Greensville S. Dowell was born September 1, 1822 in Albemarle County, Virginia, the son of James and Frances (Dalton) Dowell. He attended local schools and then went to the University of Louisville (1845 - 1846), and Jefferson Medical College, receiving the M.D. degree in 1847. He practiced in Como, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; and in 1852 he came to Gonzales, Texas. He moved to Galveston in 1865, where he remained until his death in 1881. He is remembered chiefly as dean and professor of Galveston Medical College, which later became the Medical Branch of the University of Texas.
In 1849, Greensville Dowell married Sarah Zalinda White, daughter of John H. and Mildred Terrell (Satterwhite) White. Three children were born to the union: Shelton Clark, John Henry White, and Alice Dowell. The marriage was dissolved, and in 1868 he married Mrs. Laura Baker Hutchinson of Galveston.
Greensville Dowell was resourceful and inventive in the field of medicine. He invented a number of medical appliances, and published The Radical Cure of Hernia (1873), in which he described the operation which bears his name, and Yellow Fever and Malarial Diseases, Embracing a History of the Yellow Fever in Texas (1876), in which he suggested that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes. He founded the Galveston Medical Journal in 1869, the first medical journal in Texas.
Shelton Clark Dowell was born in Como, Mississippi in 1850. He grew up in Gonzales, Texas, and lived in many small Texas towns and ranches, pursuing a number of short-lived business ventures. He married Lizzie H. Gillespie of Rancho, Texas, September 24, 1879. During the six years of their marriage they had six children: Winfield Scott Hancock (born 1880), Shelton G. (1881?), John Winston (July 5, 1883-October 19, 1884), Maurice H. (1884-1944), and Dora Alice (born 1885?). Shelton Dowell traveled frequently and wrote affectionate letters to his wife and children. He died after a brief illness in 1885. Letters from the time show that they lived at Rancho, La Vernia, Plum Creek Ranch, Zedler's Mill, Foster Ranch, and finally Luling. Lizzie Dowell lived in Luling for the rest of her life, raised the children there, and finally died June 14, 1934.
Maurice H. Dowell, youngest son of Shelton Clark and Lizzie Dowell, was born in 1884. His parents built a house in Luling, Texas the year that he was born, and, except for his service in World War I, he appears to have lived in Luling his entire life. He served two terms as a State Representative in the Texas Legislature (1931-32 and 1939). Except for a notice for a legislative committee meeting, his papers reflect on two of his activities: The East End Hose Company (of volunteer firefighters), and the Benton I. McCarley American Legion Post.
From the guide to the Family papers, [after 1849]-1937, undated, (Repository Unknown)
