"Reason" "Rezin" Bowie

Notes:

The Handbook of Texas Online article about the family of James Bowie states that ". In 1794 Reason Bowie had moved his family from Tennessee to Logan County, where he farmed and operated a gristmill with the help of eight slaves. In February 1800 he moved to Madrid, in what is now Missouri. On May 2, 1801, at Rapides, Louisiana, Reason Bowie and his brothers David, Rhesa, and John swore allegiance to the Spanish government. In October the families settled on farms in what is now Catahoula Parish. There Reason's sons, James, John J., Stephen, and Rezin P. Bowie, grew to manhood. The family took an active part in community affairs and the elder Bowie reportedly became the largest slaveowner in his locale, with twenty slaves. About 1809 the Bowie clan moved to the Atakapa country in southeastern Louisiana; there Reason purchased 640 acres on the Vermilion River near the mouth of Little Bayou. He then developed a plantation near Opelousas, where he grew cotton and sugarcane, raised livestock, and bought and sold slaves. Reason Bowie died there around 1821."

"Reason" married Elve Catesby Jones on 8 Mar 1782 in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia. Elve was born about 1762 in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia; died about 1837 in Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The son of Reason Bowie. Reason and his twin Rhesa brought their families on rafts down the Mississippi River and settled in Catahoula Parish, LA. (White and Toole, pp 42-43).

Louisiana records mention the "Widow Bowie" circa 1820, which would indicate he died prior to that time. However, the Samuel Lyons Study Group tree instead shows that John J. Bowie remarried an Americus Watkins on 8 Aug 1831, and that he did not die until 1859, in Arkansas. This discrepency needs to be resolved.

John married Nancy Scoggins about 1806 in Louisiana. Nancy was born before 1795; died about 1833. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married a STERRETT.

Notes:

The Handbook of Texas Online article about the family of Rezin P. Bowie states that "Neither Rezin P. nor his brother James Bowie, of Alamo fame, was born at Elliott's Springs, Tennessee, as some sources claim. In 1794 Reason Bowie moved his family to a farm he acquired by grant on Terrapin Creek in Logan County, Kentucky. There the family farmed, operated a gristmill, and likely distilled bourbon whisky. The Logan County property was sold in 1800. After a short stay in Livingston County, Kentucky, the family moved to the Spanish-held District of New Madrid, now in Missouri, and remained until 1802. That year they sold the Missouri property and established themselves in the future Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. Reason Bowie, according to Rezin's brother John J., fled "the refinements of civilization" and "retired to wilder regions, where he could enjoy those sports and stirring adventures peculiar to a frontier life." The Catahoula region was wild country, and the Bowie boys, especially Rezin and Jim, gloried in the life. They acquired the survival skills of an Indian and developed expertise in use of weapons. The Bowies lived on Bushley Creek; Reason's twin brother Rhesa and brother David developed land grants nearby. The Bowies' first economic endeavor was a whiskey still that garnered needed cash and trade until it was abandoned in favor of cotton cultivation. Reason had some twenty slaves, more than any other man in the Catahoula area. In 1809 the family moved to the Atakapa country of southeastern Louisiana. Rezin was sixteen, James thirteen, and Stephen twelve. They settled on a 640-acre property, Bowie's Woods, purchased from John Grecian years before on the Vermilion River. The family's last move was to St. Landry Parish, where Reason purchased a large tract of land, a portion of which is in Opelousas today. There the Bowies engaged in land speculation, farming, lumbering, sawmilling, and the slave trade.

Rezin Bowie married Margaret Nevil (Nevill, Neville) on September 15, 1814, at St. Landry's Catholic Church in Opelousas. At this time he adopted Catholicism and chose the name James for the ceremony. The name "James Rezin Bowie" in the church records has been the source of some confusion. War of 1812 rolls list Rezin and James as privates and volunteers in the Second Division Consolidated. The Second Division was composed of the Seventeenth through the Nineteenth regiments, which represented Avoyelles, Rapides, Natchitoches, Catahoula, and Ouachita parishes in 1814 and 1815. Bowie family records state that Rezin and James were en route to the battle of New Orleans and were bitterly disappointed that it ended before they arrived. Rezin was commissioned captain of the Mounted Rifles in the Avoyelles Battalion in 1825 and later became a colonel. The Bowie brothers were involved for a time with the pirate Jean Laffite in the illegal importation and sale of slaves in Louisiana. In 1852, John J. Bowie described the operation: "James, Rezin and myself fitted out some small boats at the mouth of the Calcasieu and went into the trade on shares. We first purchased forty negroes from Laffite at the rate of one dollar per pound, or an average of $140 for each negro; we brought them into the limits of the United States, delivered them to a custom house officer, and became the informers ourselves; the law gave the informer half of the value of the negroes, which we put up and sold by the United States Marshall, and we became the purchasers of the negros, which entitled us to sell them within the United States. We continued to follow this business until we made $65,000, when we quit and soon spent all our earnings." Laffite delivered slaves from Galveston Island by ship to the river mouths. The bayou waterways, at the time, allowed transportation from the Calcasieu River into Rapides Parish. Another route was to deliver the slaves to Bowie Island in Vermilion Bay, where they were received and brought up the Vermilion River and then overland to St. Landry. Both Rezin and James Bowie moved north up Bayou Boeuf from Opelousas and acquired property in St. Landry, Avoyelles, and Rapides parishes. Land speculation in Louisiana properties and land titles became their occupation. Both acquired numerous holdings in various areas and became well established and successful in their endeavors. Their young brother Stephen bought property and farmed in Avoyelles.

