Miriam A. Ferguson

Miriam Amanda Wallace Ferguson
32nd Governor of Texas
In office January 17, 1933 – January 15, 1935
Lieutenant	Edgar E. Wit
Preceded by	Ross S. Sterling
Succeeded by	James Allred
29th Governor of Texas
In office January 20, 1925 – January 17, 1927
Lieutenant	Barry Miller
Preceded by	Pat Morris Neff
Succeeded by	Dan Moody
Personal details
Born	June 13, 1875(1875-06-13) Bell County, Texas
Died	June 25, 1961(1961-06-25) (aged 86)
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	James Edward Ferguson

Miriam Amanda Wallace "Ma" Ferguson (June 13, 1875 – June 25, 1961) was the first female Governor of Texas in 1925.^[1] She held office until 1927, later winning another term in 1933 and serving until 1935.

Early life

Ferguson was born Miriam Amanda Wallace in Bell County, Texas. She studied at Salado College and Baylor Female College. When she was 24, she married James Edward Ferguson, who was then a lawyer.

She got her nickname "Ma" partly from her initials "M. A.", and also because her husband was known as "Pa" Ferguson.

Her husband's political career

James Ferguson served as Governor of Texas from 1915 to 1917. However, he was impeached, convicted, and removed from office during his second term. As part of his conviction, he was not allowed to hold state office in Texas again.^[2]

1924 election and first term

After her husband's impeachment and conviction, Ma Ferguson ran herself as a Democrat for the office. She told voters that said she would follow the advice of her husband and Texas thus would get "two governors for the price of one."^[3] A common campaign slogan was, "Me for Ma, and I Ain't Got a Durned Thing Against Pa." Against the odds, Ma Ferguson was elected governor, becoming the first female chief executive of Texas.^[4] Ferguson was elected with the help and support of her campaign manager, Homer T. Brannon of Ft. Worth, Texas.

After her victory in the Democratic primary, she had defeated George C. Butte, a prominent lawyer and University of Texas dean who emerged as the strongest Republican gubernatorial nominee in Texas since Reconstruction in 1869. Ferguson received 422,563 votes (58.9 percent) to Butte's 294,920 (41.1 percent). Butte had been supported by former Governor William P. Hobby, who had succeeded James Ferguson in 1917. Ma Ferguson was the second female state governor in the United States. Just two weeks before her inauguration, Nellie Tayloe Ross had been sworn in as governor of Wyoming to finish the expired term of her late husband.^[5]

During her first administration she averaged over 100 pardons a month, and accusations of both bribes and kickbacks overshadowed her term, resulting in unsuccessful attempts to impeach her. This led to her defeat in the primaries of both 1926 and 1930.

1932 election and 2nd term

Ferguson ran again in 1932. She narrowly won the Democratic nomination over incumbent Ross S. Sterling. She then soundly defeated Republican Orville Bullington in the general election, 521,395 (61.6 percent) to 322,589 (38.1 percent). Bullington, who was a cousin of the first wife of future U.S. Senator John G. Tower, fared more strongly than most Texas Republican candidates did at that time but still polled behind Butte's 1924 showing against Mrs. Ferguson. Ferguson's second term as governor was less controversial than the first.^[3]

According to rumor, state highway contracts only went to companies that advertised in the Fergusons' newspaper, Ferguson Forum. A House committee investigated the charge but nothing ever came of it.^[4]

In October 1933, she signed Texas House Bill 194 into law which was instrumental in establishing the University of Houston as a four-year institution.^[6]

Views and policies

"Fergusonism," as the Fergusons' brand of populism was called, is still a controversial subject in Texas. As governor, she tackled some of the tougher issues of the day. Though a teetotaler like her husband, she aligned herself with the "wets" in the battle over prohibition and took a firm stand against the Ku Klux Klan. She was a fiscal conservative, pushing for a state sales tax and corporate income tax.^[3] Suggesting new taxes is not "fiscal conservatism", I assume the claim that Governor Ferguson was a fiscal conservative is based on her reducing government spending - some evidence of this is needed if the claim is to be made.

Miriam Ferguson, along with a few others, have been credited with the quote: “If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it ought to be good enough for the children of Texas.”^[7] However, variations of this going back to 1881 were often used to ridicule the backwardness of various unnamed Christians, which supports the argument that the attribution to Ferguson is false.^[8]

Mrs. Ferguson's infamously generous granting of pardons was her way of relieving the overcrowded conditions in Texas prisons.^{[citation needed]} During two non-consecutive terms in office, Mrs. Ferguson issued almost 4,000 pardons, many of them to free those convicted of violating prohibition laws. Though never proven, rumors persisted that pardons were available in exchange for cash payments to the governor’s husband. In 1936, voters passed an amendment to the state constitution stripping the governor of the power to issue pardons and granting that power to a politically independent Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (see Capital punishment in Texas). ^[9]

Post-governorship

Except for an unsuccessful bid to replace Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel in 1940, the Fergusons remained retired from political life after 1934. In that campaign, she trailed O'Daniel's principal rival, Texas Railroad Commissioner Ernest O. Thompson of Amarillo.^[3]

James Ferguson died of a stroke in 1944.

Miriam Ferguson died from congestive heart failure in 1961 at the age of eighty-six.

See also

• List of female state governors in the United States

Notes

1. ^ "Portraits of Texas Governors: The Politics of Personality". Texas State Library. http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/governors/personality/index.html#MaFerguson. Retrieved 2007-04-13. 
2. ^ Coppedge, Clay (25 February 2007). "A city grows up: Temple matures into a regional medical and agricultural hub". Temple Daily Telegram. http://www.temple-telegram.com/story/2007/02/25/38774. Retrieved 2007-04-13. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d} John D. Huddleston. "Ferguson, Miriam Amanda Wallace". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/FF/ffe6.html. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Coppedge, Clay (March 25, 2007). "'Ma' elected governor of Texas". Temple Daily Telegram. 
5. ^ Ferguson and Ross actually both won election on the same day, but Wyoming inaugurates its governor before Texas does.
6. ^ "Discover UH's Heritage & History". UH Alumni Organization. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20080514191504/http://www.mycougarconnection.com/homecoming/history.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-29. 
7. ^ Cárdenas, José A. (1994). All Pianos Have Keys and Other Stories. Intercultural Development Research Association. ISBN 1-878550-53-5. 
8. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (2006-04-29). "Ma Ferguson, the apocryphal know-nothing" (HTML). Language Log. University of Pennsylvania. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003084.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
9. ^ Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission: "Pardons and Paroles" retrieved October 20, 2011.

External links

• Miriam Ferguson from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Miriam Ferguson's Gravesite

Political offices
Preceded by Pat Morris Neff	Governor of Texas 1925-1927	Succeeded by Dan Moody
Preceded by Ross S. Sterling	Governor of Texas 1933-1935	Succeeded by James V. Allred

Persondata
Name	Ferguson, Miriam A.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 13, 1875
Place of birth	Bell County, Texas
Date of death	June 25, 1961
Place of death