DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the source, and here's how I tell it — the story of Dr. Greensville S. Dowell, as recorded in Galveston County.
Now, some men come to Texas and just sort of settle in. And then there are men who arrive and proceed to build the whole foundation under everybody else's feet. Greensville S.
Dowell was that second kind. He was born in Virginia, September of 1822, and by 1853 he had made his way to Texas. Brought his medical bag and, apparently, an extraordinary amount of ambition with him.
When the Civil War came calling, Dowell was right there in Galveston, serving as a surgeon in the Confederate army. That's not a man who sat things out. But here's where the story gets genuinely impressive — it's what he did before and after the cannon smoke cleared that left the deepest mark.
Dowell was instrumental in founding the Galveston Medical Society. He helped bring the Texas Medical College and Hospital into existence. And then, as if that weren't enough to keep a man busy, he was behind the Galveston Medical Journal — the first publication of its kind in the entire state of Texas.
The first. In a state that has never been shy about doing things big, somebody had to be first, and it was him. He was also a noted surgeon who designed several surgical instruments himself — not content to just use the tools available, he made better ones.
And he became a recognized authority on the treatment of yellow fever, which in Galveston was no academic exercise. Yellow fever was real, it was recurring, and it was deadly, and the man studied it until he understood it better than almost anyone. Greensville S.
Dowell died June 9, 1881. But the Medical Society, the College, the Hospital, the Journal — those he left behind have a way of outlasting any one man's years. Some doctors treat patients.
This one helped build Texas medicine from the ground up.
What the marker says
(September 1822 - June 9, 1881) Virginia native Dr. Greensville S. Dowell moved to Texas in 1853. During the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the Confederate army in Galveston. He was instrumental in the founding of the Galveston Medical Society, Texas Medical College and Hospital, and the "Galveston Medical Journal," the first publication of its kind in Texas. A noted surgeon, Dowell designed several surgical instruments and was an authority on the treatment of yellow fever. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986