PPHM ACQUIRES RO RANCH COLLECTION FROM SCOTLAND
OWNER ALFRED ROWE DIED ON THE TITANIC

Told through the RO ranch records and artifacts Alfred Rowe left behind, his story is back home in the Texas Panhandle. 

PPHM procured the RO Ranch collection with an acquisition purchase fund created by Tom and Norma Cambridge.  The collection formerly belonged to Henry Rowe, grandson of Alfred Rowe, and his wife Sarah, who live in Scotland.  The collection includes the diaries of Alfred and his wife, photographs of the ranch, maps, financial records, stock reports, and letters.

“We are grateful to the Rowes and the Cambridges for their acknowledging of PPHM as the proper depository for the collection because of our dedication to the rich history of the region,” PPHM Director Guy C. Vanderpool said.

Rowe’s story came to a heart-wrenching end.  After graduating at the Royal Agricultural College in Gloucestershire, England, he moved to Donley County in 1878.  After some months learning the cattle business and with the help of Charles Goodnight, Rowe started his own herd and formed the RO ranch, which expanded over the next few years.

At the age of 47 in 1901, Rowe married Constance Ethel Kingsley, a cousin of the British author Charles Kingsley, and brought her to the ranch from England.  Mrs. Rowe lived at ranch headquarters near Clarendon until 1910, when Rowe moved his family back to England.  He returned twice a year to the Panhandle to check the ranch. 

On a return trip to Texas, Rowe bought a ticket on the Titanic.  The Handbook of Texas states that Rowe refused to enter a lifeboat until others were saved; thus, he died from exposure to ice-cold water.  Five months later his wife gave birth to their fifth child.
             
In the year before Rowe’s death, the RO had increased to cover 100,000 acres (200 square miles) and contained 15,000 cattle.
             
“The RO Ranch was among the most successful early Panhandle ranches largely because of Alfred Rowe’s personal adaptation to the Panhandle’s ranching culture,” said Frederick W. Rathjen, professor emeritus of history, West Texas A&M University.  “Acquisition of the Rowe Ranch papers by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society adds a trove of archival riches to the ranching history of the Texas.”