Chambers County, Texas
Condensed History of Winnie-Stowell

The eastern portion of Chambers County was largely an uninhabited prairie until the 1890's when some efforts at colonization and settlement got underway. Some of this area, especially that south of Stowell, became part of the historic White's Cattle Ranch. The well-known cattleman, James Taylor White, was part of a large family that settled in Chambers, Liberty, and Harris counties. He arrived in 1828 with his wife Sarah Cade and their five eldest children and settled near Turtle Bayou. Within a few years, Mr. White was recognized as the foremost cattleman in the southeastern section of the state.

According to Mrs. Bessie Ogden, who has been a lifelong resident of Winnie, "in the year 1894, the eastern section of Chambers County was opened by the State of Texas to those people who would be interested in settling the land by homestead grant of 640 acres. This grant could be claimed by living on the land continually for a period of three years in order to prove claim and by paying $1,200.00 to the State either in full or by time payment plan of $60.00 a year interest on the principal until such time as one could liquidate the indebtedness. A good title and abstract were available to anyone who could meet these requirements." This act by the State of Texas brought about what is now the towns of Winnie and Stowell.

The town of Winnie was organized by the Winnie Loan and Improvement Company, a corporation chartered and based in Galveston and incorporated there on March 27, 1895. The town itself was named after Fox Winnie, an investor and contractor from Newton, Kansas who was involved in the construction of the roadbed for the Gulf and Interstate Railway Company, which was later acquired by the Santa Fe Railroad. Mr. Winnie, along with Galveston businessman L.P. Featherstone, was instrumental in the construction of that railroad that literally put the townsite on the map. The town of Stowell was name for H.C. Stowell of Massachusetts who owned a good deal of land in the area.

Clearly, however, the most important factor in the development of both towns during this period was the construction of the Gulf and Interstate Railroad. Chartered on May 19, 1894, the railway company was organized with the goal of extending the line all of the way from Bolivar, Texas to the Red River. The line was built and opened in 1895. Eventually, both Winnie and Stowell had built depots. This fact led to a bitter rivalry between the towns, since they were no more than 2 miles apart. Built around 1896, Winnie's depot was constructed on land donated to the railroad by the Winnie Loan and Investment Company. The only stipulation in the deed was that no other depot could be located within three miles of Winnie. After operating the Winnie depot several years, the railroad opened another depot in Stowell. Winnie's residents and the Winnie Loan and Improvement Company felt the new depot damaged their own prospects and later, the company instigated a suit against the railroad and won.

When the Winnie Depot was finally closed down in the early 1980's, The Santa Fe Railroad had plans to dismantle it. However, several Winnie-Stowell organizations and the citizens of Winnie petitioned to keep it in tact as a reminder of the towns' heritage. The Santa Fe Railroad Company decided to give the building and its contents to the Winnie Area Chambers of Commerce who moved it to the Winnie-Stowell Park in 1984. Since the Chamber of Commerce is a business entity, they were not allowed to keep the depot in the park. So they formed the East Chambers Agricultural Historical Society and the Chamber of Commerce in turn donated the depot to them. In 1994, it was again moved from the park to its current location on LeBlanc Road in Winnie, where it now stands renovated.

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