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{{Infobox person
| name=Mary Jane Mathes Alexander<br>
(First woman rancher in the Texas Panhandle)
| birth_date=September 3, 1840
| birth_place=Washington County, [[Tennessee]]<br>
Lived in [[Iowa]] and Sherman, Mobeetie, and Canadian, [[Texas]]
| death_date=April 12, 1929 (aged 89)
| death_place=Canadian, Texas<br>
'''Resting place''':<br>
Edith Ford Memorial Cemeteries in Canadian
| spouse=The Reverend Clifton Wrenshaw "C. W." Alexander (married 1868-1885, his death)<br>
'''Children''':<br>
Hugh Payson Alexander
Robert Theodore "R. T." Alexander<br>
Erastus Randall Alexander<br>
Nona Agnes Alexander Snyder<br>
Lucy Mathes Alexander Romig<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
The Reverend and Mrs. Archibald Alexander Mathes
}}
'''Mary Jane Mathes Alexander''' (September 3, 1839 – April 12, 1929)<ref name=findagrave/> was the first woman [[cattle]] rancher in the [[Texas]] Panhandle.
==Background==
Alexander was born in Washington County, [[Tennessee]], the daughter of a [[Presbyterian]] minister, Archibald Alexander Mathes. Mary Jane's education at Linderwood College in St. Charles, [[Missouri]], promptly ended with the advent of the [[American Civil War]], during which the school closed.The family lived in several locations in [[Iowa]] <ref name=findagrave>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59239059/mary-jane-alexander|title=Mary Jane Mathes Alexander|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=December 12, 2019}}</ref><ref>''The Canadian (Texas) Record,'' April 18, 1929.</ref>
==From Missouri to Texas==
Mary Jane married a [[Presbyterian]] pastor and educator, Clifton Wrenshaw "C. W." Alexander (1838-1886), a native of the capital city of Jefferson City, Missouri, who was educated at [[Princeton Theological Seminary]] in [[New Jersey]], at which he was on the wrestling team. In 1880, the Alexanders were living in Cape Girardeau in southestern Missouri.<ref name=cwa>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59239131/clifton-wrenshaw-alexander|title=Rev. Clifton Wrenshaw Alexander|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=December 12, 2019}}</ref> In 1885, with their five children, the Alexanders were living in Sherman, the county seat of Grayson County, Texas, where the Reverend Alexander taught at Austin College. The Alexanders moved to "Old" Mobeetie, then a bustling Wheeler County settlement, where lived for a time the famous lawyer Temple Lea Houston (1860-1905), son of the Texas founder [[Sam Houston]]. (In 2010, the population of "New" Mobeetie was just 101.) C. W. established a Presbyterian church in Mobeetie, which was destroyed in a storm in 1898 and was never rebuilt.<ref namecwa/>
In their journey west, the Alexanders were caught in a flood, and Mary Jane and C. W. were thrown from their wagon into the Pease River. Both were miraculously rescued. C. W. managed to reach the harnesses of his [[horse]]s to pull himself from the river. Even while holding on to a baby, Mary Jane grabbed onto the wagon and managed to keep both above water.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20191130/caprock-chronicles-first-woman-rancher-on-panhandle-mary-jane-alexander|title=The Caprock Chronicles: The First Woman Rancher on the Panhandle: Mary Jane Alexander|publisher=''The Lubbock Avalanche Journal''|author=Jean Stuntz|date=November 30, 2019|accessdate=December 12, 2019}}</ref>
The Alexanders occupied a small house in Mobeetie and C. W. began his ministry in the eastern Panhandle. Shortly afterwards in March 1886, tragedy struck again. C. W. died of [[pneumonia]] in a freezing rain exacerbated by the water still in his lungs from the Pease River flood. Widowed at the age of forty-six, Mary Jane proceeded to file for homestead on one section of land and purchased an adjoining section on the Washita Creek near the border with what was then [[Oklahoma|Indian Territory]]. From the actions, the R. T. Alexander Ranch was created.<ref name=bio/>
