"Liberty Monument" -- Rowena TX
N 31° 38.816 W 100° 02.906
14R E 400590 N 3501778
A replacement for a famous protest monument erected by German and Czech settlers who felt discriminated against by a temperance vote in Rowena TX
Waymark Code: WMV1V5
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/09/2017
Views: 4
Ob 28 Apr 1911 Runnels county voters (after several failed referendums) narrowly sided with the Prohibition movement and banned the sale and consumption of all alcoholic beverages in Runnels County.
German immigrants, with a strong beer culture, had always been the bloc that defeated all other attempts by the native American residents of Runnels County to go dry. This cause ethnic tensions to flare in the county, which was divided along lines of national origin.
After the 1911 referendum was finally successful, the Germans and Czechs in the primarily immigrant-populated town of Rowena erected a marble monument, inscribed "Here Lies Our Liberty" to protest the Prohibition vote, which they viewed as both a repuduation of their culture and a denial of their civil rights.
See: A History of Runnels County (
visit link)