| 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 Bell County, Texas |
| Died | June 25, 1961 (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.
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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.
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]
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.
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]
"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 has been described as a fiscal conservative, but also pushed for a state sales tax and corporate income tax.[3] 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. 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]
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.
| 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 |
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