DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna pass it right along to you. Half a mile south of where you're rolling right now, there's nothing but quiet. But pull your imagination down that road a spell, because something was there once — a whole town, born and gone inside of a few hard decades.
The land itself goes back to 1831, when it was part of a grant called Loma Blanca. By 1873 it was in the hands of the Perez family, and they held it until 1898, when they sold what they called Parrita — Little Grape Vine — to a Mrs. King of King Ranch.
That's the ground we're talking about. Now jump forward to 1909. Two men — E.O.
Burton and A.H. Danforth — looked at this stretch of South Texas and saw a future. They founded Flowella as a trade town, the beating commercial heart of a projected farm colony.
And the name? The marker's plain about it: there was a flowing well right in the middle of the townsite. Flowella.
Simple as that, and kind of beautiful if you think about it — water in dry country, a promise buried in the name itself. That same year, 1909, the Calahan family opened a hotel. Then came 1910, and Flowella was filling out — a store, a post office, and a school building, all going up.
That school became more than a place for lessons. It was the social and cultural center for some hundred residents. A hundred people with plans, with neighbors, with kids running between those buildings.
But then the seasons turned adverse. That's the word the marker uses — adverse — and it carries the weight of everything that followed. The store closed in 1911.
The hotel held on longer, but it closed in 1915. The post office, which had been the town's connection to the wider world, went dark in 1923. And the school — last one standing, last symbol of community — closed in 1928.
None of the original buildings remain. That's the whole story, right there in that line. A town founded on the promise of flowing water and a farming future, and then, one door at a time, the silence coming back.
Flowella is a half-mile south. You'd never know it to look.
What the marker says
On 1831 "Loma Blanca" grant and 1873 land of Perez family, who in 1898 sold "Parrita" (Little Grape Vine) to Mrs. King of King Ranch. Flowella was founded 1909 by E.O. Burton and A.H. Danforth as trade town for a projected farm colony, and named for a flowing well in middle of townsite. The Calahan family opened hotel in 1909, store and post office, 1910. School building, also erected in 1910, provided a social-cultural center for some 100 residents. In adverse seasons, closings began: the store, 1911; hotel, 1915; post office, 1923; school, 1928. None of the original buildings remain. (1973)