Edwin Lowden Lowe
Plainview, Hale County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of co-founders, City of Plainview. Born in Mississippi. In Louisiana, married Virginia Archer. Studied law, joined Bar in Arkansas, served 1879-81 in Arkansas Legislature. In 1880s came to Texas; his wife died en route, while wagon train halted at Buffalo Gap. Lowe joined his friend, Z. T. Maxwell, at Hackberry Groves here. Each gave land to establish county seat. Lowe was first postmaster of Plainview. He had two daughters. Recorded - 1973
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Edwin Lowden Lowe, born in Mississippi, studied law and served in the Arkansas legislature before heading to Texas in the 1880s, losing his wife along the way as the wagon train halted at Buffalo Gap. Joining his friend Z. T. Maxwell at Hackberry Groves, each man donated land to establish the county seat that became Plainview. Lowe served as the town's first postmaster and helped set it on its feet.
Why it matters
Town-founders like Lowe turned empty stretches of the West Texas plains into county seats through gifts of land and sheer determination.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the years after the Civil War, the Texas Panhandle and South Plains were among the last open frontiers in the state. The vast, flat tableland known as the Llano Estacado had been home to Comanche and other Plains peoples and to enormous buffalo herds. By the late 1870s, the herds had been destroyed and the Plains tribes forced onto reservations, and ranchers and settlers began pushing onto the high plains.
By the 1880s, the Texas legislature had laid out counties across this region, but many existed only on paper. To become real, a county needed settlers, a government, and above all a county seat. Communities competed hard for that honor, because the county seat brought a courthouse, business, and a future.
Travel to this country was still slow and hard. Families came by wagon, often in groups for safety and company, crossing long stretches of open land with few towns along the way. Water and shade were precious, which is why a grove of hackberry trees on the plains could look like a promised land.
People & events
Edwin Lowden Lowe's life traces a path across much of the nineteenth-century South. Born in Mississippi, he married Virginia Archer in Louisiana, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Arkansas. He served in the Arkansas Legislature from 1879 to 1881, a man established in his profession and in public life.
Then, in the 1880s, he set out for Texas. The journey brought heartbreak: his wife died on the way, while their wagon train was stopped at Buffalo Gap, a small settlement in the hill country southwest of present-day Abilene. Lowe continued on, carrying that grief with him onto the plains.
He joined his friend Z. T. Maxwell at a spot called Hackberry Groves. The two men each gave land to establish a county seat, and from that shared gift grew the town of Plainview. Lowe became the town's first postmaster, the person who connected the young settlement by mail to the wider world. He raised two daughters, and his name stands among the founders of the city.
Its place in the American story
Lowe's story is a small piece of a very large American pattern. Across the West in the late nineteenth century, towns were not simply discovered; they were made, often by a handful of people willing to give land, organize a government, and bet their futures on a place that barely existed yet.
The post office was central to that process. For a frontier town, a post office was a lifeline and a stamp of legitimacy, tying isolated families to the rest of the nation through letters, newspapers, and goods. Being named postmaster meant being trusted to hold that connection.
His journey also reflects the real cost of westward migration. Behind the confident language of settlement were many private losses on the road. Lowe's wife died before ever seeing the town he helped found, a reminder that the history of the frontier is full of people who made the journey but never reached its end.
If you visit
You'll find this marker in Plainview, Hale County, on the high, open plains of West Texas. Take a look at the horizon: the town's name makes immediate sense when you see how far the land runs in every direction. Try to imagine it before the streets and grain elevators, when a grove of trees was a landmark worth settling beside.
As you stand here, think about the two friends who gave their land so that a town could exist. Today's Plainview grew out of that decision, and the marker is a chance to connect the modern city with its very first days.
Plainview makes a natural stop on a drive across the South Plains, between Lubbock and Amarillo. If your route takes you toward Abilene, you might also pause near Buffalo Gap and remember that Lowe's road to the plains passed that way, at a cost he never forgot.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Edwin Lowden Lowe
- · Z. T. Maxwell
Themes & tags
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