DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Her name was Martha Adams Runnels, and the marker calls her, plain and simple, a first lady of Texas. Born March 26, 1836.
Now hold that date in your mind, because the story that follows it is one of those quiet ones that history has a habit of letting slip by. Martha married H. W.
Runnels, and when her husband won a seat in the legislature, the two of them packed up and moved into the Governor's Mansion. That would be the years 1857 through 1859. Now here is where it gets interesting.
The governor of Texas at that time was one Hardin Richard Runnels. And Hardin Richard Runnels was a bachelor. Which meant the Governor's Mansion had no official hostess.
Well. Martha Adams Runnels happened to be the governor's sister-in-law, living right there under that same roof, and so the role fell to her. She stepped into it.
The official hostess for the executive mansion of the state of Texas, all while her husband served in the legislature down the hall, so to speak. Two Runnels men in the machinery of state government, and it was Martha holding the social fabric of that mansion together. She did that work through those years, 1857 to 1859, and she lived on until July 19, 1907.
The Lone Star Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Bowie County Historical Survey Committee saw to it that she was remembered. And that title on the marker, first lady of Texas, well. She earned it in the fullest sense of the word, even if the history books didn't always make room to say so.
What the marker says
(March 26, 1836 - July 19, 1907) A first lady of Texas. Wife of H. W. Runnels, member of legislature 1857-59. During these years she and husband lived in Governor's Mansion, where she was the official hostess for her bachelor brother-in-law, Gov. Hardin Richard Runnels. Recorded - 1969 Incise on base: Erected by Lone Star Chapter Daughters of American Revolution and Bowie County Historical Survey Committee.