Margaret M. Lea Houston

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to pass it along. Now, you want to talk about women who shaped the course of Texas history, you'd best pull up a chair and settle in. Because this marker isn't about a general or a governor or a president of a republic.

This one belongs to two women, and the marker makes no bones about what they meant to the story of Texas. First, Margaret Moffette Lea. Wife of General Sam Houston.

Born April 11, 1819, and she left this world December 3, 1867. And right alongside her, her mother, Nancy Moffette Lea, born May 1, 1780, and gone February 7, 1864. Two generations.

Two women of character, culture, and what the marker calls staunch devotion, devotion to their families and their church. Now the marker doesn't mince words about what that meant. Each of them, in her own way, greatly influenced the career of Sam Houston and the course of Texas history.

Not just the man. The history. That's a considerable weight to carry, and these two women carried it.

You can drive past a thousand markers out here on Texas roads that'll give you battles and land grants and county seats. This one stops the car and says: remember the women who held the thread of it all together. Margaret Moffette Lea Houston and her mother Nancy Moffette Lea.

The marker said it plainly, and plain is sometimes the most powerful thing there is.

What the marker says

Margaret Moffette Lea wife of Gen Sam Houston; April 11, 1819 - Dec. 3, 1867; and her mother Nancy Moffette Lea; May 1, 1780 - Feb. 7, 1864; women of character, culture and staunch devotion to their families and church, each in her own way greatly influenced the career of Sam Houston and the course of Texas history.