Bowser Community

Bowser Bend grew up about 1875 around James Monroe Locker's gin and a store run by his sons. Simeon Whitted opened a post office in his home in 1887, named for A. Bowser. After a fire the school was rebuilt on higher ground. By 1892 Bowser Bend had 150 people, a general store, a mill-gin, a physician, a justice and a constable. Bowser, settled by families flooded out of the bend, had a post office from 1892 to 1921, the Martin gin from 1891 and 100 people in 1896.

What the plaque says

Bowser Community About 1858 the Abel Bowser family settled at a large bend in the Colorado River about 3 miles north of this site. The developing village, school and cemetery became known as Bowser Bend and by the late 1880s included a cotton gin and store. Due to river floods, Paul Varga donated land at this site for a chapel and cemetery in 1890. In the early 1900s J. T. Martin sold town lots and deeded land for a school one-half mile east. The town of Bowser relocated, but the closure of the post office, gin and school caused it to decline in the 1940s. (1990)

Where it stands

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