Greensville S. Dowell

Dowell's school began as a Methodist project. In 1865 the trustees of Soule University organized the Galveston Medical College, the first medical school in Texas, and named him professor of anatomy; he became dean in 1867. In 1873 he won a charter for the independent Texas Medical College and Hospital, with Ashbel Smith and James M. Callaway on its board. Dowell published two books and about fifty articles, including A Treatise on Hernia in 1876, and traveled to fever-stricken cities to treat patients. He is buried in this cemetery.

What the plaque says

Greensville S. Dowell (September 1822 - June 9, 1881) Virginia native Dr. Greensville S. Dowell moved to Texas in 1853. During the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the Confederate army in Galveston. He was instrumental in the founding of the Galveston Medical Society, Texas Medical College and Hospital, and the "Galveston Medical Journal," the first publication of its kind in Texas. A noted surgeon, Dowell designed several surgical instruments and was an authority on the treatment of yellow fever. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Moody Mansion — 1.2 mi
  A four-story, 28,000-square-foot house on Broadway, finished in 1895, that W. L. Moody Jr. bought just after the 1900 storm and his family kept until Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
• 1859 Ashton Villa — 1.4 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.
• Galveston Seawall and the 1900 Storm — 1.5 mi
  The concrete wall along the Gulf that Galveston built after the hurricane of September 8, 1900, which killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people in a city of 38,000.
• The Strand — 1.5 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• Major Leon Dyer — steps away
• Nicholas D. Labadie — steps away
• Nahor Biggs Yard — steps away
• Bernard Moore Temple — steps away