Submitted by Kathleen Huston
Mary Jane Hamilton, buried at Oakwood Cemetery Austin, with her husband and six children, was the wife of a prominent Texas lawyer, politician, and post-Civil War governor, Andrew Jackson Hamilton. While books and articles have been written about Jack Hamilton, Mary Jane is the unsung hero of their courageous stand to free their slaves and to fight against the Confederacy and Texas secession. Jack’s pro-Union position culminated in Jack escaping Austin under the threat of lynching and Mary Jane being left to manage the farm, finances, and children alone, all while in extreme danger from pro-Confederate Austinites.
Mary Jane and Jack came from Alabama to La Grange in 1846, then Austin in 1849. In both locations, Jack traveled for his law practice and political career and Mary Jane solely managed large farms and a growing family. Once in Austin, Jack was frequently gone from home in his positions as Attorney General, Texas House Representative, and finally U. S. House Representative (1859 to 1861), when he moved to Washington. Jack and Mary Jane owned a 200-acre farm near Austin, a part of which was sold to the Texas government for a cemetery around 1850.
Jack is given credit for freeing two of their slaves, Rachel and Henry, when they moved to Austin, but in fact, the slaves were given to Mary Jane by her father, so it was she who freed them. As the Civil War was breaking out, Jack returned from Washington to Austin and fought against Texas secession. As a result, Mary Jane was increasingly ostracized by Austinites. Jack’s life was threatened just as they were burying their daughter, Katie. Jack hid at Hamilton’s Pool, then escaped to New Orleans through Mexico. After Jack left “a military squad had entered his home and told his wife that if her husband had been there, he would have been hanged in her presence from one of his own shade trees.”
Mary Jane Bowen Hamilton
Mary Jane and children were left to manage at their Austin farm while under threat from Confederates. Mary Jane was under constant surveillance and had to feed the family solely from a vegetable garden and chickens and cows. Jack petitioned the Texas governor to allow Mary Jane and children to leave for their safety, but the request was delayed. Finally, in 1864 while Mary Jane was in town, their mansion was burned to the ground, probably due to arson. Later, when Mary Jane and children finally were allowed to leave Texas, she united with Jack in New Orleans, but sadly, a yellow fever outbreak caused the death of their third child John.
As a loyal Unionist, Jack was made Provisional Governor of Texas by President Lincoln as the war ended. The family moved to the Governor’s mansion and Mary Jane hosted gatherings of former Confederate and Unionist leaders to promote healing wounds and rebuilding Texas. Jack lost when he ran to continue his governorship and as a result, the family went through a period of financial insecurity. Finally, as Jack was rebuilding his life with Mary Jane on the Austin farm, he became ill and died of tuberculous at age sixty. Mary Jane continued to run the farm until all the children married and left. She then lived in Austin for years, passing away at age 87 in 1916.
Over the years, Andrew Jackson Hamilton has been praised, rightly so, for urging freedom for slaves, the continuation of the Union, and his work to build suffrage rights for Texas freemen after the War, but little has been written about Mary Jane. However, Mary Jane ran their large farm, raised six children, buried two children and a baby, freed two slaves, was ostracized by Austinites for pro-Union beliefs, and left alone to support her family on the Austin farm, in constant danger from Confederates. Mary Jane’s heroism on behalf of her principles and her family deserves recognition and our sincere respect.
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