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DICK
DOWLING STATUE First
Public Monument in Houston,
Turns 100 Years Old on St. Patrick’s Day
Houston,
Texasby
Edward T. Cotham, Jr.
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The
Dick Dowling Monument in Hermann Park.
Dedicated on St. Patrick’s Day in 1905
Photo
courtesy Edward T. Cotham, Jr. |
On
March 17, 2005, the Dick Dowling Statue in Hermann Park will celebrate the 100th
anniversary of its unveiling on St. Patrick’s Day in 1905. It was Houston’s first
public monument, coming even before the statue of Sam Houston for whom the city
was named. Standing today on a triangle near the intersection of Hermann Park
Loop, Holcombe, and North MacGregor, the monument consists of an eight-foot statue
made of Italian marble sitting atop a twenty-foot granite base. The creator of
the monument was German sculptor Frank Teich, who sculpted the statue at his studio
near Llano.
Richard
“Dick” Dowling was one of the most interesting figures in Houston
and Texas history. Dowling Street
was named in his honor, as was Tuam Avenue, the place in County Galway, Ireland,
near which he was born in 1837. Because of the Great Famine in Ireland, Dowling
and his family came to America some time after 1846 and eventually settled in
Houston. Dowling made his name and fortune in
a number of saloon businesses. The most notable of these establishments was the
“Bank of Bacchus,” which he shrewdly located across the street from Houston’s
courthouse. “The Bank,” as Dowling’s bar was fondly known, became an immediate
success, making its owner one of the most prominent Irishmen in Houston.
Dowling was a man of great compassion and vision. He was the first person in Houston
to install gas lighting at his business. He also became one of the founding members
of Houston Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, the predecessor of Houston’s
fire department. Finally, Dowling and his associates bought some of the earliest
oil and gas leases in Texas, foreseeing the great
oil boom that would eventually begin to change the world at the turn of the century.
Although his business and civic accomplishments are impressive, Dowling is remembered
today primarily for his role in leading a group of unruly Irish dockworkers to
one of the greatest upsets in military history at the Civil War Battle
of Sabine Pass. Dick Dowling was the 26-year-old lieutenant in charge of a
Confederate fort (Fort Griffin) at Sabine
Pass on September 8, 1863, when a Union invasion fleet of 27 ships and almost
6,000 men attempted to capture the fort as part of a planned invasion of Texas.
In a battle that took less than an hour, Dowling and his fewer than fifty men
repelled the invasion, capturing two Union gunboats and winning a victory that
Jefferson Davis later called the most amazing feat in military history. The names
of Dowling’s small artillery company (the Davis Guard) are inscribed on the side
of the Dowling monument.
Not long after Dowling’s death in 1867 from yellow
fever, the Dick Dowling Camp of the United Confederate Veterans decided to begin
raising money to build a statue of Dowling in Houston
. A number of Irish societies such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians wanted to
participate in the project so the Dowling Monument Association was created to
coordinate and lead the effort. After a lengthy period of planning, design, and
construction the statue was finally finished in early 1905. It was placed originally
at City Hall on Market Square. In 1939, it was moved to Sam Houston Park. In 1958
the Dowling monument was relocated to its present location near Hermann Park.
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| Close-up
view of the Dick Dowling Monument in Hermann Park. Photo courtesy Edward T. Cotham,
Jr. |
The
Dowling statue shows the mustached lieutenant with his binoculars in one hand
and a sword in the other. The sword has caused problems though the years. By 1958,
a Houston newspaper reported that “Dick Dowling’s sword is missing again. [Nobody]
has the faintest idea where it went. Five times now swords have vanished from
the cupped left hand of Dowling’s statue.” Speculating that leprechauns might
have a stash of the rusted swords somewhere in Ireland, the reporter noted that
in some ways the missing sword was an improvement since Dowling did not actually
own a sword at the time of his famous battle.
Because of the Irish heritage
of Dowling and most of his men it was decided to formally dedicate the statue
on St. Patrick’s Day, 1905. One of the largest crowds in Houston history participated
in a parade and a large ceremony to dedicate the monument. When the parade finally
reached the statue about 3 p.m., bands played “God Save Ireland” and “Dixie.”
After a series of speeches, Mrs. W. F. “Annie” Robertson, Dowling’s daughter,
pulled the silken cord to remove the canvas from the statue of her father amid
deafening cheers from the massive crowd of dignitaries, Confederate veterans,
school children, and interested citizens.
Edward T. Cotham, Jr., author
of Sabine Pass; The Confederacy’s Thermopylae, a book recently published
about Dowling and his famous battle, explained the reason that the people of Houston
found it appropriate to so enthusiastically dedicate such a large monument to
Dowling and his men. “The Union invasion thwarted at Sabine
Pass was not actually aimed at that part of Texas. Sabine
Pass was merely planned to be the initial landing point for a Union invasion
that would have rapidly marched west with the intention of capturing Houston
and Galveston.
The people of Houston knew that by stopping that
invasion before it even landed Dowling and his men had saved their city from occupation
and possible destruction. To express their gratitude, Houstonians shortly after
the battle raised funds to issue a special silver medal for Dowling and each of
his men. This medal (extremely rare today) is sometimes said to have been the
Confederate equivalent of the Medal of Honor that was awarded to Union heroes.
After the war, the people of Houston banded together
to build a statue of Dick Dowling and thus permanently honor a man who had meant
so much to the city and its early history.”
Edward
T. Cotham, Jr., former President of the Houston Civil War Round Table, is the
author of Sabine Pass: The Confederacy’s Thermopylae (University of Texas Press,
2004).
March 1, 2005 | |
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