To survive in the early years, the Alexanders sold plums and wild grasses to soldiers stationed at nearby Fort Elliott. Her sons gathered bones left by [[bison]] hunters and sold them in Dodge City, [[Kansas]]. The family also rounded up unbranded cattle, which they claimed as their own. The cowboys often visited the Alexander Ranch, at which they enjoyed Mary Jane's cooking.<ref name=bio/>
Mary Jane sent all five of her children to Polk College in [[Missouri]], which apparently no longer exists. The oldest son, Hugh, followed his father's lead into the ministry and located to Kansas. Second son Robert Theodore, known as R. T. Alexander (1873-1968), studied animal husbandry and bred stray cattle into a herd of Herefords. The third son, Erastus Randall Alexander, became a [[physician]] in [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo, [[New York]]. Mary Jane's two college-ducated daughters, Nona Agnes Snyder (1878-1975) and Lucy Mathes Alexander Romig (1875-1964), became, respectively, a teacher in Canadian, Texas, and a missionary to [[China]].<ref name=bio/>Two other Alexander children, Alice Maude and John C., died in infancy.<ref name=findagrave/>
==Death and legacy==
When Nona married and moved with her husband, Edward Henry Snyder (1876-1967), to Canadian, the seat of government for Hemphill County, Mary Jane joined them. It was in Canadian that her second son formed the R. T. Alexander Ranch. There she was widely respected for her piety and charity. When she was near death, many came from across the Panhandle to express appreciation for her life of piety, kindness, and charity. She died a the age of eighty-nine in the spring of 1929,<ref name=bio/> not long before the [[Stock market crash of 1929|stock market crash]] that fall.
In 1961, Mary Jane was posthumously honored as the first woman rancher in the Panhandle. In 1991, a gallery of the R. T. Alexander Ranch was established in the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon in Randall County south of [[Amarillo]]. The Alexander Ranch was cited by the land heritage section of the Texas Department of Agriculture for being the longest continually operating, family-owned ranch in Hemphill County.<ref name=bio/
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Mary Jane}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Tennessee]]
[[Category:Iowa]]
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Presbyterians]]
Mary Jane Alexander (view source)
Revision as of 20:40, December 12, 2019
, 20:40, December 12, 2019Created page with " {{Infobox person | name=Mary Jane Mathes Alexander<br> (First woman rancher in the Texas Panhandle) | birth_date=September 3, 1840 | birth_place=Washington County..."
{{Infobox person
| name=Mary Jane Mathes Alexander<br>
(First woman rancher in the Texas Panhandle)
| birth_date=September 3, 1840
| birth_place=Washington County, [[Tennessee]]<br>
Lived in [[Iowa]] and Sherman, Mobeetie, and Canadian, [[Texas]]
| death_date=April 12, 1929 (aged 89)
| death_place=Canadian, Texas<br>
'''Resting place''':<br>
Edith Ford Memorial Cemeteries in Canadian
| spouse=The Reverend Clifton Wrenshaw "C. W." Alexander (married 1868-1885, his death)<br>
'''Children''':<br>
Hugh Payson Alexander
Robert Theodore "R. T." Alexander<br>
Erastus Randall Alexander<br>
Nona Agnes Alexander Snyder<br>
Lucy Mathes Alexander Romig<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
The Reverend and Mrs. Archibald Alexander Mathes
}}
'''Mary Jane Mathes Alexander''' (September 3, 1839 – April 12, 1929)<ref name=findagrave/> was the first woman [[cattle]] rancher in the [[Texas]] Panhandle.
