Pelham Park

By 1912 the Bowie Pelham Camp had enrolled 102 members, and its park, bought in 1901, was paid for, with a pavilion, three wells, a stone barbecue pit and a dining shed with tables for one hundred plates. A small leased portion brought in $50 a year. The camp held an annual reunion, hosted the state reunion once and once entertained veterans of Quantrill's and Shelby's commands. A county history of 1913 describes the United Confederate Veterans as standing for loyalty to the Lost Cause, a postwar story that downplayed slavery as the war's cause.

What the plaque says

Pelham Park Before Bowie was incorporated in 1883, Confederate Captain John J. Carter purchased 160 acres in 1878. As early as 1879, veterans of the Confederate Army would meet on land owned by Captain Carter. The Carter Property was situated near the new cemetery and was a place to congregate before or after a burial. Captain Carter died on Jan. 29, 1882, but his wife, Charlotte Jane Carter, permitted the veterans to continue using the property. Bowie Pelham Camp, No. 572, United Confederate Veterans, was organized in 1895 with over 100 members. The veterans purchased 26.5 acres from Charlotte Carter in 1901 for $450 with stipulations that the property would always be dedicated to veterans, past, present and future. In 1905, a pavilion was built in the park along with three water wells, a barbeque pit, mess house and a long dining shed. Land was paid in full by 1910 and the group grew to over 300 members. Over the years, membership declined and the remaining camp members decided to transfer the property to the city of Bowie, which was finalized on August 14, 1923. On Jan. 6, 1931, the city fathers officially named the park Bowie Pelham Park. The confederate monument located elsewhere in bowie was moved to the park in 1936 as well as the WWI marker. The first Jim Bowie Days celebration and rodeo to promote the community was held in 1967. "Second Monday," a popular meeting of farmers and ranchers to barter livestock and goods near the railroad tracks, was eventually moved to Pelham Park in 1970. In 1989, the city of Bowie purchased 28 adjoining acres from the Hill Family for expansion of the park to continue the historical and community legacy of Pelham Park. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 20 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.
• Wise County Courthouse — 26 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's granite Romanesque courthouse of 1895-96 in Decatur, built after fire destroyed the Second Empire courthouse and set off a fight over the county seat.
• Clay County 1890 Jail Museum — 28 mi
  Henrietta's 1890 stone jail a block from the domed courthouse, now the county museum, with its original cells, a gallows that was never used and the sheriff's family quarters.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 29 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Bowie — 0.9 mi
• M. Johnson Poultry Ranch — 0.9 mi
• City of Bowie — 1.0 mi
• First National Bank of Bowie — 1.0 mi