Margaret Borland: Woman Trail Driver

Margaret Borland. Photo courtesy of Texas State Historical Society. https://tshaonline.org/ handbook/online/articles/fbo72.

By Lynne Hewes
There’s a saying, "Sometimes the best man for a job is a woman.” While that may be true in some cases, perhaps there are also times we might modify that saying to “Sometimes the ONLY man for a job is a woman.”
Take the case of Margaret Borland: the death of her husband forced her to become the “man” for the job of getting 1,000 cattle from Texas to Wichita, Kansas while acting as the “woman” for the job of taking care of her four children, all of whom she brought with her on the drive.
Borland was born to strict Irish parents in New York City in 1824. When she was five years old, she and her parents took a boat down the East Coast of the United States on their way to Texas, where they started a ranch near Patricio in South Texas.

As an adult, Margaret married three times. Her first husband was killed in a duel, her second died of cholera, and her third was a victim of yellow fever. When he passed away, her third husband, Alexander Borland, was considered the wealthiest rancher in Victoria, Texas. After his death, Margaret ran the ranch. Under her leadership, her cattle holdings increased to 10,000, and she had become a licensed butcher.
Her oldest son wrote of her: “ …a woman of resolute will and self-reliance, yet she was not one of the kindest mothers. She had, unaided, acquired a good education, her manners were lady-like, and when fortune smiled upon her at last in a pecuniary sense, she was as perfectly at home in the drawing room of the cultured as if refinement had engrafted its polishing touches upon her mind in maiden-hood.”
Ranch life was tough in Texas after the Civil War. In 1872, when Margaret heard that Kansas was paying $23.80 per head of cattle while Texas only offered $8.00 per head, she decided that the smart move was to drive her cattle North for sale. She was the only person available to do it. She took with her three children and one grandchild, all under the age of 15.
When her group reached Wichita two months after beginning the drive, the Wichita Beacon featured an article on June 4, 1873, saying, “Mrs. T.M. Borland of Texas, with three children, is stopping at the Planter house. She is the happy possessor of about one thousand head of cattle and accompanied the herd all the way from its starting point to this place, giving evidence of a pluck and business tact far superior to many of the “lords.”
The drive took its toll, however, when Margaret Borland came down with “trail fever” and died in Wichita on July 5, 1873. Her body was returned to Texas for burial.
By the time of her passing, at just 49 years old, Margaret Borland had proved that she was the right woman for the job.

Sources:
“Cattle Folk.” Bullock Museum, https://www.the storyoftexas.com/discover/campfire-stories/cattle-folk.“Margaret Borland.” History of American Women. http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2015/07/margaret- borland.html/.