JANE HERBERT WILKINSON LONG Biography - Military related figures

 
 

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JANE HERBERT WILKINSON LONG

Name: Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long                                                   
Born: 1798                                                                         
Died: 1880                                                                         
                                                                                   
Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long (1798-1880) is considered to be the Mother of Texas.   
                                                                                   
Jane Herbert Wilkinson was born 23 July 1798 in Charles County, Maryland. Around   
1811, her family moved from Maryland to Natchez, in the Mississippi Territory.     
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 third 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. Though she is not           
mentioned often, a young slave girl by the name of Kian helped Jane and her two     
children stay alive the whole time they were trapped in Texas, waiting for her     
husband to come back. He never did.                                                 
                                                                                   
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. Jane Long was the only female at the camp.The camp   
was called Fort Las Casas. In World War II the United States liberty ship SS       
Jane Long was named in her honor.