Ms. Ferguson served several stints in the Texas governor's mansion.
She was first lady of Texas during her husband Jim "Pa" Ferguson's administration in 1916-1917. After her husband was impeached, Ms. Ferguson, then known as "Ma," won the governor's race as a Democrat in 1924. But Dan Moody unseated her two years later. Still, she ran again, in 1930, and lost to Ross Sterling in a run-off. But she defeated Sterling in 1933, and served another two-year term.
Despite the historical significance, folks on Sullivan Road say motorists rarely pause before the simple black plaque, perched atop a silver pole. Although the area is well-mowed today, locals say nobody seems curious about the birthplace of Texas' first woman governor.
On a recent blue-gray evening, the loudest sounds on Sullivan Road were trees rustling in the breeze and gravel crunching under car tires. Rounding a bend, a red Dodge pickup poked along, carrying a couple from Rogers out on their daily drive to get out of the city. Wilburn Murrow, recently retired, pulled over and looked out the window from behind wire-rim glasses. The brim on his felt cowboy hat curled up like the leaves that were blowing across the road.
Murrow's wife of 46 years, Kathryn, said nobody gets in a hurry out here, and nobody pays much attention to the "Ma" Ferguson marker.
"We're the only ones that come by here," she said.
If folks had dropped by, say, 125 years ago, they would have found a pampered young Miriam living on the family farm. She later attended Salado College and Baylor Female College.
And she played hard to get.
According to an exhibit on display at the Bell County Museum, "She married a neighbor, Jim Ferguson, on Dec. 31, 1899, after refusing his proposal twice."
The newlyweds inherited the family farm and later mortgaged it to pay for Jim's gubernatorial campaign. But according to a descendant of a family who worked and lived on the farm, sharecroppers weren't told they had to vacate until the day before the bank foreclosed.
When Jim Ferguson finally told the dozen families living and working on the farm they had to leave, he said they could help themselves to livestock and tools.
"Everybody around said it looked like a wagon train coming out of there," said Ray Ivey, repeating stories he had heard as a boy. "They had mules and horses and buggies and cattle."
The cabin burned in 1926, but by then Miriam was living in the governor's mansion in Austin, a place where she was not comfortable.
The museum exhibit, "Meet the Fergusons: Two Governors for the Price of One," says Miriam apparently didn't fit in with the city folks in Austin. She was considered a woman of little tact, rude and aloof. Reasons for that behavior? According to the museum, probably asthma and poor health.
Or just maybe - like the Ramseys and Murrows - she missed that clean country air.
The free exhibit at the Bell County Museum continues through March 13, 2010.
