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(Page 698 and 699)
Jonathan Bowen was born in the township of Hopewell in the year 1737, and was the son of Jonathan Bowen, who died in 1782, at the age of sixty-eight years. He belonged to a numerous family, several of whom emigrated from Swansea, in Glamorganshire, Wales, to Massachusetts in 1662, with their pastor, the Rev. John Miles. Jonathan Bowen the elder, was the son of Dan Bowen, who died in 1729, and he was the son of Samuel Bowen, who came to Cohansey from Swansea, Mass., and died about a month before his son Dan. Two others were named Richard and Hezekiah Bowen. They were Baptists, and as such obnoxious to the original Puritan settlers of New England.
Jonathan Bowen, the elder, resided at Bowentown, and built the house now owned by Mrs. McBride, one of his descendants. He had several children. One of them named David, was appointed sheriff of the county by the royal Governor in 1775, but was superceded in 1776 by Joel Fithian, elected under the provisions of the new Constitution of the people. He built the brick house occupied by John S. Holmes, and owned the farm. The family of Bowen in the county became very numerous. Seth Bowen, son of Dr. Elijah Sr., and cousin of Jonathan, the elder, was a lieutenant of artillery in the Revolutionary army.
Jonathan Bowen, Jr., appears to have been a man of great responsibility and worth. He was elected a member of the convention that adopted the new Constitution of New Jersey in 1776, and also in the same year a member of Assembly. He was subsequently elected to the Assembly seven times, his last service being in 1800. About the commencement of the Revolution he removed to Bridgeton, and became owner of the property on the west side of the Cohansey, from the Mason line twenty rods south of the bridge to the Ireland Mill property, his west line to the Muddy Run, since called Jeddy�s Pond, running along the top of the hill and north of that run, extending west of the Ireland Mill road. His dwelling house, one of the first erected in the vicinity, long since taken down, stood a few rods northeast of the house lately occupied by E. Collin Woodruff. He built the stone house standing on the west side of Atlantic Street, about half way between Commerce and Broad, and occupied it at his death in 1804.
He had several children, - two sons, Smith and Daniel, and two daughters, who both married Bacons. He left most of his Bridegton property to his son Smith, born in 1763, who, with Ebenezer Seeley and James Lee, the owners of the land on the east side of the creek, built the dam, now called Tumbling dam, about 1810, and then sold the property on the wesr side to Benjamin and David Reeves, who established the iron works. During the war of 1812-15 he owned and occupied the hotel, now Davis�.
The valuable farm at Bowentown, contained more than two hundred acres, was left to his son Daniel, and became the property of his granddaughter, Mrs. McBride, and her sister, Mrs. Souder, now owned by Robert J. Buck.
