Dr. L.B. Sowell Descendent of Pioneer Texas Physician
Dr. Conner B. Sowell & Dr. Leonidas B. Sowell
Forney Messenger
Thursday, 11 September 1924
Page 7
Successful both as a physician and as a farmer, Dr. Leonidas B. Sowell has gained prominence in this city and county, where all his life has been spent. He is the son of a physician who gained prominence in these parts, and the son is carrying on his work in a manner that is highly creditable to him, both in his profession and as a farming man. He was born at Scyene in Dallas county, Texas, on May 9, 1872, and is the son of Dr. Conner B. Sowell and Texis (McGee) Sowell. Dr. Conner B. Sowell died September .4, 1885 [September 14, 1885], and Mrs. Sowell makes her home in Waxahachie.
Dr. Conner B. Sowell was one of the first physicians of Forney, and he located in the town when it was merely a station on the line of the Texas & Pacific. He was born in Mississippi, in 1853 and gained his education there in the common schools such as the district afforded after the war. He was ambitious and enterprising, and it was chiefly his own initiative that made possible his college education and he was graduated from Tulane Universality in 1871, in the department of medicine, after which he went to the University of Louisville, adding another course and graduating in 1883. He began and finished his practice in Forney, forming a partnership here in 1874 with Dr. N.E. Shands, and continuing with him in professional work for several years. He gave his life to his profession for which he was amply fitted by his talent and training, and he was endowed by nature with many social gifts that endeared him to his community.
A good businessman, Dr. Sowell acquired a goodly quantity of farm lands around Forney and was beginning to develop them into creditable farms when he was called by death. He was known as one of the early business men of the town, for he it was who established the first harness store on the place, as a member of the firm of Sowell & Turner, and also the first grocery store, under the firm name of Sowell & Sowell. He early recognized the utility of barbed wire for fencing purposes, and he was one of the first land owners to bring in a car load and enclose his fields therewith, the vogue of that community spreading rapidly from his example.
So much for the life history of the father of our sketch. Dr. Leonidas B. Sowell, M.D., was born in Scyene, Dallas county, as has already been stated, but his parents moved to Forney and this has been his home since practically all his days. Scyene, it might be mentioned, was the home of the famous Younger Brothers, who terrorized the state for a time, and while residents there the Sowells formed the intimate acquaintance of some of the world’s famous bandits. Leonidas Sowell was given a public school education in Forney and he attended Trinity University at Tehuacana to the senior year. He gained his medical training at the University of Louisville, also the Alma Mater of his honored father, and he was graduated from that well known institution in 1893. Not yet twenty-one when he was awarded his medical diploma, Dr. Sowell promptly engaged in practice here where he was reared, and where his father had long been identified in medical practice before him, and he has already given some twenty years of hi8s life in the profession. In 1913, he took a post-graduate course in New Orleans Polyclinic and has in other ways fortified himself in the knowledge of his profession, of which he has been and still is a close student, keeping well abreast of the advance in medical research. He has identified himself in an active manner with the medical societies of the country, being president of the Kaufman County Medical Society, as well as member of the same, and is also a member of the North Texas and the Texas State Medical Societies.
Like his father, also, he has manifested a considerable interest and activity in farming, and carries some rather extensive operations in that line. He employs every modern method along the lines of labor saving devices etc., and is progressive to the last word.
Dr. Sowell is a Democrat, and a member of the Masonic fraternity, being a past grandmaster and having represented Forney three times in the Grand Lodge of the state.
In September 1897, Dr. Sowell was married to Miss Pauline Rugel, a daughter of J.C. Rugel, once merchant now a prominent banker of Mesquite, Texas, and a settler from Tennessee. The children of Dr. and Mrs. Sowell are Miriam, graduate of Trinity University, who is teaching in the Farmersville High School; Rugel, graduate of Trinity University, who is now attending Tulane University, Flora, graduate of Trinity University, who is teaching in the Forney Grammar School; Frederick and L.B., Jr.
The family are of Presbyterian stock, with membership in that church which as for generations claimed for its own representatives of both families. The Sowells enjoy a fine social position here and in the county, and have a leading part in the representative social activities of the place.
