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Margaret Borland dies of "trail fever"
On this day in 1873, Margaret Borland died of "trail fever" or
"congestion of the brain" after successfully leading a drive of about
2,500 cattle from Victoria, Texas, to Wichita, Kansas. She was born in
Ireland on April 3, 1824. Her family was among the Irish colonists who
arrived in Texas in 1829 with John McMullen and James McGloin and
settled at San Patricio. Margaret was thrice married and widowed. Her
first husband, Harrison Dunbar, was killed in a private argument in
Victoria soon after she bore their only child, a daughter. Margaret
Dunbar married Milton Hardy several years later; Hardy died of cholera
in 1855, leaving two more children with Margaret. Mrs. Hardy married
Alexander Borland about 1858, a marriage that produced four children.
Borland died in 1867; several of Margaret's children and grandchildren
died the same year in a yellow fever epidemic. She had assisted Borland
in his cattle business and, after his death, assumed full responsibility
for the estate. Though she left the physical labor to her hired hands,
she bought and sold livestock. By 1873 she owned a herd of more than
10,000 cattle. She left her Victoria home in the spring of that year
with two sons, both under fifteen; a seven-year-old daughter; an even
younger granddaughter; and a group of trail hands. She was said to be
the only woman to have led a cattle drive. Her body was returned to
Texas and buried in Victoria Cemetery.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- BORLAND, MARGARET HEFFERNAN
- IRISH
- VICTORIA, TX
- CATTLE TRAILING
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Governor Pease launches Callahan expedition (1855)
- Texas's first licensed pilot dies (1956)
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