Rowena

Rowena is on U.S. Highway 67, Farm roads 2872 and 2l33, and the Santa Fe Railroad, eight miles from Ballinger in southwestern Runnels County. The town was laid out in November 1898 by Paul J. Baron, who called the site Baronsville. A railroad section house there was named Rowena Station by railroad officials in 1888, but the post office rejected the name because it resembled that of Ravenna in Fannin County. When Gustav Schuhmann became the first postmaster in 1900, the office was named Bolf for land agent John Bolf. The post office took the name of Rowena in 1901, and local residents persuaded Baron to rename the town Rowena in February 1904; the name was either that of the girlfriend of a son of Jonathan Miles, who helped obtain the railroad extension through the town, or that of the wife of Santa Fe Railroad clerk James Spillane.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.