==Background==
Alexander was born in Washington County, [[Tennessee]], the daughter of a [[Presbyterian]] minister, Archibald Alexander Mathes. Mary Jane's education at Linderwood College in St. Charles, [[Missouri]], promptly ended with the advent of the [[American Civil War]], during which the school closed.The family lived in several locations in [[Iowa]] <ref name=findagrave>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59239059/mary-jane-alexander|title=Mary Jane Mathes Alexander|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=December 12, 2019}}</ref><ref>''The Canadian (Texas) Record,'' April 18, 1929.</ref>
==From Missouri to Texas==
Mary Jane married a [[Presbyterian]] pastor and educator, Clifton Wrenshaw "C. W." Alexander (1838-1886), a native of the capital city of Jefferson City, Missouri, who was educated at [[Princeton Theological Seminary]] in [[New Jersey]], at which he was on the wrestling team. In 1880, the Alexanders were living in Cape Girardeau in southestern Missouri.<ref name=cwa>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59239131/clifton-wrenshaw-alexander|title=Rev. Clifton Wrenshaw Alexander|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=December 12, 2019}}</ref> In 1885, with their five children, the Alexanders were living in Sherman, the county seat of Grayson County, Texas, where the Reverend Alexander taught at Austin College. The Alexanders moved to "Old" Mobeetie, then a bustling Wheeler County settlement, where lived for a time the famous lawyer Temple Lea Houston (1860-1905), son of the Texas founder [[Sam Houston]]. (In 2010, the population of "New" Mobeetie was just 101.) C. W. established a Presbyterian church in Mobeetie, which was destroyed in a storm in 1898 and was never rebuilt.<ref namecwa/>
In their journey west, the Alexanders were caught in a flood, and Mary Jane and C. W. were thrown from their wagon into the Pease River. Both were miraculously rescued. C. W. managed to reach the harnesses of his [[horse]]s to pull himself from the river. Even while holding on to a baby, Mary Jane grabbed onto the wagon and managed to keep both above water.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20191130/caprock-chronicles-first-woman-rancher-on-panhandle-mary-jane-alexander|title=The Caprock Chronicles: The First Woman Rancher on the Panhandle: Mary Jane Alexander|publisher=''The Lubbock Avalanche Journal''|author=Jean Stuntz|date=November 30, 2019|accessdate=December 12, 2019}}</ref>
The Alexanders occupied a small house in Mobeetie and C. W. began his ministry in the eastern Panhandle. Shortly afterwards in March 1886, tragedy struck again. C. W. died of [[pneumonia]] in a freezing rain exacerbated by the water still in his lungs from the Pease River flood. Widowed at the age of forty-six, Mary Jane proceeded to file for homestead on one section of land and purchased an adjoining section on the Washita Creek near the border with what was then [[Oklahoma|Indian Territory]]. From the actions, the R. T. Alexander Ranch was created.<ref name=bio/>
To survive in the early years, the Alexanders sold plums and wild grasses to soldiers stationed at nearby Fort Elliott. Her sons gathered bones left by [[bison]] hunters and sold them in Dodge City, [[Kansas]]. The family also rounded up unbranded cattle, which they claimed as their own. The cowboys often visited the Alexander Ranch, at which they enjoyed Mary Jane's cooking.<ref name=bio/>
Mary Jane sent all five of her children to Polk College in [[Missouri]], which apparently no longer exists. The oldest son, Hugh, followed his father's lead into the ministry and located to Kansas. Second son Robert Theodore, known as R. T. Alexander (1873-1968), studied animal husbandry and bred stray cattle into a herd of Herefords. The third son, Erastus Randall Alexander, became a [[physician]] in [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo, [[New York]]. Mary Jane's two college-ducated daughters, Nona Agnes Snyder (1878-1975) and Lucy Mathes Alexander Romig (1875-1964), became, respectively, a teacher in Canadian, Texas, and a missionary to [[China]].<ref name=bio/>Two other Alexander children, Alice Maude and John C., died in infancy.<ref name=findagrave/>
==Death and legacy==
When Nona married and moved with her husband, Edward Henry Snyder (1876-1967), to Canadian, the seat of government for Hemphill County, Mary Jane joined them. It was in Canadian that her second son formed the R. T. Alexander Ranch. There she was widely respected for her piety and charity. When she was near death, many came from across the Panhandle to express appreciation for her life of piety, kindness, and charity. She died a the age of eighty-nine in the spring of 1929,<ref name=bio/> not long before the [[Stock market crash of 1929|stock market crash]] that fall.
In 1961, Mary Jane was posthumously honored as the first woman rancher in the Panhandle. In 1991, a gallery of the R. T. Alexander Ranch was established in the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon in Randall County south of [[Amarillo]]. The Alexander Ranch was cited by the land heritage section of the Texas Department of Agriculture for being the longest continually operating, family-owned ranch in Hemphill County.<ref name=bio/
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Mary Jane}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Tennessee]]
[[Category:Iowa]]
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Presbyterians]]