In 1829, when a land agent told Margaret's father about money opportunities in Texas, the Heffernans moved West to find fortune.

If a family was able to do that the government would give a yoke of oxen, a cart, ten milking cows, and a league of land.

Margaret's father died shortly after at the hands of José de Urrea's forces during the Texas Revolution prior to the campaign led personally by Santa Anna.

The family returned home when news of recent successful campaigns against the Native Americans had reached their camp.

Unfortunately, they were only able to be home for a short period before escalating tension with Mexico caused the government to advise residents to move from the area for protection purposes in October 1836.

That same year Milton contracted cholera during an epidemic that also killed their young son William, and he died on August 24.

The Civil War gave the Borlands access to millions of cattle that were free roaming in Texas due to many ranchers leaving their farms to fight for the Confederate States Army.

By the time the epidemic ended with the cooler winter temperatures setting in, Margaret only had three surviving children out of the nine she birthed.

[7] Her son-in-law, Victor Rose, went on to become a writer, editor, and historian where he wrote about Margaret from an intimate perspective so we are able to gain some insight as to who she was from someone who knew her personally.

Victor said this of Margaret in the local newspaper The Victoria Advocate, "a woman of resolute will, and self-reliance, yet was she not one of the kindest mothers.

She had, unaided, acquired a good education, her manners were lady-like, and when fortune smiled upon her at last in a pecuniary sense, she was as perfectly at home in the drawing room of the cultured as if refinement had engulfed its polishing touches upon her mind in maidenhood.

She did receive help from slaves, relatives, and farm hands when it came to the actual physical labor required to manage and maintain the herd.

Her brother James Heffernan stayed with her and her family and was considered to be a loyal and hardworking man who helped his sister during difficult times.

She did face hardships still, in the winter of 1871-72 a freak blizzard struck Victoria and killed thousands of her cattle who froze to death due to the storm.

At the age of 49, Margaret made the decision to take her family and 2,500 cattle to Wichita, Kansas in search of opportunity and fortune.

[9] The family set out for the Chisholm Trail, which started in South Texas, in 1873 with half a dozen hired hands in order to manage the herd of over 2,000 cattle.

Her body was returned to Texas; her sons Alex and Jesse bought her a gravestone which reads,[11] Our Mama Margaret Heffernan Borland Born Apr.