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7 Survey of October 27, 1796, Survey Book A, 18, Land grant no. 1268, Order Book 1A, Deed Book A-1, 32, Logan County Courthouse; Bowie, The Bowies, 262-63, 277.
8 Louis Houck, History of Missouri (Chicago, 1908), 165n.
9 Bowie, “The Bowies,” 379.
10 Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 55.
11 John Mack Faragher, Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (New York, 1992), 278-79.
12 Deed Book A-1, 300, Logan County Courthouse.
13 G. Glenn Clift, “Second Census of Kentucky, 1800” (Frankfort, 1954), 29, shows “Reason,” “Rhue,” and “Alesy” Bowie on the Livingston County tax list for 1800. This should be Rezin, Rhesa, and Elsie.
14 Houck, Missouri, 162-63, 167.
15 Ibid., 151; History of Southeast Missouri: Embracing a Historical Account of the Counties of Ste Genevieve, St. Francois, Perry, Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Madison, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Dunklin, Scott, Mississippi, Stoddard, Butler, Wayne and Iron (Boston, 1888), 109.
16 Walter S. Lowrie and Walter S. Franklin, eds., American State Papers. Documents Legislative and Executive (Washington, D.C., 1834), Public Lands Series, vol. 2, 497, 664. The arpent is, in fact, .84625 acres, though all surveys of the time were subject to variance.
17 Houck, Missouri, 151; Robert L. Ramsay, Our Storehouse of Missouri Place Names (Columbia, 1952), 39, 42-43.
18 William E. Foley, A History of Missouri, vol. 1, 1673 to 1820 (Columbia, 1971), 180-84; John Bowie in the (Washington, Tex.) Lone Star, October 23, 1852; Bowie, The Bowies, 265-67.
19 History of Southeast Missouri, 109.
20 Record Book 1, 41, 47, 57, Clerk of the Court, New Madrid County Courthouse, New Madrid, Miss.
21 Deed Book A, 300, Logan County Courthouse.
22 Bowie, The Bowies, 263. Walter Bowie, as always, is not to be relied on completely when dealing with this branch of the family. He is unclear on when and where David Bowie was born, and may even have confused him with Rezin and Rhesa's brother David. That David was a son of Rezin and Elve's does seem probable, however, in that he would make the eighth of their living children, and contemporary testimony states that the Bowies had eight children when they settled at Tywappity. American state Papers, public Lands Series, vol. 2, 497.
23 American State Papers, Public Land Series, vol. 3, 342; Record Book 1, 47, 57, New Madrid County Courthouse.
24 Bowie, “The Bowies,” 379; American State Papers, Public Lands Series, vol. 3, 247.
25 A. Kilpatrick, “Historical and Statistical Collections of Louisiana,” DeBow's Review 12 (June 1852): 636.
26 Conveyance Book A, 11-12, Book B, 96, Book C, 488-89, Clerk of the Court, Catahoula Parish Courthouse, Harrisonburg, La.
27 John J. Bowie to Mr. Willis, November 12, December 19, 17, 1808, Bowie Family Papers, Natchez Trace Collection, UT.
28 Bowie, “The Bowies,” 379; Bowie, The Bowies, 260; Kilpatrick, “Historical and Statistical Collections of Louisiana,” 636; American State Papers, Public Lands Series, vol. 3, 204-5.
29 American State Papers, Public Lands Series, vol. 2, 823, 857.
30 United States Census, Catahoula Parish, La., 1810.
31 American State Papers, Public Lands Series, vol. 3, 204-5; Conveyance Record B, 17, Record C, 35, Catahoula County Courthouse.
32 Martha Bowie Burns article, James Bowie Biographical File, DRT; [Kilpatrick], “Historical and Statistical Collection of Louisiana,” 640.
33 Bowie, The Bowies, 261-62. Walter Bowie cites this story as an oral tradition in the family and provides much more detail that involves Rezin Killing one squatter, being jailed for manslaughter, and subsequently freed at pistol point by his wife. The detail of the story is highly improbable, like so much of the unsubstantiated Bowie legend, but the root of the tale in a problem with squatters is not at all unlikely.
