Women of the Chisholm Trail

Margaret Borland: The Sole Female Trail Boss

Margaret Heffernan Borland (1824–1873), an Irish immigrant widowed three times, stands out as the only woman in U.S. history to personally lead a full cattle drive as trail boss.  After losing her third husband to yellow fever in 1867 (along with five of her nine children in epidemics), she managed a 10,000-head herd on her Victoria, Texas, ranch.  In 1873, at age 49, she organized and led a drive of 2,500 longhorns to Wichita, Kansas, accompanied by her two teenage sons, nine-year-old daughter, six-year-old granddaughter, hired hands, and a cook—bringing the children due to a lack of caregivers at home.  She handled logistics, crew management, and the two-month perils of the trail, motivated by higher Kansas prices ($23.80 per head vs. $8 in San Antonio). Tragically, after successfully arriving, Margaret died from “trail fever” and brain congestion before completing the sale; her body was returned to Texas.  Her story underscores the personal risks women took, blending family duties with bold leadership in a male-dominated field.

Amanda Nite Burks (1841–1931), known as the “Cattle Queen of Cotulla,” was the first documented woman to head north on the Chisholm Trail in April 1871. Newly married to W.F. Burks, she joined his drive of 4,000 cattle from South Texas to Abilene, Kansas, after insisting on accompanying him despite initial resistance.  Riding in a buggy pulled by two horses, Amanda assisted with camp chores, rounded up and branded cattle, brewed coffee for the crew, and endured severe electrical storms in North Texas where lightning seemed to “creep along the ground,” frightening both men and animals.  She even accidentally started a prairie fire while trying to help the cook. After the successful sale, the couple returned to ranching. Following her husband’s death in 1877, Amanda expanded their La Motta Ranch into one of the largest in La Salle County, incorporating sheep and raising her sister-in-law’s children. Her business savvy earned her election as “Queen of the Old Trail Drivers Association” in 1923, cementing her legacy as a skilled rancher who balanced trail hardships with long-term success.

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Johnson Williams (1840–1924), dubbed the “Cattle Queen of Texas,” was a trailblazing businesswoman who became the first woman to drive her own branded herd up the Chisholm Trail.  A former Austin schoolteacher and anonymous fiction writer, she handled bookkeeping for cattlemen, registered her “CY” brand in 1871, invested in livestock, and acquired land in Hays County.  Marrying Hezekiah Williams in 1879 under a prenuptial agreement that preserved her assets (leveraging Texas’s married women’s property rights), she kept her herd separate from his. The couple made at least three drives between 1879 and 1889, riding in a buggy while managing distinct herds to Kansas.  Lizzie bailed her husband out of debts (including a $50,000 ransom after a Cuba kidnapping) but required repayment. After his death, she lived frugally in Austin, amassing a $250,000 fortune in cash, diamonds, and property revealed posthumously. Honored in Fort Worth’s National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame, her independence inspired future generations.

Harriett “Hattie” Louise Standifer Cluck (1853–1938) is believed to be one of the earliest women on the trail, joining her husband George in 1871 for a drive from Round Rock, Texas, to Abilene while pregnant with her fourth child and caring for a toddler and 5-year-old.  Riding horseback the entire way, she managed childcare, cooking, and even helped repel bandits. A deadly Red River crossing at flood stage swept her and the herd a mile downstream, with wagons floating across and children handed to cowboys for safety.  After reaching Kansas and giving birth, the family returned to Texas, where Hattie registered her own cattle brand, farmed, ranched near Cedar Park, and served as a postmistress. Later interviews exaggerated her as a bronco-buster, but her real story emphasizes maternal endurance. A statue in Round Rock’s Chisholm Trail Crossing Park honors her legacy.

Mary “Mollie” Olivette Taylor Bunton (1862–1952), educated in New York but married to West Texas rancher J. Howell Bunton in 1885, joined a 1886 drive of over 5,000 cattle to Kansas shortly after their wedding.  When the trail boss fell ill amid a devastating winter that killed thousands of cattle, her husband led the drive; Mollie insisted on participating, shocking ranch hands by riding astride in breeches and boots—the first woman in her area to do so.  Driving a Concord buggy with horses Darling and Beautiful, she endured suffocating heat, dust storms where lightning danced like “fiery darts” on cattle horns, rattlesnakes (killing one with her fishing pole), water shortages, and encounters with a murdered family.  She gathered wildflowers to decorate her rig and stargazed to cope. Upon reaching Coolidge, Kansas, cowboys crowned her “Queen of the Chisholm Trail” at a celebration. Her 1939 memoir, A Bride on the Old Chisholm Trail in 1886, vividly documents these adventures, and she was inducted as an honorary member of the Trail Drivers Association in 1927.