From "A Collection of Memories, A History of Armstrong County, 1876-1965,"

Pioneers Publishers, P.O. Box 673, Hereford, Texas.

Page 255.


THE SOWDER FAMILY   

        Emanuel Sowder was one of four sons who were natives of the border
state of Tennessee during the Civil War.  Two joined the North, and two
sons joined the South.  Emanuel, a northern sympathizer and his brother
Morgan of the Rebel cause were the sons left alive.

        Emanuel married a widow with one daughter.  Morgan and Emanuel,
with their families started west.  Ironically, the  rebel (Morgan) went
north to Iowa and the Federalist came to Texas where he settled in Hill
Co.  There his wife died and the little daughter was given to a
childless couple.  Emanuel drifted about awhile but alway found time to
visit his step-daughter.  At a picnic this girl introduced him to Miss
Ellen Foree.  Emanuel married Ellen and they remained in Hillsboro until
their oldest child, a daughter was born,  then moved to Palo Pinto
County, where a son Foree was born.  Their next move was to Clay County
at Post Oak where they became acquainted with Ed White and Ed Kirk, who
ran a store and later became the White & Kirk store of Amarillo.

        S.G. Moore, the station agent at Post Oak, was responsible for the
Sowders moving still futher west.  Emanuel listened to Moore's
description of the wonderful land where there was neither stick nor
stone to make plowing difficult.

        Ellen drove the covered wagon drawn by oxen, and Emanuel drove the
stock.  They camped along the way.  They came through Greer County,
Texas (now Oklahoma) and to Ft. Elliott when Foree was three years old.

        In 1892 Sowder filed on a piece of land near where Groom is now.
Mr. Sowder had to earn some money so he worked on the Goodnight Ranch.
Mrs. Sowder and the three children lived out on the claim.  She had to
go several miles to the windmill to haul water.  Once she was given some
fresh beef.  The coyotes smelled it and tried to leap into the wagon to
get it.  Ellen fought them off with an axe handle.

        Once Mrs. Sowder took the children to church at Goodnight, thinking
they could visit their father, and eat dinner in their wagon, but Mrs.
Goodnight had them eat with her.  Steve Kesterson had roped a bear and
they had bear meat for dinner.

        Foree's ambition was to grow up and be a cowboy just like Bud
Jowell, range boss for Charlie Goodnight.

        In 1897, the children were ready for school.  It wasn't far to
Goodnight but the Salt Fork breaks lay between them and Goodnight.

        One day a man, W.R.Irby, ate dinner with them and told them of a
section near him south of Washburn for sale.  On it was Fairview school.
Emanuel Sowder bought this section and in 1897 moved his family there.

        Some of Foree's happiest years were spent in Fairview.  These were
fine people.  They were ambitious for their children--rain or shine, the
children attended school.  Their spiritual well-being was not neglected
for they built a church in 1904.   Some of those who helped build the
church were: R.D. Doak, Emanuel Sowder, G.B. Hamilton, M.B. Fuqua and
W.H.Averyt.

        Mrs. Sowder often helped Dr. Warner for she was a fine nurse.

        The Sowder children are scattered. Mrs. Will Taylor (oldest
daughter, Polly) now lives in Albuquerque, NM. The other daughter,
Agness, now Mrs G.T. Owens has her home at Compton, Calif.  Foree who
married Ethel Fox in 1912 and lived around Claude until 1958, at which
they moved to Shamrock.  One son,  Clifford Emanuel Sowder lived in
Shamrock.

        Emanuel passed away in Claude in 1913 and Ellen in 1928.  Both are
buried in Claude Cemetery.  The Sowder's have always been faithful
members of the Methodist Church.

        Editor's Note:  Mr and Mrs Foree Sowder now reside in Shamrock.
Their son passed away in 1965, leaving a son.  From "Light & Hitch,"  by
Laura V Hamner

Submitted by Jenny Sowder - roadrunner@friendly.carlsbadnm.com