Rezin Bowie was best known in the nineteenth century, perhaps in this, as the inventor of the famous Bowie knife. His brother James brought fame to himself and notoriety to the knife when he killed Maj. Norris Wright with it in the noted Sandbar Fight on September 19, 1827. In 1838 Rezin wrote concerning the Bowie knife, "The improvement in its fabrication, and the state of perfection which it has since acquired from experienced cutlers was not brought about through my agency." Rezin's actions belie his words, however, for he had a number of superior Bowie knives made by experienced cutlers that he carried himself and gave to friends. Several of these have been located and documented. Were it not for Rezin's continuing interest and pride, precious little would be known concerning the origin, features, and appearance of the first Bowie knives.

With his brothers James and Stephen, Rezin established Arcadia, a sugar plantation of some 1,800 acres near the town of Thibodaux (Terrebonne Parish). There the Bowies established the first steam-powered sugar mill in Louisiana. Rezin was elected to the Louisiana legislature three times. On February 12, 1831, the Bowie brothers sold Arcadia and other holdings to investors from Natchez for $90,000.

By 1830, James Bowie had moved to Texas. He soon became interested in the "lost" Los Almagres Mine, said to be near the Santa Cruz de San Sab? Mission ruin west of San Antonio. James obtained permission from Mexican authorities for an expedition into Indian country. Rezin rode in from Louisiana, and on November 2, 1831, James, Rezin, and nine others left San Antonio. On the nineteenth, learning that a large Indian war party was following them, they camped in an oak grove six miles from the ruin. Rezin Bowie and David Buchanan sought to compromise with the Indians, but they were fired upon. A thirteen-hour fight known as the San Saba Indian fight ensued. The Indians finally retreated, and the party returned to San Antonio. In 1832 Rezin and James traveled to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. Rezin was seeking expert medical treatment for his eyes. In Philadelphia Samuel C. Atkinson, publisher of the Saturday Evening Post newspaper induced Rezin to write an account of the San Saba battle. "An Indian Fight" was reprinted in a book entitled Atkinson's Casket or Gems of Literature, Wit and Sentiment in 1833. Rezin's version, the only one in public print, became the only widely read account of the subject.

Following the sale of Arcadia, Bowie and his wife moved for the last time to a plantation on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Iberville Parish. The location was south of Plaquemine across the river from San Gabriel Catholic Church. While living there Bowie and Gen. John Wilson acquired the Pintado papers. Capt. Vicente Sebasti?n Pintado, the royal surveyor for the Spanish government, took these important surveys and record of deeds and grants to Havana as his personal property, and the Spanish government supported him. From there he sold needed land information and confirmations back into Louisiana, parts of Mississippi, and Alabama. Pintado told his wife to continue selling the valuable data after his death, but not the documents. The United States government wanted the papers, but Pintado would not sell. After Pintado's death his widow set a price of $20,000 and then $24,500 on the papers. The United States decided not to purchase them. Access to the Pintado papers gave a land speculator like Rezin Bowie a trump card. But Rezin's health was poor, and his eyesight had continued to deteriorate. Whether he derived the expected benefits from the Pintado papers is unknown. He died in New Orleans on January 17, 1841, leaving his wife and three daughters. He was buried in the San Gabriel Catholic Church graveyard. In the early 1850s his body was disinterred and moved to St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Port Gibson, Mississippi. St. Joseph, also known as the Bowie Church, was financed by funds raised by Rezin's daughter Elve and her husband, John Taylor Moore. Margaret Bowie purchased property and donated it for the cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Walter W. Bowie, The Bowies and Their Kindred: A Genealogical and Biographical History (Washington: Cromwell Brothers, 1899). Jay Guy Cisco, Historic Sumner County, Tennessee (Nashville: Folk-Keelin, 1909). A. R. Kilpatrick, "Early Life in the Southwest-The Bowies," DeBow's Southern and Western Review 1 (October 1852). Raymond W. Thorp, Bowie Knife (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1948). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbo46.html

