Oak Bowery, Alabama

Oak Bowery is an unincorporated community in southern Chambers County, Alabama, United States. It lies along U.S. Route 431, north of Auburn.

History
Oak Bowery was first settled in 1828 by South Carolinians and was originally named Woodlawn. A Methodist camp meeting ground named Oak Bowery was established there soon after settlement, and the community adopted that name around 1835. In 1837, the Oak Bowery Female College was established, and in 1850 the East Alabama Masonic College located there. The community grew rapidly in the 1830s and 1840s, but a change in the planned routing of the Montgomery and West Point Railroad from Oak Bowery to a more southerly route ended the community's growth. Oak Bowery is today a small community of only a few residences and a church.

Notable people

 * Robert Lee Bullard - general, U.S. Army
 * James Ferguson Dowdell - U.S. Representative
 * James Render Dowdell - chief justice, Supreme Court of Alabama
 * Samuel Porter Jones - evangelist
 * John William Jones - U.S. Representative
 * William J. Samford - Governor of Alabama