Powell, Ernest Malapert

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Ernest Malapert Powell, out in Crockett County. Now, some men come to Texas chasing a dream. E.

M. Powell came to Texas carrying a surveyor's chain and a whole lot of ambition, and that turned out to be a pretty powerful combination. Powell was a native of Illinois, and before he ever set foot in this state, he had already built himself a career as a surveyor and railroad engineer back in Kentucky.

Then, in 1874, he made his move to Texas, and he arrived at exactly the right moment. The railroad construction boom of the 1870s was in full swing, and surveyors were about as welcome as rain in July. Powell worked that boom, running lines and marking parcels, and here is where it gets interesting.

He wasn't always taking his payment in cash. He was taking it in land. West Texas land, at that.

By 1878, Powell and a partner named E. L. Gage had opened a real estate and land surveying company in Dallas.

And Powell, being a man who understood what he was sitting on, started putting newspaper advertisements out to encourage folks to come settle in West Texas. He was promoting his holdings, a tract of land measuring one hundred and eighty-five thousand acres in what is now Crockett County. One hundred and eighty-five thousand acres.

Let that number roll around a moment. Now, to get families out there, Powell made them an offer worth considering. The first families who purchased homesteads out of that tract would receive forty acres of free land, plus reduced prices on any additional acreage they wanted.

He wasn't just selling land. He was building something. The city of Ozona was founded right there on Powell's property.

He provided a public well and a windmill for the settlers. He set aside lots for public buildings, for churches, for a school. He was laying the bones of a community, piece by piece.

And those efforts paid off. In 1891, the county of Crockett was officially organized, with Ozona as the county seat. Away from West Texas, Powell was married to the former Mary Almyra Durrell, and they had one son, named Durrell, who died at the age of seven.

That is a quiet grief the marker carries without elaboration, and we won't add to it. Back in Dallas, Powell was a major contributor to the Congregational Church and to other charities. A man of survey lines and newspaper ads and public windmills, but also of generosity in the more personal sense.

He came from Illinois, learned his trade in Kentucky, and then came to Texas with a chain and an eye for land. One hundred and eighty-five thousand acres, a city, a county seat. Not a bad set of lines to leave on the map.

What the marker says

A native of Illinois, E. M. Powell was a surveyor and railroad engineer in Kentucky before moving to Texas in 1874. He worked as a surveyor during the railroad construction boom in Texas in the 1870s, taking parcels of land in payment for his services. By 1878 Powell and a partner, E. L. Gage, opened a real estate and land surveying company in Dallas. Powell soon began promoting his land holdings in West Texas and placed newspaper advertisements to encourage settlement in this area. To the first families who purchased homesteads out of his 185,000-acre tract of land in present Crockett County, he offered forty acres of free land as well as reduced prices for additional acreage. The city of Ozona was founded on Powell's property. He provided a public well and windmill, as well as lots for public buildings, churches, and a school. As a result of his settlement efforts, the county of Crockett was organized in 1891 with Ozona as the county seat. Married to the former Mary Almyra Durrell, Powell was the father of one son, Durrell, who died at age seven. Powell was a major contributor to the Dallas Congregational Church and to other charities. (1991)