Notes:

The Handbook of Texas Online article about the family of James Bowie states that "In his teens James Bowie worked in Avoyelles and Rapides parishes, where he floated lumber to market. He invested in property on the Bayou Boeuf and traded in 1817-18 at what is now Bennett's Store, south of Cheneyville. He was fond of hunting and fishing, and family tradition says that he caught and rode wild horses, rode alligators, and trapped bears. When grown, Bowie was described by his brother John as "a stout, rather raw-boned man, of six feet height, weighed 180 pounds." He had light-colored hair, keen grey eyes "rather deep set in his head," a fair complexion, and high cheek-bones. Bowie had an "open, frank disposition," but when aroused by an insult, his anger was terrible. During the War of 1812, James and Rezin joined the Second Division, Consolidated, a unit that contained the Seventeenth through Nineteenth regiments, drawn from Avoyelles, Rapides, Natchitoches, Catahoula, and Ouachita parishes. In January 1815, according to family records, the brothers were on their way to join Andrew Jackson's forces at New Orleans when the war ended.

After the war they traded in slaves. They bought them from the pirate Jean Laffite, who captured slave shipments in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and ran a slave market on Galveston Island. Laffite landed slaves at Bowie's Island in Vermilion Bay, and the Bowies took the slaves up the Vermilion and sold them in St. Landry Parish. When they had $65,000 they quit the business. James and Rezin also dabbled in land speculation and developed friendships with local wealthy planters. James became engaged to Cecelia Wells (b. 1805), who died on September 7, 1829, in Alexandria, two weeks before their wedding was to take place.

He also made enemies. Norris Wright, Rapides parish sheriff and local banker, refused to make a loan that Bowie sorely needed. In 1826 Bowie met Wright in Alexandria, where tempers flared and Wright fired point-blank at Bowie; but the bullet was deflected. After this encounter, Rezin gave his brother a large butcher-like hunting knife to carry. On September 19, 1827, near Natchez, Jim Bowie participated in the Sandbar Fight, which developed at a duel between Samuel Levi Wells III and Dr. Thomas Maddox. After the principals had exchanged shots without effect, two observers continued the affair. Alexander Crain fired at Samuel Cuny, and when Cuny fell, Bowie fired at Crain but missed. Wright shot Bowie through the lower chest, and Bowie, said an eyewitness, "drew his butcher knife which he usually wears" and chased Wright. The Blanchard brothers shot Bowie in the thigh, and Wright and Alfred Blanchard stabbed him in several places. As Wright bent over him, Bowie plunged the knife into his assailant's breast, then raised himself and slashed Blanchard severely. All the witnesses remembered Bowie's "big butcher knife," the first Bowie knife. Reports of Bowie's prowess and his lethal blade captured public attention, and he was proclaimed the South's most formidable knife fighter. Men asked blacksmiths and cutlers to make a knife like Jim Bowie's.

During the late 1820s Bowie's land speculations centered on the southern Louisiana parishes; he lived in New Orleans, enjoying its excitement and pleasures. James and his brothers Rezin and Stephen established the Arcadia sugar plantation of some 1,800 acres near the town of Thibodaux, where they set up the first steam-powered sugar mill in Louisiana. Rezin was elected to the Louisiana state legislature. James spent little time at Arcadia, however; in the late 1820s he traveled to the eastern cities, as well as Arkansas and Mississippi. On February 12, 1831, the brothers sold Arcadia and other landholdings and eighty-two slaves to Natchez investors for $90,000.

On January 19, 1836, Bowie arrived in Bexar from Goliad with a detachment of thirty men. He carried orders from Houston to demolish the fortifications there, though some historians believe these orders were discretionary. The situation was grim. Col. James C. Neill, commander of a contingent of seventy-eight men at the Alamo, stated that his men lacked clothing and pay and talked of leaving. Mexican families were leaving Bexar. Texas volunteers had carried off most of the munitions and supplies for the Matamoros expedition. On February 2 Bowie wrote Governor Smith, urging that Bexar be held because it was a strategic "frontier picqet guard." Travis, promoted to lieutenant colonel, arrived with thirty men on February 3; David Crockett rode in with twelve men on the eighth. The garrison had some 150 men. On February 11, Neill gave his command to Travis and left. The volunteers preferred Bowie as commander and insisted on holding an election on February 12. The volunteer vote placed Bowie in command, and he celebrated by getting drunk. While under the influence Bowie ordered certain prisoners set free and paraded the volunteers under arms in Bexar. Travis took his regulars from the Alamo to the Medina River to escape implication in the disgraceful affair. On February 13 Bowie and Travis worked out a compromise giving Travis command of the regulars, Bowie command of the volunteers, and both men joint authority over garrison orders and correspondence.