34 Robert Bowie to the author, August 19, 1996; Elve A. Soniat to Walter Bowie, February 28, 1896, Lucy Leigh Bowie Papers, DRT. Robert Bowie, “Col. James Bowie and the Bowie Families of Early Louisiana” (n.p., n.d.), though a thoroughly bewildering document in places, as befits an attempt to figure out the identities and relationships of so many Bowie men with identical names, is still persuasive in its conclusion that Rhesa was the father of the black James Bowie. Rhesa's will, dated 1848 and in the Bowie Family Papers, UT, lists his only heir as his son James Bowie. For some of the dealings between John Bowie and his black cousin, see Conveyance Record C, 266, Catahoula Courthouse, Book A, 165, Clerk of the Court, Chicot County Courthouse, Lake Village, Ark., and Conveyance Record G, 240, Clerk of the Court, Ouachita Parish Courthouse, Monroe, La.
35 These tales come from Effie Harrison Snyder, whose sister married Rezin Bowie, John junior's grandson. She was thus nor even a blood member of the family and quite certainly never met either Rezin or his brother James. This and the fact that her account was not written until 1931, appearing in the St. Joseph, La., Tensas Gazette on May 8 of that Year—more than 120 year after the fact—makes everything she says highly suspect, the more so since almost all Bowie descendant recollections have proven to be ill-informed and unreliable. It is obvious that much of her account is influenced by the Bowie mythology of the latter nineteenth century. As a result, while she provides specific instances of James's relationship with Mandy and of other childhood events, they have not been used in the text. They could be inventions or even confused with Rezin's activities. Only the general suggestion that James had a friendly relationship with family slaves should reasonably be inferred from her account.
36 It must be emphasized that this story of the involvement of Rezin Bowie in the Kemper forces is based on only one source, and that a questionable one. Matilda E. Moore, “The Bowie Brother and their Famous Knife,” Frontier Times 19 (February 1942): 201, states that Rezin left home in 1810 and went to Texas with Kemper, then spent three years fighting Indians. Kemper went in 1812-13, not 1810, and Rezin could not have spent the ensuing three years there because he enlisted in the Louisiana militia in January 1815. Most troubling, Moore gives no sources for her statement about the Kemper episode. Nevertheless the article is accurate and detailed on other aspects of Rezin Bowie's life, and she was herself a great-granddaughter of Rezin's through his grandson John Moore. Such a filibustering adventure would have been in character for Rezin Bowie, and in later years he and James certainly had repeated and verifiable relations with Samuel Kemper's brother Reuben, who was also probably a participant. Consequently, with reservations, it seems reasonable to assume some kind of involvement on Rezin's part.
37 Marriage Record Book 1, 256, St. Landry Catholic Church, Opelousas, La. Her name is occasionally given as Marguerite.
38 John H. Carr to sheriff, February 6, 1812, Bowie Family Papers, UT.
39 Bowie, The Bowie, 263, is the only source for David's death, with no date given, only his age.
40 Philadelphia, Pennsylvanian, July 19, 1838. This is one of the earliest newspaper articles to deal with the Bowie brothers, yet already it is full of myth and misinformation. Nevertheless it is correct in some respects, and its author says that “Jim Bowie informed us” of some of the details therein sometime before his death. If James Bowie knew anything, it would be the behavior of the older brother to whom he was so attached.
41 Bowie, “The Bowies,” 379.
42 James Bouyee [Bowie] Compiled Military Service Record, Josiah S. Johnston Compiled Military Service Record, War of 1812, Record of the Adjutant General's Office, Record Group 94, NA.
43 Compiled Military Service Records for Abraham Bird, John Davis Bradburn, John L. Bruard, Samuel Wells, War of 1812, Record Group 94, NA; William and Marjorie K. Walraven, The Magnificent Barbarians (Austin, Tex., 1993), 164; Margaret Swett Henson, Juan Davis Bradburn (College Station, Tex., 1982), 25.
44 Elve Soniat to Walter Bowie, March 31, 1896, Lucy Leigh Bowie Papers, DRT.
45 Compiled Military Service Record, Warren D. C. Hall, Josiah S. Johnston, War of 1812, Record Group 94, N
A; H. Yoakum, History of Texas from Its First Settlement in 1686 to Its Annexation to the United States in 1846 (New York, 1856), vol. 2, 508-9; Octavia Rogan, “Warren D. C. Hall,” Texas Grand Lodge Magazine (July 1937): 274. It must be noted that there is no documentation of James Bowie and Hall forming a friendship while they served in the same unit. However, the fact that several sources indicate that Hall and James were intimately involved in repeated events starting just two years later suggests that they were certainly acquainted by 1817, though they lived far apart. Thus their military service is the only prior point at which they were both unquestionably in very close proximity, and in a small regiment of only a few hundred. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that their association commenced then.
