Mary Sabina Daggett was born November 11, 1880, in Fort Worth, Texas to Ephraim Merrill "Bud" and Laura Alice Palmer Daggett. Mary's father, a cowboy and trail driver-turned-cattleman, came from a family of local pioneers: his uncle and namesake, Ephraim Merrill Daggett (1810-1883) is known as the "Father of Fort Worth." She attended Fort Worth public schools and studied botany and music at Cottey College, a women's liberal arts college in Missouri.