On February 23 Bowie and Travis learned that some 1,500 Mexican cavalrymen were advancing on Bexar, and sent a dispatch to Goliad asking Fannin for help. Within hours the Mexicans marched into Bexar and requested a parley. Without consulting Travis, Bowie asked for and received terms: the Texans must surrender. These terms were rejected. On February 24 Bowie, who was suffering from a disease "of a peculiar nature," which has been diagnosed as pneumonia or typhoid pneumonia but probably was advanced tuberculosis, collapsed, ending his active participation in commanding the garrison. Most historians no longer believe that he fell from a platform while attempting to position a cannon. He was confined to a cot and urged the volunteers to follow Travis. He was occasionally carried outside to visit his men.

On March 6 the Mexicans attacked before dawn, and all 188 defenders of the Alamo perished. Santa Anna asked to see the corpses of Bowie, Travis, and Crockett, and Bexar mayor Francisco Ruiz identified the bodies. Bowie lay on his cot in a room on the south side. He had been shot several times in the head. During his lifetime he had been described by his old friend Caiaphas K. Ham as "a clever, polite gentleman...attentive to the ladies on all occasions...a true, constant, and generous friend...a foe no one dared to undervalue and many feared." Slave trader, gambler, land speculator, dreamer, and hero, James Bowie in death became immortal in the annals of Texas history."

BIBLIOGRAPHY: James L. Batson, James Bowie and the Sandbar Fight (Madison, Alabama: Batson Engineering and Metalworks, 1992). William Campbell Binkley, ed., Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution, 1835-1836 (2 vols., New York: Appleton-Century, 1936). Walter W. Bowie, The Bowies and Their Kindred: A Genealogical and Biographical History (Washington: Cromwell Brothers, 1899). J. Frank Dobie, "James Bowie," American West, Spring 1965. John S. Ford, Memoirs (MS, John Salmon Ford Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin). Heroes of Texas: Featuring Oil Portraits from the Summerfield G. Roberts Collection (Waco: Texian Press, 1964). John H. Jenkins, ed., The Papers of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836 (10 vols., Austin: Presidial Press, 1973). A. R. Kilpatrick, "Early Life in the Southwest-The Bowies," DeBow's Southern and Western Review 1 (October 1852). Walter Lord, A Time to Stand (New York: Harper, 1961; 2d ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978). Raymond W. Thorp, Bowie Knife (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1948).

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbo45.html

James married Ursula De Veramendi on 25 Apr 1831 in San Fernando DE B?xar, Coahuila And Texas, United Mexican States. Ursula was born about 1811 in Mexico; died in Sep 1833 in Monclova, Coahuila And Texas, United Mexican States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

White and Toole add a footnote indicating that a HOUSTON POST article quoted noted Texas Historian Lewis Kemp as stating that Malinda was a niece of James Bowie of Alamo fame.

Family/Spouse: Thomas Jefferson Haggerty. Thomas was born about 1807; died before 1860. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Fought in the Texas Revolution under Capt. C. L. Mabbitt and was discharged by Gen. Thomas J. Rusk. (Joyce P. Hervey FIRST GENERATION KNOWN BLASSINGAME W.HARVEY OF SAN AUGUSTINE CO., TEXAS

Sabine District 1835 Census

255. Thomas J. Hagerty 28 married Catholic farmer
Malinda, his wife 21
Aramenta, daughter 4
Jane, daughter 5 mo.
Nelson, man servant 40
Fan, wife, servant 23
Maria, her child 4
Mareah, her child 5 mo.
256. John Bohe 18 single Catholic farmer
Amanda Harvy 12 single Catholic
Calvin Harvy 11
Austin 9

Family/Spouse: Jane Loggins. Jane was born before 1820; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Araminta married George Washington Lewis on 12 Jan 1851 in San Augustine County, Texas. George (son of Abel Alllison Lewis and Martha "Patsy" Wofford) was born on 11 Aug 1818 in Missouri; died on 9 Dec 1879 in San Augustine County, Texas; was buried in Chinquapin Cemetery (Loggins Family Burial Ground), Macune, San Augustine County, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Her mother, Malinda Hagerty, was living with her at the time of the 1870 and 1880 San Augustine County census.

Obediance married F.M. Williams on 20 May 1855 in San Augustine County, Texas. F.M. was born before 1835; died before 1870. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]