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STOWELL,
TEXAS Chambers
County, Gulf Coast / East Texas
Highway 124 and Farm Road 65
26 miles
SW of Beaumont
Population 1,572 (2000) 1,419 (1990) |
| | One
of Stowell's rice elevators
Photo by John Troesser |
History
in a Seashell
Named for railroad engineer H. C. Stowell of the Gulf
and Interstate Railway - Stowell's history is tied to that of neighboring Winnie.
Both experienced the same disasters, discoveries, booms and busts.
The
towns first homestead was established in 1894 and the post office opened six years
later when Stowell's 176 people made it the largest town in Chambers County.
A hurricane in 1915, a freeze and salt water invading irrigation canals made
things tough for the immigrants that had been lured by the agricultural promise
of wet and fertile land. Stowell's population dropped to a mere 46 in 1920. The
schools of the two towns were consolidated in 1931. Oil was discovered in 1941
and Houston oilman Glen McCarthy opened a gas plant near Winnie.
Stowell had a population of 1,500 in the 1970s and the two towns are now
linked by their hosting of the Texas Rice Festival. |
| | Another
rice elevator in Stowell
Photo by John Troesser | |
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