Hi, my name is Elizabeth Ellen Johnson Williams, but you can call me "Lizzie" for short! I am here to tell you about my life and what I accomplished in the cattle business and the struggles that went with it.

I was born in 1840 in the state of Missouri. I have one older sibling and five younger siblings. Soon after I was born, we moved to Texas in a jiffy.

We lived a couple of different places when we got to Texas but eventually we settled down on Bear Creek, which was in Hays County.

I wanted to be a school teacher one day, but I had to get an education first. I went to Johnson Institute for the beginning of my school journey and then went to Chappell Hill Female College to get my degree.

After I graduated with my degree, I went back to the Johnson Institute to start being a schoolteacher. Then I moved around to a couple of different schools to keep teaching but I did not want to stop there.

I built me a house with two stories so that I could live on the second and hold classes on the first floor. I still did not feel that I had reached my full potential...

So I decided to get into the cattle business. I started by keeping the books for the cattlemen, in other words I was managing their money. Then I decided to invest in some land myself and buy some cattle from auction. While I was working for all these men, I noticed that there was some real money in the business.

In 1871 I registered my brand under the name Elizabeth Johnson. This was a big deal back then because now I could have a real ranch with lots of cattle and really get into the business. It was also unusual because I was a woman entering a man's business world.

Now that I had my brand I needed some land. So two days later I spent 3,000 gold dollars on ten acres in the town of Austin, Texas.

I got real good at the cattle business and ended up making just as much money as all the men that said they did not think I could do it. They started calling me the "Cattle Queen" since I was

 so good.