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Historical Marker
City: Hedley vicinity
County: Donley
Year Marker
Erected: 2001
Marker Location:
1.3 miles northwest of Hedley on FM 1932
Marker Text:
Historically significant for its associations with rancher Alfred Rowe and the
now-extinct community of Rowe, this burial ground is a reflection of early area
farming and ranching efforts and the harshness of pioneer life as permanent
settlement came to the Panhandle. With help from cattleman Charles Goodnight,
Englishman Alfred Rowe (1853-1912) established the RO ranch on Skillet Creek in
1880, and within ten years had amassed 100,000 acres of land and more than
10,000 head of cattle. His encouragement and support aided the development of
Rowe, named in his honor, as a commercial center on the
Fort Worth
and Denver City Railway line.
Kentucky
native Isaac Smith, in whose home the Rowe post office was established in 1892,
set aside part of his land for use as a community cemetery in 1898, after the
death of four children in the Beedy family. Originally located in the family
garden, the children's graves were moved to the Rowe cemetery upon its
establishment. Even after the community of Rowe moved one mile southeast in
1907, to become the town of
Hedley
, this cemetery continued to serve as the primary burial ground for area
residents. Isaac Smith's grandson, W. I. Rains, provided additional acreage for
the Rowe cemetery during the 20th century, and by 1999 there were more than
1,500 marked graves here. A veterans memorial placed in 1990 and the graves of
32 victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 lend additional significance to
the Rowe cemetery. (2001) (JEB)
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