Near this site stood the Oak Bowery Female Institute, which opened in 1849 under the auspices of the Methodist church. Masons established the East Alabama Masonic Institute for Young Men. Among Oak Bowery's noteworthy citizens were William J. Samford; Alabama governor James F. Dowdell; U.S. Congressman James Render Dowdell; Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court William H. Thomas; Alabama Supreme Court Justice General Robert Lee Bullard; U.S.A. Capt. Leckinski Ware Spratling; Surgeon, U.S.N. Dr. William Philip Spratling, who founded Craig Colony for Epileptics; and the Reverend Sam P. Jones, a renowned Methodist evangelist.