`Texas Dames’-- on the Road

 

When women wore long skirts as a matter of tradition, rather than the up and down of annual fashion, Texas DamesÔ swished their skirts into professions and businesses considered the domain of men.  The heel prints of these women trek across the hills, plains and plateaus of Texas, leaving their mark in fields of banking and law, science and the arts, education and religion and community.  The `Dames’ tradition continues in space, law, politics, education, the ministry and arts—forging new pathways in the 21^st Century.

 

 

Did you know...about these Texas Dames?  Answers to Home Page questions.

Rebecca Haggerty, a Creek, grew up in Oklahoma but married a half-blood friend of Sam Houston.  Shortly after the birth of her daughters, Rebecca was widowed and she took over the plantation near Caddo Lake.  An abusive marriage and a son, whom her husband would not recognize, sent Rebecca to the courts.  Marshall bankers loaned her the money for lawyers—the first loan to a woman in this part of Texas.  She won and established family law that a child born in a marriage is the child of that marriage.  Her husband died before the divorce and Rebecca went on to become the largest woman plantation owner and slaveholder in Texas before the Civil War.

 

Mollie Bailey ran away and joined a traveling entertaining troupe and married the owner’s son.  They sang, acted and danced across the South and while entertaining troops of the Confederacy became enchanted with Texas.  After the Civil War they moved to Dallas and the “Mollie Bailey Circus” circled Texas, bringing “wholesome” entertainment to small towns and rural areas for years.  Blum, TX became a place of retirement for Mollie.

 

Sarah Cockrell of Dallas threw herself into helping her husband settle the village on the Trinity River, ferry travelers across the Trinity and then build a bridge that established Dallas as a major stop (before railroads).  When widowed, the “working Mom” juggled responsibilities of children while building a successful commercial business of hotels, real estate and brick and flour manufacturing.  She hid from her children and others that her husband could not read; she set up men to run her hotels to not shock society.

 

Elizabeth Ann Carter Sprague Clifton bore one strike—epilepsy—and then created another by marrying a free Negro.  They ranched and operated a stage stop near Fort Griffin until Comanches captured Elizabeth and her two granddaughters.  After U. S. troops rescued her, Elizabeth led them to other captives while she prodded the Army to keep looking for her granddaughters.  Sarah took her earnings, hired a team and wagons and drove the captives home to Texas, not returning to her home until all others had been reunited.

  

 

What Editors and Readers have said...

 

“I enjoy your column in the Wise County Messenger.  It’s always fun to read about something, or someone that has been so important to our state’s history.—Janet Wilson of Paradise, TX

 

 “I ran one column of ‘the dames’ twice by mistake... Our phones rang off the wall.”—Larry Hiatt, Publisher, Fort Stockton Pioneer

 

“I’ve been intending to email you for several weeks to let you know how much I have enjoyed your articles on Texas Women (in the Dublin Citizen)...keep up the good work.—Anita Baker of Dublin, TX

           

“...I am an educator and interested in this type of article (a story on Texas’ first woman school superintendent)...I read the Texas Dames articles in the Wise County Messenger’s All Around Wise.—Gail Riley of Decatur, TX

 

“...here’s to these ol’ dames...might I have permission to forward the article in the Wise County Harbinger  to...”—Linda Potter of Newark, TX

 

“You have a knack for bringing to life women of the past.  I enjoy these stories.”—Beth Kisor, Historic Fort Worth, Inc., director

 

“We have greatly enjoyed your columns on “Texas Dames” of our early history, as published locally in the Wise County Messenger.”—W. B. Woodruff, Jr. of Decatur, TX

 

“You find the untold stories of so many women...women who’ve been lost from the pages of history, and you write them well.  Thank you.”—Evelyn Wilson, Tarrant County College English professor.