Jane Herbert Wilkinson (1798-1880), born in Maryland, moved to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1812 and in 1815 married physician and soldier James Long (c.1793-1822). Granted land in Austin's Colony in 1827, she opened a boarding house on this site in 1832. The busy port and tavern became a popular center of Anglo political activity. Here she hosted a benefit for Stephen F. Austin in 1835 after his release from Mexican prison, and a ball in October 1836 attended by President Sam Houston and the adjourned Congress. In 1837 she moved to Richmond to operate a popular hotel there.