GOD & TEXAS: Molly Goodnight

Living in the Texas Panhandle in the mid-1870’s was risky. Besides the Comanche raids and buffalo stampedes, range wild fires and blue northers threatened lengthy lifespans. This stress caused many settlers to abandon their land grants and seek a healthier environment in which to raise their families. 

But Charles and Mary Dyer Goodnight overcame these difficulties to become true Texas heroes. Charles has been called the “Father of the Texas Panhandle,” and helped to establish the historic Goodnight-Loving cattle trail. Among his many accomplishments, Goodnight invented the chuck wagon and was a leader in the raid on a Comanche camp to liberate captive Cynthia Ann Parker. In 1955, Goodnight was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. 

Mary Ann “Molly” Goodnight was a co-collaborator with Charles in their 56-year marriage and extensive business endeavors. Being the only woman on a ranch that was 200 miles from the nearest town, Molly became a nurse, prayer partner, seamstress, reading teacher, counselor, and surrogate mother to scores of ranch cowboys. With much respect, she was known as “The Mother of the Texas Panhandle.”

While Charles was tending the range, Molly lived a very solitary life. She often told the story about three live chickens that a cowboy gave her. He thought she would cook them, but Molly said, “They were something I could talk to, they would run to me when I called them, and followed me everywhere I went. They knew me and tried to talk to me in their language.”

Molly rescued abandoned or orphaned buffalo, and raised them with care. In doing so, she preserved the Southern American Bison Herd. Part of that herd exists today in the Panhandle, Yellowstone Park, and several zoos. 

In 1921, five years before her death of severe dementia, Charles commissioned a Waterbury Grandfather Clock engraved with these words: "In Honor of Mary Dyer Goodnight, Pioneer of the Texas Panhandle. For many months, in 1876-1877, she saw few men and no women, her nearest neighbor being seventy-five miles distant, and the nearest settlement 200 miles. She met isolation and hardships with a cheerful heart, and danger with undaunted courage. With unfailing optimism, she took life's varied gifts, and made her home a house of joy."   

Married in 1870, Charles and Molly moved to his first ranch in Pueblo, CO. As a devout Christian, Molly helped to establish the first Southern Methodist Church within her first year of residence. After their move to Texas, Molly financed a new church in their namesake town of Goodnight. Because Molly cared for their souls, ranch cowboys were expected to attend services. Additionally, Molly founded an orphanage, and Goodnight College.

Molly Goodnight loved God and His creation. She understood and fulfilled 1 Timothy 6:18 NKJV, “Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.” May we all learn from her example.

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