City of Bowie

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the City of Bowie, up there in Montague County. Now settle in, because this one starts the way all good Texas stories start: with somebody movin' somewhere nobody else had bothered to go yet. Back in the 1850s, people began puttin' down permanent roots in a stretch of North Texas known as Queen's Peak, four miles north of where Bowie stands today.

Trade routes and travel routes crisscrossed this part of the state, and folks who followed those routes knew good ground when they found it. But the town itself, the real city, that came later. It came on iron rails.

In the 1870s, the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad purchased acreage from four landowners: Mrs. A. Lavonia Stallings Lindsay, J.I.G.

Cowan, James W. Stallings, and J.G. Cummins.

That acreage became the very ground the downtown of Bowie now sits on. Now, before any of that downtown got built, there was a curious little chapter. As the workers laid tracks from Decatur to Bowie, they needed somewhere to sleep, somewhere to live right alongside those rails.

So up went the tents. Row after row of canvas shelters following the line of the track, and people called it, plain and simply, Tent City. Once the railroad was completed, the tents came down and the permanent houses and buildings went up in their place.

Then came the question every new Texas town had to answer: what do you call this place? These settlers, described on the marker as courageous, hardy, and resourceful, chose the name Bowie, after Texas hero James Bowie, a name the marker calls synonymous with courage, strength, and faith. A fitting choice for people who'd just built a city out of tents and railroad iron.

The town incorporated in 1883, and from there it grew into something substantial. It became a market and financial center for the farmers and ranchers scattered between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls. Churches went up.

Schools were established. Fraternal organizations formed, giving citizens and their children a community to belong to beyond just the work of the land. Then came the hard years.

During the Great Depression, the Public Works Administration came to Bowie and left something behind that you can still see today: rock walls and buildings constructed in Elmwood Cemetery and in Pelham Park. Stone set into the earth during the leanest of times, built to last. By the mid-twentieth century, Bowie had become the largest city in all of Montague County.

Not bad for a place that started as a few tents pitched alongside a railroad track. From Queen's Peak to Tent City to a full-grown city with stone walls and deep roots, Bowie's story is exactly what that marker says it is: the work of forward-thinking pioneers who decided this ground was worth building on, and then proved it.

What the marker says

The history of the City of Bowie has been molded by forward-thinking pioneers of business, education and industry in the late nineteenth century. Situated along many significant trade and travel routes that traversed the State of Texas, permanent settlements in this area began in the 1850s in an area known as Queen's Peak, four miles north of Bowie. The City of Bowie was established when the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad purchased acreage here in the 1870s from Mrs. A. Lavonia (Stallings) Lindsay, J.I.G. Cowan, James W. Stallings and J.G. Cummins which became the downtown site of Bowie. As the workers laid the tracks from Decatur to Bowie, tents were erected to live alongside the tracks, which led to the name "Tent City." Once the railroad was completed, permanent houses and buildings were constructed. The courageous, hardy and resourceful settlers decided to name the town Bowie after Texas hero James Bowie, a name synonymous with courage, strength and faith. The town incorporated in 1883 and became a market and financial center for farmers and ranchers between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls. Churches, schools and fraternal organizations were established for the citizens and their children. During the Great Depression, the Public Works Administration constructed rock walls and buildings in Elmwood Cemetery and Pelham Park. By the mid-twentieth century, Bowie was the largest city in Montague County. From its humble beginnings as a railroad and farming community, Bowie has grown into a diverse city that embraces its strong heritage.