The Sowers community took its name from Edmund Sowers, who purchased land in northwest Dallas County in 1856. After working for many years as a farmer, he built a blacksmith shop and general store on his property in 1877 near today's intersection of Belt Line Road and Pioneer Drive. A small cluster of shops gradually grew there to serve surrounding farmers, and the area became known as Sowers. In 1880, Edmund Sowers donated land for a community cemetery and school, with the school built on land adjacent to the cemetery. In 1881, he applied for a post office and operated it from his general store. Edmund and his wife Freelove hosted annual Fourth of July picnics and other popular social gatherings, and although they had no children of their own, they raised six orphans. In the 1880s, the community included a church, school, blacksmith shop, drug store, and two steam gristmills, and for a time it was the most populous area between Dallas and Fort Worth. During the 1950s, the growing City of Irving annexed the area once known as Sowers, and today only the cemetery remains as a link to the original community.