During our field trip to visit the Dick Dowling statue I realized that I knew nothing about this war hero, but now after reading through the digital archives I have a much better understanding and appreciation for Dick Dowling.
The statue of Dick Dowling was the first public monument in Houston and it was created in 1905. The monument set outside the old City Hall for 35 years, but when City Hall burned it was moved to Sam Houston Park in 1940(RGA33-b2f23-05). I had never heard about City Hall burning, so that was interesting to learn. It makes you think, if City Hall had never burned would the statue still remain there today? Dowling’s statue remained at Sam Houston Park until 1957 and was then placed in storage. The Houston Chronicle explained, “When the renovation of the Noble House got under way last year, to preserve the home a historical relic, the statue of Dick Dowling was punt into storage”(Association Scrapbook). Supporters of Dowling finally made a push to take it out of storage and wanted it to be seen again by all Houstonians. So the City of Houston made plans to “put it in Hermann Park across from Hermann Hospital, but the Herman Estate said it wanted the spot for a statue of benefactor George Hermann”(Association Scrapbook). Finally, in 1958, Dick Dowling’s statue was decided to be positioned on the triangle track of land at the edge of Hermann Park where he remains to this day. One of the main questions we had as a class was why is the statue located where it is? The digital archives explained the who made those decisions but it did not shed any light on the exact reason or motivation behind the Hermann Park location. An article from the Houston Post reported, “One might suppose the statue has been relegated to oblivion in this obscure wooded spot. Actually it will be seen there by many more people-passing motorists-than saw it at the Noble House”(Association Scrapbook). This writer argued that Hermann Park is a more viewable area for the statue than Sam Houston Park. It makes you wonder about how Dowling was thought of during that time. To me it seems like his memory wasn’t on the forefront of everyones mind and very few people even knew his story. The Houston Chronicle wrote, “There probably are only a few Houstonians who have more than a hazy idea about Dick Dowling’s contribution to Texas”(Association Scrapbook). The monument of Dick Dowling was the first public monument of its kind that once set outside of City Hall and now has been placed at Memorial Park. This suggests to me a change in the memory of public memory that was once strong soon after the end of the Civil War but has since been forgotten.
Another one of the main questions we had was who were the groups involved in the creation of the Dowling statue? There seemed to be some dispute in the 1950s about who funded and created the statue. Many of the articles in the Houston Post reported that the Ancient Order of Hibernians were behind the efforts of erecting the Dowling statue. Mrs. Neta V. Taylor was adamant about giving credit where credit was due. On her personal stationary she wrote, “This shows that the United Confederate Veterans of Dick Dowling camp started this project, and there were many Irish veterans in the camp, who were instrumental in securing help from their club to help finish the monument”(Association Scrapbook). This suggests that there was some possible conflict between the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the U. C. V. Out of all this came the creation of the Dick Dowling Monument Association which was comprised by members of the Dick Dowling Camp, U. C. V. , the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Emmet Council, a Catholic organization”(SC1268-01-02). The Program for the Dick Dowling Monument Rededication declared these were the groups in charge of the funding and construction and claimed, “Each group represented an important facet of Dick Dowling’s life”(SC1268-01-02). I think that the struggle shown here is motivated by the pride of each of the groups, but ultimately Dowling will be remembered equally as a Confederate, an Irishman, and a Catholic.
The selected archives seemed to focus on the personal history of Dick Dowling, the brief account of The Battle of Sabine Pass, and the history of the Dowling statue. Sifting through the archives gave me some answers, but it also left a lot of our questions unanswered and created new ones. With so much real estate in Houston, why Memorial Park? Was the city just trying to appease these heritage groups and move on with day to day business? Did his ethnicity, religion, or Confederate ties negatively influence any decisions about the statue? Was Memorial Park convenient? Would the statue of remained at City Hall if it had not burned? Why does such an important war hero seem to be overlooked? This has been a helpful exercise in learning more about Dick Dowling and the statue, but more research is required to shed light on our new and old questions.