What did Mary Maverick do for Texas history?
Mary Maverick worked in other ways to honor Texas history. She helped save the Alamo from development. She also promoted the Battle of Flowers—an annual parade still held in San Antonio commemorating the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. Maverick died in 1898.
Who was Mary Maverick and Sam Maverick?
Mary Maverick. Born in Alabama, Mary moved to San Antonio in 1838 after marrying Samuel Maverick, a veteran of the Texas Revolution. Mary Maverick is shown with her children. Image courtesy of the Center for American History. Image credit: University of Texas. Sam was a leading figure in the new Republic.
What was life like for Mary Maverick?
The memoirs of Mary Maverick paint a vivid picture of life on the Texas frontier. Born in Alabama, Mary moved to San Antonio in 1838 after marrying Samuel Maverick, a veteran of the Texas Revolution. Sam was a leading figure in the new Republic. He surveyed lands in the distant West and legislated in Austin.
What challenges did Sam Maverick's wife face?
Born in Alabama, Mary moved to San Antonio in 1838 after marrying Samuel Maverick, a veteran of the Texas Revolution. Sam was a leading figure in the new Republic. He surveyed lands in the distant West and legislated in Austin. Because he was often away, Mary faced the challenges of raising a family alone.
What was Mary Maverick's role in San Antonio?
She was a prominent member of the San Antonio Historical Society and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
Why did Samuel Maverick return to San Antonio?
Samuel Maverick returned to San Antonio without his family in late August 1842 to argue a case before the district court. The Mexican army, under General Adrian Woll, surrounded San Antonio and captured the small number of Anglo-American men in the city. On September 15, Samuel Maverick and his countrymen were forced to march toward Mexico. Mary Maverick's brothers participated in the Battle of the Salado on September 18, where their company ambushed some of the Mexican soldiers, killing 60 of them. Her uncle John Bradley joined another company, and Maverick sent her slave Griffin to go with him. She instructed Griffin to pose as a runaway slave bound for Mexico in the hope that he would be able to help free Samuel Maverick. As an extra assurance, she gave Griffin funds that could be used to ransom back her husband. This band of Texans was surprised by a Mexican cavalry detachment. Griffin was killed in the battle, and Bradley was taken captive and marched to join Samuel Maverick and the other prisoners. Maverick continued to receive letters from her husband during his captivity, so that she could be comforted that he was still alive.
Why did Mary Adams go to school?
Mary attended boarding school in Tuscaloosa to meet her father's wish that his children be appropriately educated. On August 4, 1836, Mary Adams married Samuel Augustus Maverick, a Yale graduate who had been the Alamo garrison's delegate to the Convention of 1836 declaring Texas' independence from Mexico.
What happened to the Mavericks in 1840?
The Mavericks participated in the so-called Council House Fight on March 19, 1840 when half of a peace-delegation of sixty-five Comanches, consisting of men, women and children, was slaughtered and the other half taken hostage. The Comanche delegation arrived in San Antonio, a traditional safe haven for peace talks, to negotiate a peace treaty and a demarcation line and bargain for the ransom of white captives. The army had ordered prior to the meeting that, if not all Anglo-Texans believed to be Comanche captives at that time were returned at the beginning of the talks, all the negotiators of the band be held until the captives were returned, and then the ransom would be paid. Maverick and a female neighbor had been watching several Indian children playing when they heard gunfire within the council house and saw Indians fleeing from the building. She alerted her husband and brother Andrew, and, while Samuel Maverick rushed outside to chase down the Indians, Maverick and Andrew hurried outside to find the children. They discovered three of the fugitive Indians in the back yard, while their slave cook, Jinny, tried to protect the two Maverick children and her own four children by threatening the Indians with a large rock. Andrew Adams shot two of the three Indians and joined the main fight. Maverick hid her children in the house and watched the battle through the windows. At one point she was curious enough to go outside for a closer look, but was ordered to return indoors by a soldier. The skirmish continued until all of the Indians were dead or captured. In her diary, Maverick wrote that "'All [Indians] had a chance to surrender ... and every one who offered or agreed to give up was taken prisoner and protected.'"
What happened to Samuel Maverick?
On September 15, Samuel Maverick and his countrymen were forced to march toward Mexico. Mary Maverick's brothers participated in the Battle of the Salado on September 18, where their company ambushed some of the Mexican soldiers, killing 60 of them.
What did Maverick write in her diary?
In her diary, Maverick wrote that "'All [Indians] had a chance to surrender ... and every one who offered or agreed to give up was taken prisoner and protected.'". Two days after the battle, Samuel Maverick again left his wife and children alone, under the protection of her two brothers.
How many children did Mary Maverick have?
