Bowen's Island

Duane's take

The official marker's the one doin' the talkin' here — I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Now picture this. Right in the middle of the San Antonio River, there sits a piece of land that the river itself wraps around on three sides.

The fourth side? Closed off by the Concepcion Acequia. A natural island, more or less, cradled by water.

The kind of place that, once you see it, you don't forget it. In 1845, a man named John Bowen came along and bought that peninsula. Bowen was a native of Philadelphia — about as far from the Texas Hill Country as you can imagine — and he paid Maria Josefa Rodriguez de Yturri exactly three hundred dollars for it.

Three hundred dollars. For an island. He and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, didn't waste any time.

They built a seven-room home out there for their family of six children. They planted fruit trees. They planted grapevines.

And on the east bank of the river, they built a waterwheel to irrigate their truck farm. The man wasn't just living on the island — he was putting it to work. And John Bowen wasn't content to tend just his own plot of ground.

During the 1840s and 1850s, he served San Antonio as United States postmaster and city treasurer. He was, by all accounts, a staunch Unionist. And here's the part that'll stay with you: according to family tradition, John Bowen used that island — that water-wrapped, hard-to-reach piece of land — to protect fugitive slaves.

The marker doesn't elaborate. It doesn't need to. You sit with that a moment.

John Bowen died on the island in 1867, and he was buried there. Right there on the ground he'd bought for three hundred dollars and made into something. But the island didn't go quiet after him.

Not hardly. Bowen's Island became a well-known garden spot, a popular setting for social gatherings and celebrations. The first Volksfest was held right here.

The Turnverein, the German Athletic Club, performed on these grounds. And come the 1870s, a pleasure resort called Wolfram's Central Garden took root on the very same site. People came from all over to be exactly where John Bowen had planted his fruit trees.

Mary Elizabeth Bowen lived on until 1903 — long enough to see the place her and John had built become something the whole city knew. And then, in the 1920s, the river was diverted. The water that had cradled Bowen's Island on three sides for generations simply... moved.

And just like that, the island became part of the San Antonio mainland. No longer an island at all. The water that made it special let go.

But the ground is still there. And now you know whose hands shaped it.

What the marker says

This tract of land is a natural peninsula in the San Antonio River. It once was bounded by the river on three sides and on the fourth by the Concepcion Acequia. In 1845 John Bowen, a native of Philadelphia, bought the property from Maria Josefa Rodriguez de Yturri for $300. Bowen and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, built a seven-room home on the island for their family of six children. Here they planted fruit trees and gravevines. On the east bank of the river, they built a waterwheel to irrigate their truck farm. During the 1840s and 1850s John Bowen served San Antonio as United States postmaster and city treasurer. He was a staunch Unionist and, according to family tradition, protected fugitive slaves. John Bowen died on the island in 1867 and was buried here. Bowen's Island was a well-known garden spot and a popular setting for social gatherings and celebrations. Here the first Volksfest was held, and the Turnverein, and German Athletic Club, performed. During the 1870s it was the site of Wolfram's Central Garden, a pleasure resort. Mary Elizabeth Bowen died in 1903. During the 1920s the river was diverted, and Bowen's Island became part of the San Antonio mainland. (1985)