Washington Bower

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Washington Bower. Now settle in, because this piece of ground has seen more history than most counties could claim in a lifetime. We're talking about a site in Williamson County that started its story way back in 1838, when the Republic of Texas itself granted this land to a man named Simon Miller.

The republic was young, Texas was wild, and that land grant set a chain of events in motion that would play out across decades. The site passed to Lucinda Lawrence, who inherited it, and Lucinda was the wife of Henry Inlo Layne. Now Layne was not a man who sat still.

The marker names him as a farmer, a rancher, a mason, and a builder, and it was that last calling that gave us the centerpiece of this whole story. In 1853, Henry Inlo Layne built Washington Bower, a frame house, and not just any frame house. The first frame house in this area.

Out here on the Texas frontier, that was something to talk about. Four years after the house went up, in 1857, Layne opened his door to a guest. A military hero by the name of Robert E.

Lee. You don't just shrug that off. The man came to Washington Bower, and Henry Inlo Layne was his host.

Then the years kept moving, the way years do, and in 1868, Layne found himself a victor in the Civil War Battle of Galveston. The same hands that built this house, that welcomed that famous guest, had now come through one of the war's storied engagements. And the house itself kept bearing witness.

In 1878, a Texas Revolution veteran named Adam Lawrence died here at Washington Bower. A man who had served in the Revolution, gone to his rest on this same ground that Simon Miller had claimed from the republic forty years before. By 1890, the place had passed to Adella Layne and her husband, William Russell Landers.

New names on old ground, but the walls of that first frame house were still standing. Washington Bower, built in 1853, still holding the weight of everything that happened inside it.

What the marker says

"Washington Bower" - built 1853, first frame house in this area. Site, an 1838 Republic of Texas land grant to Simon Miller, was inherited by Lucinda Lawrence, wife of Henry Inlo Layne -- farmer, rancher, mason, builder of this house. Layne was host here (1857) to military hero Robert E. Lee; in 1868, was a victor in Civil War Battle of Galveston. Texas Revolution veteran Adam Lawrence died here in 1878. Placed passed in 1890 to Adella Layne and her husband, William Russell Landers. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1971