Site of the Town of Margaret

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Foard County, pull over if you have to, because this one starts with a name that didn't stick. The town that would become Margaret was first known as Pease.

Plain and simple, just Pease. But a name can change when the right person comes along, and the right person in this case was a little girl. Margaret Wesley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.

John Wesley, holds the distinction of being the first Anglo-American child born in Hardeman County. That is not a small thing. In a land that was still finding its footing, still figuring out what it was going to be, she arrived first.

And so they renamed the town in her honor. Pease became Margaret. Now here is where the story gets a little weight to it.

This town, this Margaret, was not just a dot on the map. It was the first county seat of Hardeman County, carrying that title from 1884 all the way to 1890. Six years of being the center of things, the place where the county's business got done, where decisions got made, where the paperwork of civilization piled up on somebody's desk.

And then, as these things sometimes go, that chapter closed. The county seat moved on. The town faded.

Today there is a marker where Margaret used to stand, erected by the State of Texas in 1936, out here on the rolling plains of Foard County, making sure nobody forgets the little girl who gave a town its name, or the town that once mattered most in Hardeman County.

What the marker says

First known as Pease. Renamed in honor of Margaret Wesley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Wesley. First Anglo-American child born in Hardeman County. First County Seat of Hardeman County, 1884-1890. Erected by the State of Texas 1936