46 Compiled Military Service Record, James Bouyee [Bowie], War of 1812, Record Group 94, NA.
47 Bowie, “The Bowies,” 379-80.
48 Timothy Flint, Recollections of the Last Ten Years in the Valley of the Mississippi (1826; reprint, Carbondale, Ill., 1968), 231-32.
49 Ibid., 379-80; Washington, Tex., Lone Star, October 23, 1852. That Bowie squatted at first is speculation, based on the facts that this brother John in the sources here cited says that he went out on his own in 1814-15, and that no land purchases of any kind are recorded for Bowie prior to 1817. Squatting seems the only explanation that would bridge the two-year gap.
50 Bowie, “The Bowie,” 379-80. Samuel Mims, Trail of the Bowie Knife (Homer, La., 1967), 33, a strange and confused book, claims that James had a contract for fifty thousand feet thousand of lumber at New Orleans, but gives no source.
51 Sales and Mortgages Book D—1, 1-B-2, 2, Clerk of the Court, St. Landry Parish Courthouse, Opelousas, la. That Bowie gave a note rather than cash for the slaves is a supposition. The transfer says payment was made “in hand,” but does not specify cash. This terminology often did not differentiate between cash payment and payment by IOU. Since $1,700 seems an unlikely sum for Bowie to earn from timber cutting in less than two years, and since he was buying from his own father, a personal note seems the more likely means of purchase. It should be noted that Lucy Leigh Bowie, in the manuscript of an article found in her papers at the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, claims that Rezin Bowie Sr. gave James and Rezin Jr. horses, cattle, and ten slaves each to start them off in life. She gives no source, and considering the unreliability of much of the rest of her writing, it has seemed best not to incorporate this information here. Moreover, the St. Landry Tax Assessments for both 1817 and 1818 (MM 2017, 2168, St. Landry Courthouse, Opelousas show James Bowie with only five slaves, not ten.
52 Conveyance Book C, 206, 211, Clerk of the Court, Avoyelles Parish Courthouse, Marksville.
53 Ibid., 241, 242, 253.
54 Ibid., Book B Bis, 189.
55 Ibid., 210.
56 Bowie, “The Bowie,” 380.
57 Bennet Store Ledger, August 5, 1817, in Mary Ann Wells, A History Lover's Guide to Louisiana (Baton Rouge, 1990), 66.
58 Bowie, “The Bowie,” 379-80. Effie Harrison Snyder told a story in the St. Joseph, La., Tensas Gazette, May 8, 1931, of James Bowie striking a trapper who had stolen his father's bloodhounds, and later of stealing them back. When brought before a local court for the offense, Bowie struck the judge, too, when he scoffed at Bowie's explanation. Like the rest of Snyder's stories, this one is related more than a century after the fact and is third- or fourth-hand information at best and therefore not to be relied on. Mims, Trail, 35, also carries a probably apocryphal story of Bowie fighting pirates who tried to steal his logs on their way to market.
59 Natchez, Mississippi State Gazette, June 16, 1819.
60 Dudley G. Wooten, ed., Comprehensive History of Texas 1685 to 1897 (Austin, 1898), vol. 1, 97; W. B. [William Bollaert], “Life of Jean Lafitte,” Littell's Living Age 32 (March 1852): 441n; Natchez, Mississippi Republican, August 18, 1819.
