Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long was called the “Mother of Texas” because of the birth of her child on Bolivar Peninsula on December 21, 1821. She said hers was the first baby born to an English speaking woman in Texas, but census records have since disproved that. Folklore and family tradition hold that Jane had been courted by Texas’s leading men including Ben Milam, Sam Houston, and Mirabeau B. Lamar.