Margaret Wright (Texas)
Margaret Theresa Robertson Wright (1789–1878) was a 19th century Texas pioneer and patriot. Born in New Orleans in 1789, allegedly to a French mother and an English father. About 1805 Margaret married James Williams Hays. The couple settled in Opelousas, Louisiana. Margaret had two daughters and a son with Hays. After 1811 Margaret and her family moved to Bayou Pierre, a disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain, where Hays died. Margaret ha two more daughters with Felix Trudeau, with whom she had a common law alliance. After Trudeau's death, she immigrated to Texas at some time between 1821 and 1825, possibly as a member of DeWitt's colony. By 1827 Margaret had moved toDe León's colony at Guadalupe Victoria and applied for a league of land on the west bank of the Guadalupe River, five miles from town. In 1828, before title to the land was secured, she married John David Wright of Tennessee, who settled on her league. Margaret had two daughters with Wright, but the marriage was marked with periods of separation. By the mid-1830s John Wright had obtained the title to Margaret's land grant. Seeking refuge from prosecution for a debt owed in Mississippi, John Wright fled to the Rio Grande valley; where he lived under the protection of the Mexican government for seven years. Margaret remained on the headright at Mission Valley as a cattle rancher with her brand, CT, registered in 1838. During the Texas Revolution Margaret secretly aided fleeing Texian soldiers who had survived the Goliad Massacre. Through a secret system Margaret provided supplies for hidden Texian refugees: the men would leave notes in a hollow tree, and she would hide food and medicine for them in her water pail as she went to the Guadalupe River. She also stole a gun for the Texians from Mexican soldiers, who were camped on her lan. She continued providing aid until all the soldiers were able to rejoin the army. Sam Houston, in a gubernatorial campaign speech given more than twenty years later in Victoria, praised Margaret Wright's heroism and called her the "Mother of Texas." In 1842 J. D. Wright returned permanently from the Rio Grande and found that in his absence Margaret had purchased an additional half league of land and had deeded 640 acres of it to her son, Peter Hays. Wright immediately filed suit to recover the land, arguing that control of their joint property was vested in him and could not be conveyed without his consent. He lost both the trial judgment and a preliminary appeal, the courts ruling that Margaret had at the time been a legally independent feme sole by virtue of being an abandoned wife. Before the second appeal came to trial in 1847, Peter Hays was killed in an ambush on the Rio Grande. Convinced that her husband was responsible, Margaret Wright filed for divorce on March 6, 1848, charging him with habitual cruelty, fradulent land title transfer, and the [...] of her son. In a series of bitterly contested actions that ultimately included three appeals to the Texas Supreme Court, Margaret was granted a divorce. Half of the joint property-5,535 acres of land and 570 head of cattle-was awarded to her. This may have been the first divorce granted in Texas. Later Margaret sold the ranch and moved into Victoria. Margaret Wright died in Victoria on October 21, 1878, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.