Mary Maverick bore ten children over a span of 21 years. Four died of illness before the age of eight, which led Mary to seek solace in the spiritualism which was increasingly popular in mid-19th-century America. As her surviving children grew up, she became active in the public sphere.
What did Mary Maverick do to help the Alamo?
Mary Maverick worked in other ways to honor Texas history. She helped save the Alamo from development. She also promoted the Battle of Flowers—an annual parade still held in San Antonio commemorating the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto.
Where was Mary Maverick born?
Born in Alabama, Mary moved to San Antonio in 1838 after marrying Samuel Maverick, a veteran of the Texas Revolution.
When did Maverick die?
Maverick died in 1898. Three years before her death she compiled and edited her memoirs with the aid of her son, leaving us with a remarkable account of life in early Texas.
Who were the Mavericks in San Antonio?
Mary and Sam Maverick played instrumental roles in the creation of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio. The loss of several Maverick children led Mary to become very involved in the Episcopal community of San Antonio. She was among the members who brought premier architect Richard Upjohn to design their new church. Construction began in the 1860s, and the congregation dedicated the church in 1875. The Mavericks donated the church's original bell, forged from a cannon found near the Alamo.
What grade level is Mary Maverick?
A Texas history curriculum unit that explores the life of Mary Maverick, suitable for grades four or seven and aligned with the TEKS, is also available on the website of the Briscoe Center for American History. It contains handouts, lesson plans, and primary source documents.
What did Mary Maverick do to help the Alamo?
Mary Maverick worked in other ways to honor Texas history. She helped save the Alamo from development. She also promoted the Battle of Flowers —an annual parade still held in San Antonio commemorating the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto.
Who was Mary Maverick?
Mary Maverick was a remarkable early settler in Texas, who documented the challenges of life on the frontier.
Who were the Mavericks in San Antonio?
Mary and Sam Maverick played instrumental roles in the creation of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio. The loss of the Maverick children led Mary to become very involved in the Episcopal community of San Antonio. She was among the members who brought premier architect Richard Upjohn to design their new church. Construction began in the 1860s, and the congregation dedicated the church in 1875. The Mavericks donated the church’s original bell, forged from a cannon found near the Alamo.
When did Maverick die?
Maverick died in 1898. Three years before her death she compiled and edited her memoirs with the aid of her son, leaving us with a remarkable account of life in early Texas.
Overview
Early life
Mary Ann Adams was born in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, to William Lewis Adams, a lawyer, and Agatha Strother (Lewis) Adams. Her maternal grandmother was a cousin of James Madison, while her father's family had founded Lynchburg, Virginia. Her parents lived along the James River in Virginia, where her father exported flour and tobacco. During the War of 1812 her father left Virginia for what is now Alabama and bought a plantation near the site of Tuscaloosa. While purc…
Establishment in San Antonio
In October 1837, Mary Maverick, her brother, son, and seven slaves left South Carolina. After a brief stop in Tuscaloosa, they left for the Republic of Texas on December 7, accompanied by her fifteen-year-old brother, Robert Adams, and three additional slaves. The party crossed into Texas near New Year's Day 1838. On February 4, they rented rooms at the home of George Sutherland, and for fo…
Runaway of '42
The citizens of San Antonio received word in February 1842 that Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was again sending troops into Texas, which Mexico still did not recognize as a separate country. The Mavericks left some of their possessions with Mexican neighbors and joined their other Anglo neighbors in the Runaway of '42. With her brothers William and Andrew, Maverick and her immediate family travelled east, the first time Maverick had left San Antonio si…
Other
Mary Maverick bore ten children over a span of 21 years. Four died of illness before the age of eight, which led Mary to seek solace in the spiritualism which was increasingly popular in mid-19th-century America. As her surviving children grew up, she became active in the public sphere. During the Civil War, while four of her sons served in the Confederate States Army, she was active in San Antonio relief efforts. Her memoirs relate her attempts to revive the then-dying art of hom…
Later life
After Sam's death in 1870, as San Antonio grew, Mary Maverick made efforts to see that the pioneer past was not forgotten. She was a prominent member of the San Antonio Historical Society and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. She helped promote the annual Battle of Flowers celebration, and devoted effort to the restoration and preservation of the Alamo as an historic site.
Memoirs
Throughout her life, Mary had kept diaries of her experiences. In 1895, with the help of her son George Madison Maverick, she published these as her memoirs. They provide an engrossing and vivid picture of life on the Texas frontier and mid-19th-century San Antonio, including household management, child-rearing and family life, medical practices, and social and political observations. Mary Maverick's writings, in particular her eyewitness account of the Council Hous…
External links
• Early photo of Mary Maverick with five of her children.
• Samuel Maverick: John Howland's Texas Legacy
• Mary Maverick's description of the Council House Fight of 1840
• Mary Ann Adams Maverick in the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online