For Southland Loved - Introduction

For Southland Loved

Biography of Jane Morton Smith Ware
Wife of James Alexander Ware
By: Judy C. Ware, 2018

Jane Morton Smith Ware
photo property of James & Judy Ware

Contents

Introduction – Pages 3-8
Chapter 1: Smith-Taylor-Somerville Bloodlines - Pages 9-36
Chapter 2: The Value of an Education - Pages 37-42
Chapter 3: Texas, A Good Place to Start - Pages 43-52
Chapter 4: Early years in Nueces County - Pages 53-58
Chapter 5: Ware’s Tigers - Pages 59-68
Chapter 6: Battle of Corpus Christi - Pages 69-86
Chapter 7: War is Hell on the Home Front - Pages 87-92
Chapter 8: Cavalry and Cotton - Pages 93-108
Chapter 9: Captain King - Pages 109-126
Chapter 10: Red River Campaign - Pages 127-164
Chapter 11: Fort Duncan - Pages 165-196
Chapter 12: Where to Go From Here - Pages 197-212
Chapter 13: Making the Best of It - Pages 213-220
Chapter 14: Sacrifice and Service - Pages 221-226
Chapter 15: The Honorable James A. Ware - Pages 227-248
Chapter 16: Back to Basics - Pages 249-264
Chapter 17: Coming into the Home Stretch - Pages 265-286
Chapter 18: Ringing in a New Century - Pages 287-295
Chapter 19: Finishing Southern Strong - Pages 296-328
Chapter 20: Frances Glassell Ware – daughter
Chapter 21: Somerville Ware – son
Chapter 22: Eudora Murray Ware Dean
Index – References - Acknowledgements

Forward

When I began to write the biography of Jane Morton Smith Ware, I struggled for a title to the book that would do her justice. She was a formidable woman. Born into a wealthy family in Virginia, she then married into another wealthy family from the Old Dominion. In Jane’s case, however, her biological family decided to take advantage of the wealth and prosperity that could be made in a far off, untamed land called Texas. When they married, her new husband, James Alexander Ware, had just graduated from law school and was looking to set up a legal practice. Virginia already had a wealth of good lawyers, but the opportunities in Texas were limitless. With his own auspicious reputation already known in his native state, he could build upon that with the recommendations of well established and connected members of Jane’s family who had already relocated to Texas. The fact that Jane was extremely close to her family helped make the decision to move to Texas that much easier for the newlyweds. In all likelihood, the couple would have probably moved back to Virginia in later years after James had garnered wealth and status, since (as the firstborn son of Josiah William Ware) he would, according to the traditions of primogenitor, have inherited the family plantation called Springfield. Sadly, after the Civil War, there was nothing left for James to inherit, so Texas became his permanent home, and the future Ware generations from that branch of the family tree grew strong roots in the Texas soil.

Therefore, Jane began her adult married life far from the cultured area of the country she was used to. She found herself not only the wife of a lawyer, but also a Confederate officer who would fight in a war that would ultimately result in both of them losing the family wealth they had been born into. Jane was remarkable in how she handled the trying times in which she lived. An educated woman (at a time when few women graduated from an institute of higher learning), she was articulate, bright, courageous, and unfailingly devoted to the Confederacy. She endured long, hard separations from her husband as he did active service as a scout, a cavalry officer, and a commander. She watched firsthand the Battle of Corpus Christi – knowing full well that her husband was leading a cavalry charge in the midst of all the firing and smoke. She saw her home ransacked, had to flee in evacuation, and during all the years when James served, she endured the never-ending worry about his safety. She went through three pregnancies and delivered three children under these circumstances. Because of the duties of her husband, she was often left with the responsibility of raising these children alone, with her only monetary support being what James could mail to her when he was lucky enough to get paid. As the letters reflect, James constantly made request upon request to headquarters pleading for pay for himself and his soldiers.

Despite the deprivations brought on by the war and the suffering she had to endure (as all military wives did), her love for her husband and the Confederacy never wavered. She wrote many poems that reflect her feelings – two are printed below.

Perhaps the most poignant and beautiful poem is the one I found in an old docket book of James that Jane had kept and written notes in toward the end of her life. I do not know the exact year it was written, but the mere fact that his docket book was now in her hands and the poem is in her handwriting, would lead one to think this might have been after James died. She never published it – just left it safely tucked in between the pages of his law book.

First part of poem by Jane – entire poem owned by James and Judy Ware

When James came to the end of his life, he moved into the Old Confederate Home in Austin, Texas, where Jane would be able to visit him often. She worked tirelessly for the rights of the veterans there. She spent her later years deeply devoted to the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) organization and became so beloved and revered by the chapter at Baylor College, that they literally named her their patron saint.

   
Jane Ware’s photos in the Baylor College Yearbook

It was in her obituaries that I learned that Jane had written the words for the state song of the U.D.C. titled “For Southland Loved”. After years of searching for the words to this song, I only recently came across a copy in an old Texas newspaper. It became clear that this was the perfect heading for the woman who embodied the very words of the title. I like to think she would be pleased.

JCW

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