DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — my job is just to do it justice. Now, Val Verde County's got a house worth talkin' about, and it starts, as a good many Texas stories do, with somebody buildin' something meant to last. Local contractor Daniel Glenn put up this residence in 1900 and 1901, and he didn't just slap boards together and call it done.
He worked a band of decorative brickwork right into the design — a little flourish, a little pride of craft baked into the walls themselves. Glenn finished the place, then sold it in 1901 to a woman named Bessie Chisum, a widow at the time. Now, Bessie wouldn't stay unattached for long.
In 1906, she married a man named Luke Dowe. And here's where the story gets its weight. Luke Dowe had spent his career workin' one of the most consequential stretches of ground in all of North America — the Texas-Mexican border.
He served first with the frontier battalion of the Texas Rangers, then went on to the U.S. Customs Service. Peace officer work on that border, in that era, was not a quiet life.
It was a long career, and he lived it. But when the day was done, Luke and Bessie Dowe came home to that house Daniel Glenn built with his decorative brickwork and his contractor's care back in 1900. They came home to it, and they kept comin' home to it — for fifty years.
Fifty years in one house. That's not just a residence. That's a life, set down in brick.
What the marker says
Local contractor Daniel Glenn built this residence in 1900-01, incorporating a band of decorative brickwork in the design. He sold the property in 1901 to Bessie Chisum, a widow who married Luke Dowe in 1906. Dowe had a long career as a peace officer on the Texas-Mexican border, serving first with the frontier battalion of the Texas Rangers and later with the U. S. Customs service. The Dowes occupied this house for 50 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985.