61 James Bowie's participation in the Long expedition has often been asserted, but with no sure foundation. Amelia Williams, “A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of the Personal of Its Defenders, Chapter III,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 37 (October 1933): 91, places Bowie with Long, without authority, and so does Clifford Hopewell, James Bowie, Texas Fighting Man (Austin, 1994), 21-22. The only roughly contemporary source that appears to be well informed is Bollaert's 1852 article “Life of Jean Lafitte,” 435, 441n, which states that “the celebrated Jim Bowie, and W. D. C. Hall, were followers of Long's. Jim Bowie was a favorite with all; he was ‘quiet as a lamb,’ but aroused, or in a fight, ‘he was a very devil’” Bollaert states that his source for material relating to Long and Laffite (whose name Bollaert and many others mispelled “Lafitte”) was “my friend, the late Colonel G., who visited Laffite in 1819” (441). This is a reference to Col. James Gaines, one of Long's chief lieutenants, who visited Laffite in company with Warren Hall sometime in July or August, a visit also attested by the early Texas historian John Henry Brown, Long's Expedition (Houston, 1930), p. 1. Bollaert was in Galveston collecting historical material from 1842 to 1845, and this is when he would have become acquainted with Gaines, though he is mistaken in his 1852 article in thinking Gaines deceased, for the latter lived until 1856. This discrepancy notwithstanding, Gaines had definitely been in a position to see and know Bowie if he was with Long, and the added association of Bowie's friend Hall lends further weight to Bollaert's statement of what Gaines told him being a trustworthy firsthand account. Thus Bowie is definitely placed with the Long expedition during the summer of 1819. Bowie appears to have been in St. Landry Avoyelles in early June (Jesse Andrus v. James Bowie, April 24, 1820, James Bowie House Museum, Opelousas, La.), while court documents make it quite certain that Bowie was in Avoyelles on October 2 and 16, 1819, and therefore could not have been with Long later than mid-September (Conveyance Record D, 55, 96, Avoyelles Parish Courthouse). Thus his participation in the expedition was only brief before he returned home.
62 Donald J. Hebert, ed., Southwest Louisiana Records (Eunice, 1974), vol. 2, 16.
63 William H. Sparks, writing in 1879 for an unidentified newspaper, and quoted in Edward S. Ellis, The Life of Colonel David Crockett (Philadelphia, Pa., 1884), 213. The Sparks memoir of the Bowies is remarkably accurate and useful, despite a few errors.
64 Bowie, The Bowies, 265-67.
65 Genealogy notes compiled by G. M. G. Stafford, Mary E. Compton and Family Papers, LSU.
66 Martha Bowie Burns article, James Bowie Biographical File, DRT.
67 Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860 (Middletown, Conn., 1973), 395.
68 Eugene Barker, “The African Slave Trade in Texas,” Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 6 (October 1902): 149.
69 Barker, “Slave Trade,” 145; Wooten, Texas, vol. 1, 87-89.
70 Manifest of the Cargo on Board the Ship Patterson, Record of Fees Paid, Cargo Manifests, Entry 1657, Record Group 36; Drawbacks for Brig Devorador, January, March 7, 25, April 4, 1817, Record of Drawbacks, Bureau of Customs, Entry 1656, NA.
71 W. B., “Lafitte,” 440.
72 Wooten, Texas, vol. 1, 89.
73 Beverly Chew to William H. Crawford, August 1, 30, October 17, 1817, American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. 4, 134-36.
74 Sparks in Ellis, Crokett, 222-23.
75 Deed of Sale, February 13, 1821, Alonzo Snyder Papers, Hill Memorial Library, LSU; Joe Gray Taylor, Negro Slavery in Louisiana (Baton Rouge, 1963), 55.
76 Flint, Recollections, 6.
77 Sales and Mortgages Book E-1, 80, St. Landry Parish Courthouse; Jesse Andrus v. James Bowie, April 24, 1820, James Bowie House Museum, Opelousas, La.
78 Galveston, Daily News, March 16, 1920, March 21, 1930, January 13, 1935. These articles are written—or based on articles—by Joseph O. Dyer, who had interviewed men who knew Laffite at Compeachy. While the interviews took place many years after the fact and the articles were written even later, still they are t
he only authority with any connection to eyewitnesses to establish Bowie's visit to Campeachy. They also indicate that Rezin accompanied him, though this appears unlikely. They are also the source for Hall's connection in introducing the Bowies to the smuggler, which is entirely consistent with Hall's activities at the time. James's own relations with Laffite are attested in the information given to Bollaert in 1842-45 by James Gaines in Bollaert's “Life of Jean Lafitte,” 435, in which he states in relation to Laffite that “Jim Bowie … and Razin Bowie … were connected with him.” C. L. Douglas, James Bowie: The Life of a Bravo (Dallas, 1944), 13, 20, says without citing sources that James was selling lumber in New Orleans when he heard of the Galveztown operation, and that he and Rezin and John made their trip in mid-January 1818. This is almost certainly Douglas's own invention in what is a highly fictionalized biography.