Site of Jane Long's Tavern
Posted by: 
jhuoni
N 29° 03.382 W 095° 33.635
15R E 250689 N 3216936
On this site in 1832 stood Jane Long's Tavern. During a time when boats traveled the Brazos River, which is just across the street from this marker.
Waymark Code: WMV6EF
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/03/2017
Views: 4
A Texas Historical Marker in Richmond (
visit link) continues the story of Jane Long.
Born in Maryland in 1798, Jane H. Wilkinson moved to Mississippi (1811) and became the ward of her famous relative, Gen. James Wilkinson, field commander of the United States Army. Jane married Dr. James Long in 1815 and later followed him on a filibustering expedition to free Texas from Spain. In 1821 Long led his forces into battle, leaving Jane alone with their daughter Ann and slave girl Kian at Point Bolivar, near Galveston. On Dec. 21, 1821, with snow falling, their food supply gone, and Kian ill, Jane gave birth to a daughter, then rose and got food and firewood for her family. Her heroism earned her the name "Mother of Texas." Later she learned of her husband's death in Mexico.
During the period Texas was a colony and a republic, Jane Long operated two well-known boarding houses. She started the first in Brazoria in 1832; her guests included William B. Travis, Sam Houston, and Mirabeau B. Lamar. In 1837 Jane moved to Richmond and on this site opened another boarding house which became a center for social and political activities as well as lodging for prominent Texans and European visitors. Jane ran this hotel until her plantation near town became prosperous in the 1840s. She died in 1880 and is buried in Richmond's Morton Cemetery.