DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Rowe Cemetery, out there in Donley County. Now, some places earn their names through glory, and some earn them through grit. This one earned it through both — and through grief.
It starts with an Englishman. Alfred Rowe, born in 1853, came to the Texas Panhandle and, with help from cattleman Charles Goodnight, established the RO ranch on Skillet Creek in 1880. Within ten years, that operation had grown to a hundred thousand acres of land and more than ten thousand head of cattle.
That's not a ranch, friend — that's a small country. And a community rose up around Alfred Rowe's influence, a commercial center on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway line, named in his honor: Rowe. But the marker doesn't spend long on the cattle counts.
It gets quieter than that. A Kentucky native named Isaac Smith had made his home in the community. The Rowe post office was established in his home in 1892.
And Isaac Smith had set aside a portion of his land — but that moment came with hard reason. In 1898, four children in the Beedy family died. Four.
Those children had first been buried in the family garden. When Isaac Smith established the community cemetery that same year, the Beedy children's graves were moved there. The cemetery began the way so many things in the Panhandle did — in the face of something unbearable.
Rowe the town didn't stand still. In 1907, the community moved one mile southeast and became the town of Hedley. Towns wander sometimes.
But that cemetery? It stayed. It kept right on serving as the primary burial ground for area residents, even after the town it was named for shifted off the map.
Isaac Smith's grandson, a man named W. I. Rains, later provided additional acreage for the cemetery during the twentieth century.
The land kept growing to hold what it needed to hold. By 1999, more than fifteen hundred marked graves were counted there. Among them — thirty-two victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919.
Thirty-two. In a community this size, that number lands hard. And there's a veterans memorial placed in 1990, standing among those stones, making sure certain sacrifices aren't forgotten either.
Alfred Rowe himself — born 1853, died 1912 — gave the place its name. Isaac Smith gave it its ground. The Beedy family, in their sorrow, gave it its beginning.
And generation after generation of Panhandle people gave it its meaning. The community of Rowe is gone now. But out there in Donley County, the cemetery it left behind is still keeping count.
What the marker says
Historically significant for its associations with rancher Alfred Rowe and the now-extinct community of Rowe, this burial ground is a reflection of early area farming and ranching efforts and the harshness of pioneer life as permanent settlement came to the Panhandle. With help from cattleman Charles Goodnight, Englishman Alfred Rowe (1853-1912) established the RO ranch on Skillet Creek in 1880, and within ten years had amassed 100,000 acres of land and more than 10,000 head of cattle. His encouragement and support aided the development of Rowe, named in his honor, as a commercial center on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway line. Kentucky native Isaac Smith, in whose home the Rowe post office was established in 1892, set aside part of his land for use as a community cemetery in 1898, after the death of four children in the Beedy family. Originally located in the family garden, the children's graves were moved to the Rowe cemetery upon its establishment. Even after the community of Rowe moved one mile southeast in 1907, to become the town of Hedley, this cemetery continued to serve as the primary burial ground for area residents. Isaac Smith's grandson, W. I. Rains, provided additional acreage for the Rowe cemetery during the 20th century, and by 1999 there were more than 1,500 marked graves here. A veterans memorial placed in 1990 and the graves of 32 victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 lend additional significance to the Rowe cemetery. (2001)