Union Bower Community
Irving, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Attracted to the fertile land along the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, settlers first came to this area in the mid-19th century. William and Virginia Smith, of Pennsylvania, arrived in 1879. Soon thereafter, Charles and Lucy (Santerre) Voirin bought land north of the Smith's property. The families worked together to establish what became known as the Union Bower Community. Residents cut wood from the riverbank thickets and hauled the wood and their farm products, including cotton, corn, vegetables, and fruit, to market in Dallas. In 1885, area families organized a non-denominational Sunday school. Later, the Methodist Church sent the Rev. W.E. Hawks to establish a church, which was dedicated in 1907. Originally called Hawks Chapel and later named Union Bower Methodist Church, it continues today as Oak Haven United Methodist Church. After the death of their daughter in 1886, the Smiths established the cemetery for community use. As early as 1890, Mark Callister Lively founded the Lively School at today's Britain and Union Bower Roads. Area Catholic and Church of Christ families held services in the school building. The Union Bower School, established on land donated by the Smiths, opened in 1891 and served the community until the 1960s. When Irving was established along he Rock Island rail line in 1903, the area's rural communities, including Union Bower, declined in population. After the Elm Fork channel was rerouted, various industries developed in the area. By the time Irving annexed Union Bower in 1956, little remained of the agricultural roots of the community. Decades after the Union Bower School losed, alumni continue to meet and share their memories of the once close-knit farming settlement. (2005)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Drawn by fertile land along the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, settlers reached this area by the mid-19th century, and after William and Virginia Smith arrived in 1879 the families here built what became the Union Bower Community. They hauled cotton, corn, and produce to Dallas markets, organized a Sunday school in 1885 that grew into a Methodist church, and established schools and a community cemetery. When Irving was founded on the railroad in 1903, Union Bower's rural population declined, and by the time Irving annexed it in 1956 little of its farming character remained.
Why it matters
Its rise and absorption trace the familiar fate of North Texas farm hamlets swallowed by the growth of the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolis.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the decades after the Civil War, the fertile bottomlands along the Elm Fork of the Trinity River drew farming families looking for good soil and a fresh start. This was the North Texas frontier in its settling phase — not the era of open range and gunfights, but the quieter, harder work of clearing thickets, breaking ground, and turning raw land into farms.
Settlers had begun trickling into the area by the mid-nineteenth century, and the community took firmer shape in the years after 1879. It was the Reconstruction and Gilded Age moment when small agricultural hamlets sprang up across Texas, each one built around the same handful of institutions: a church, a school, a cemetery, and a road to the nearest market town.
That market town was Dallas, and everything the community grew or cut eventually pointed toward it.
People & events
The story here begins with arrivals. William and Virginia Smith came from Pennsylvania in 1879, and soon after, Charles and Lucy Santerre Voirin bought land just to the north. The two families worked together, and out of that cooperation grew the settlement that became known as the Union Bower Community.
Life was built by hand and shared in common. Residents cut wood from the riverbank thickets and hauled it, along with cotton, corn, vegetables, and fruit, to sell in Dallas. In 1885 they organized a non-denominational Sunday school; later the Methodist Church sent the Rev. W. E. Hawks to establish a congregation, dedicated in 1907 as Hawks Chapel and later Union Bower Methodist Church — a church that still endures today as Oak Haven United Methodist Church.
Sorrow shaped the community too. After the Smiths lost their daughter in 1886, they established a cemetery for everyone's use. Schools followed: as early as 1890 Mark Callister Lively founded the Lively School, and Catholic and Church of Christ families held their services in the schoolhouse. The Union Bower School, on land the Smiths donated, opened in 1891 and taught local children until the 1960s.
Its place in the American story
Union Bower's arc — rise, thriving, and quiet absorption — is the story of rural America in miniature. All across the country, farm hamlets like this one organized themselves around faith, learning, and the burial of their dead, then slowly dissolved as railroads and cities reorganized where people lived and worked.
The turning point came in 1903, when Irving was founded along the Rock Island rail line. The railroad decided the future, as it so often did: nearby rural communities, Union Bower among them, began to lose population to the town the tracks had created. Later, after the Elm Fork channel was rerouted, industry moved in where farms had been.
By the time Irving annexed Union Bower in 1956, little of its agricultural character survived. That pattern — farm settlement swallowed by a spreading metropolis — played out around every major American city in the twentieth century, and the Dallas–Fort Worth area is one of its great examples.
If you visit
Don't come here looking for a preserved village; come to read a landscape. The farms are gone, industry and suburb have filled the ground, and what remains is the marker, the road names, and a church with deep roots. That's part of what makes it worth the stop — you're seeing what happens to a place, not just what it was.
Look for the continuities. Roads like Britain and Union Bower still carry the community's name across the modern map, and the congregation that began as a Sunday school in 1885 still gathers, now as Oak Haven United Methodist Church. A community cemetery, born of one family's grief in 1886, is the kind of quiet landmark these settlements almost always leave behind.
If you're threading together the history of the Dallas–Fort Worth suburbs, Union Bower is a fine reminder that under the office parks and highways lie the outlines of farm hamlets whose alumni, decades after their school closed, still met to share the memory of a close-knit place.
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
- · William Smith
- · Virginia Smith
- · Charles Voirin
- · Lucy Santerre Voirin
- · Mark Callister Lively
Themes & tags
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