Mary Florence Cowell

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Mary Florence Cowell, and I'll give it to you straight from the record. Mary Florence Tinsman Cowell was born November 10, 1860, and she lived until July 13, 1940. She and her husband, S.

B. Cowell, came to Texas from Missouri in 1900, and they put down roots in Whitesboro, Grayson County. Now, you might think that's a quiet enough beginning.

You'd be wrong. Two years after they arrived, something was already set in motion. Mary Florence was a member of the P.E.O.

Sisterhood, a philanthropic educational organization founded back in 1869 at Wesleyan College in Iowa, dedicated to educational opportunities for women. And in 1902, her friend Dora Hallock, the P.E.O. supreme chapter organizer, came to visit Whitesboro. Those two women sat down together, and right there in the Cowell home, on this very site, they organized Chapter A.

The first P.E.O. chapter in all of Texas. Mary Florence Cowell was elected president of Chapter A. That was just the start.

She kept at it for decades, and in 1928, right back in Whitesboro, she was instrumental in the organization of the Texas State Chapter of the P.E.O. She was elected the first Texas state president of the organization. The first.

And somewhere along the way, the title she earned wasn't a formal one, wasn't printed on any ballot. It was simply what people came to call her. The mother of P.E.O. in Texas.

Some legacies get carved into stone. This one got built, meeting by meeting, chapter by chapter, right here in this town.

What the marker says

(November 10, 1860 - July 13, 1940) Mary Florence (Tinsman) Cowell and her husband S. B. Cowell came to Texas from Missouri in 1900. Mrs. Cowell was a member of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic educational organization founded in 1869 at Wesleyan College in Iowa and dedicated to educational opportunities for women. Her friend Dora Hallock, P.E.O. supreme chapter organizer, visited Whitesboro in 1902. Together they organized Chapter A, the first P. E. O. chapter in Texas, in the Cowell home on this site. Mary Florence Cowell was elected president of Chapter A and was instrumental in the organization of the Texas State Chapter of the P.E.O. in Whitesboro in 1928. Elected the first Texas state president of the organization, she eventually became known as "the mother of P. E. O. in Texas."