Jane Herbert Wilkinson (1798-1880) was born in Maryland and moved to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1812. There in 1815 she married physician and soldier James Long (c. 1793-1822). Jane was granted land in Austin's colony in 1827, and opened a boarding house on this site in 1832. The busy port and tavern became a popular center of Anglo political activity. Here Jane hosted a benefit for stephen F. Austin in 1835, upon his release from Mexican prison, and a ball in October, 1836, attended by President Sam Houston and the adjourned Congress. She moved to Richmond in 1837 to operate a popular hotel there. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986