DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I wouldn't change a word. Somewhere on this stretch of Bell County ground, a five-room log cabin once stood — and that cabin is where the story begins. Miriam A.
Wallace came into the world in 1875, right here on this land, and she called it home from that very first breath all the way up to 1899, when she married a man named James E. Ferguson. Now, you might think that's where the spotlight shifts over to him.
And for a while, it does. Her husband was elected governor of Texas — not once, but twice. Two elections.
Two terms. The man knew how to get votes. But here's the thing about this story.
It doesn't end with James. It turns. Because when the moment came, Miriam A.
Ferguson stepped forward and did something no woman in the entire country had ever done before — she was elected governor of a state. The first. Ever.
She served two terms: 1925 to 1927, and then again, 1933 to 1935. The woman who had grown up in a five-room log cabin on this piece of Bell County earth came back, in a manner of speaking, as the answer to a question history hadn't even thought to ask yet. Now about that cabin — it didn't make it.
The home was destroyed by fire in 1926. And there's one more thing the marker wants you to know: Mrs. Ferguson inherited this very property, and around 1917, it was mortgaged to support her husband's political career.
This land gave itself over, in more ways than one, to the Fergusons' story. All that's left now is the ground — and the marker standing on it, making sure nobody forgets whose birth it witnessed.
What the marker says
A five-room log cabin on this land was the home of Miriam A. Wallace (1875-1961) from her birth until her marriage to James E. Ferguson in 1899. After her husband had been twice elected governor, Mrs. Ferguson became the first woman elected governor of any state. She served two terms, from 1925 to 1927 and from 1933 to 1935. The property was inherited by Mrs. Ferguson and about 1917 was mortgaged to support her husband's political career. The home was destroyed by fire in 1926. (1967)