONG WAS A TEXAS PIONEER. SHE MARRIED JAMES LONG IN 1815, AND JOINED HIM IN TEXAS DURING HIS MILITARY INVASION OF THE THEN-SPANISH COLONY, SETTLING IN NACOGDOCHES. THE OCCUPATION WAS UNSUCCESSFUL, BUT THE LONGS RETURNED WITH SUPPORTERS IN 1820, BUILDING A FORT ON THE BOLIVAR PENINSULA AT THE EASTERN ENTRANCE TO GALVESTON BAY. JAMES LONG LEFT FOR LA BAHÍA TO GAIN SUPPORT, BUT WAS CAPTURED AND IMPRISONED IN MONTERREY. MEANWHILE, JANE, ALONG WITH HER DAUGHTER ANN AND SLAVE KIAN, REMAINED AT THE FORT, FACING FRIGID WINTER TEMPERATURES, LACK OF FOOD AND SUPPLIES, AND DANGER FROM THE NATIVE KARANKAWAS. IN THE MIDST OF THESE DIFFICULTIES, JANE LONG GAVE BIRTH TO A CHILD, LEADING TO HER HONORARY DESIGNATION AS “MOTHER OF TEXAS.” AFTER HEARING OF HER HUSBAND’S DEATH, LONG LED HER FAMILY TO SETTLE AT VARIOUS PLACES ALONG THE SAN JACINTO RIVER AND IN SAN ANTONIO. THE FAMILY MOVED TO BE WITH KIN IN LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI IN 1823, BUT RETURNED IN 1825 AS PART OF STEPHEN F. AUSTIN’S FIRST COLONY, RECEIVING HER OWN HEADRIGHT OF LAND, USUALLY ACCORDED ONLY TO A MALE HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD. SHE SETTLED IN SAN FELIPE DE AUSTIN. DURING THE TEXAS WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE, LONG OPENED HER BOARDING HOUSE FOR RALLIES AND MEETINGS, WHILE ALSO GATHERING INFORMATION FROM MEXICAN OFFICERS AND STORING ARMS AND MUNITIONS. SHE FLED WITH OTHERS DURING THE RUNAWAY SCRAPE. AFTER THE WAR. IN HER REMAINING YEARS, LONG OPERATED A BOARDING HOUSE AND PLANTATION IN FORT BEND COUNTY. TODAY, JANE HERBERT WILKINSON LONG CONTINUES TO BE REMEMBERED AS A TEXAS PATRIOT AND A PIONEER OF THE TEXAS FRONTIER. (2010)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Maryland in 1798, Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long followed her husband into the dangerous filibustering expeditions that sought to wrest Texas from Spain. Left to hold a fort on the Bolivar Peninsula through a brutal winter with her daughter and an enslaved woman named Kian, she gave birth there amid hunger and danger — the episode that earned her the honorary title "Mother of Texas." She later received her own headright of land in Austin's colony, unusual for a woman, and opened her San Felipe boarding house to the rallies and intrigue of the Texas Revolution.
Why it matters
Jane Long's life traces the whole arc of Anglo settlement in Texas, and her independent landholding and wartime activism mark a rare place for a woman at the founding of the Republic.
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Related people
- · Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long
- · James Long
- · Stephen F. Austin
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
- · Runaway Scrape
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Point Bolivar
Port Bolivar, TX
Point Bolivar served as headquarters for James Long's 1819 expedition, a bold attempt to wrest Texas from Spanish rule, and was named for the South American liberator Simón Bolívar. Here Mrs. Long and a small band waited until word arrived in 1822 that her husband had died. Years later the Republic of Texas raised a lighthouse on the point.
Early History of Galveston County
Galveston, TX
Long a crossroads for Native peoples, privateers, and Spanish and French explorers, Galveston Island briefly became the seat of the Republic of Texas in 1836. As Santa Anna's army pushed east, President David G. Burnet's improvised cabinet fled Washington-on-the-Brazos and sheltered here until the Texan victory at San Jacinto. From this port the fledgling Texas Navy, later reorganized under President Lamar and Commodore Edwin W. Moore, guarded the coast against Mexican invasion until U.S. annexation in 1846.
Warren D. C. Hall
Galveston, TX
North Carolina-born Warren DeWitt Clinton Hall came to Texas early and threw himself into the military expeditions that challenged Spanish and Mexican rule. At the time of the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 he was serving as acting secretary of war for the young Republic of Texas. He later practiced law and lived in Galveston until his death, and a Panhandle county bears his name.
Henry Journeay
Galveston, TX
A New York native, Henry Journeay (1815–70) joined the fight for Texas independence, serving in the army of Texas in 1836. Six years later he took part in the ill-fated Mier Expedition, a Republic of Texas raid into Mexico that ended in capture for many of its men. His grave marks a life bound up with the violent birth pangs of the Lone Star Republic.