Mary Ann Goodnight

Mary Ann Dyer Goodnight (September 12, 1839 – April 11, 1926) was an American cattlewoman, conservationist, and educator. She was a 1991 inductee of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. Goodnight is credited with saving the Southern plains bison from extinction.

Life Mary Ann (Molly) Goodnight was born Mary Ann Dyer on September 12, 1839, in Madison County, Tennessee. Mary Ann's father, Joel Henry Dyer, fought in the Battle of New Orleans and was the attorney general of West Tennessee. Mary Ann's mother, Susan Lynch Miller, was the granddaughter of William Blount, the first territorial governor of Tennessee. Mary Ann did not have a formal education, as there were no formal schools while growing up in Tennessee. However, Mary Ann was taught by her parents from a young age and knew how to read and write.

In 1854, when she was 14, Mary Ann's parents brought her to Belknap, Texas. Not long after, her parents died, then she had to care for her three youngest brothers. Around 1864, she met Charles Goodnight at Fort Belknap. In the 1860s, she taught in Weatherford, Texas. While Mary Ann taught, her soon to be husband, Charles, and his cattle partner Oliver Loving created the Goodnight-Loving Trail, which was a cattle drive in the late 1860s for the movement of large herds of Texas Longhorns from Texas to Southern Wyoming. Mary Ann married Charles Goodnight in Hickman, Kentucky at N.P. Harness' home on July 26, 1870.

Mary Ann Goodnight took on several roles while at the JA Ranch. She acted as the ranch manager when Charles was away on business, nursed cowboys back to health with folk medicine, acted as a spiritual advisor for those in troubled times, and patched the cowboys outfits. Beyond her regular chores, Mary Ann convinced her husband Charles to bring her bison calves left behind by buffalo hunters, soon establishing the Goodnight Bison Herd. The Goodnight Bison Herd and its descendants are the last vestige of Southern Plains Bison. They can be found at Caprock Canyons State Park and are known as the Texas State Bison Herd. In 1887, Mary Ann and Charles moved to Armstrong County, Texas. Mary Ann would spend the next 38 years of her life living in the community aptly named for her husband, Goodnight, TX.