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SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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WHEREAS, Accomplished Texans who serve as positive role |
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models for young people deserve special recognition, and Mary Ann |
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"Molly" Goodnight, Armstrong County pioneer and wife of Charles |
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Goodnight, embodied the strength and spirit that has made Texas an |
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enduring example to the rest of the country; and |
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WHEREAS, Molly Goodnight was born September 12, 1839, in |
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Madison County, Tennessee; she moved with her family to Fort |
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Belknap, Texas, in 1854; after the death of her parents, she worked |
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as a schoolteacher and took care of her five brothers; and |
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WHEREAS, She met Charles Goodnight in the mid-1860s, and they |
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married in 1870; the couple settled in Pueblo, Colorado, where |
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Charles had already established a ranch; drought and the Panic of |
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1873 caused the family to return to Texas, where Charles received |
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backing from Irish investor John George Adair, who became his |
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partner; and |
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WHEREAS, The Goodnights founded a ranch in the Texas |
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Panhandle based in Palo Duro Canyon; Molly became doctor, nurse, |
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spiritual comforter, sister, and mother to the ranch hands who |
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worked there, but her most important role was wife and helpmate to |
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the most famous rancher on the High Plains; and |
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WHEREAS, She became interested in the plight of the baby |
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bison left behind by the commercial hunters who had ravaged the |
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great bison herds that roamed the Plains; recognizing that the |
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extinction of the bison was imminent, she encouraged her husband to |
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establish the Goodnight bison herd, which has since become the |
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Official State Bison Herd of Texas and is now located at Caprock |
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Canyons State Park; and |
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WHEREAS, Known as the Mother of the Panhandle of Texas, Molly |
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helped establish Goodnight College, and the town of Goodnight is |
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named in honor of her and her husband; Molly died in 1926, and her |
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headstone reads "Mary Ann Dyer Goodnight, One who spent her whole |
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life in the service of others"; she is truly deserving of this |
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signal honor for her pioneering work alongside her husband and her |
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visionary efforts to save the bison; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the 83rd Legislature of the State of Texas |
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hereby designate September 12 of each year from 2013 through 2022 as |
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Mary Ann "Molly" Goodnight Day in honor of her work in saving the |
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herd of Texas Plains bison that is now the Official State Bison Herd |
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of Texas; and, be it further |
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RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be prepared in honor |
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of the life and legacy of Mary Ann "Molly" Goodnight. |