On this day in ...... 1875, Miriam Amanda Wallace was born in Bell County, Texas. After attending Salado College and Baylor Female College, in 1899 she married James E. Ferguson, who served as Governor of Texas from 1915-1917. "Pa" having been forbidden to run again following his impeachment and conviction, in 1925 Miriam A. Ferguson was elected Governor of Texas in his stead. Her slogan? "Two governors for the price of one." She was the 1st woman elected governor, but the 2d, after Wyoming's Nellie Tayloe Ross, to be sworn in. A Democrat, "Ma" Ferguson (left) was a fiscal conservative opposed both to the Ku Klux Klan and Prohibition, but suspected of inviting graft. She lost re-election in 1926, then served again
as governor for 2 years in the 1930s. She died in 1961.... 1888 (120 years ago today), an act establishing the U.S. Department of Labor was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland.
