8/4/1836: Texas Revolution participant marries future memoirist

[Craig Tx]

On this day in 1836, at her home in Alabama, Mary Ann Adams married Samuel Augustus Maverick.

The couple divided their time between Alabama and Texas until 1838, when they moved to San Antonio. In Texas Samuel had already been involved in the Texas Revolution and served as a delegate to the Convention of 1836. He became a leading land baron--the term "maverick," denoting an unbranded calf, derives from a herd of his cattle--and legislator. After her husband's death in 1870, Mary Maverick made efforts to see that the state's 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 she served as president of the Alamo Monument Association for many years. Historians often refer to her watercolor sketch of the mission, and in 1889 she wrote a brief account of the fall of the Alamo. Her memoirs provide a vivid picture of life on the Texas frontier. She died in 1898.