The Bowen Family
Title: Ancestral File (R), Author: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Publication: Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998
Repository: Note: Family History Library; ADDR 35 N West Temple Street?; CONT Salt Lake City, UT 84150 USA
Title: Silvers Charles Wood.FTW
Repository: Media: Other
Cujelin, Prince of Dyfed, son of Gwynfard Dyfed, was born in 1200
Gwrared, son of Cujelin, Prince of Dyfed, was born in 1225
Gwylum, son of Gwrared, was born in 1250
Einion Vaur Ap Gwlym, son of Gwylum, was born in 1275. He was married to Dido Verch Cadyman, who was the daughter of Cadywan, Lord of Aberpath.
Owen Ap Enion, son of Einion Vaur and Dido Cadyman. He was married to Gwenllian Coatington, daughter of Sir Knight, William Coatington.
Llyweltn Ap Owain, son of Owen Enion and Gwenllian Coatington, was born 1345, in Llstyn, Nevern, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
He married Nest "Fechan" Verch Hywe, who was born in 1348, in Coed Rhath, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Children:
Ieuan Evan Bowen, son of Llyweltn Ap Owain and Nest "Fechan" Verch Hywel, was born about 1472, in Pentre-Ifan, Nevern, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
He was married to Margaret Arnold, who was born about 1377, in Hubberston, Rhos, Pembroekshire, Wales, the daughter of Arnold Cubberston, born about 1372, in Pentre-Ifan Nevern, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Children:
Gwilym Bowen, son of Ieuan Evan Bowen and Margaret Arnold, was born about 1412, in Pentre-Ifan, Nevern, Pembrokeshire, Wales
He was married to Annes Verch James born about 1430, in Trellyn, Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the daughter of James Verch Ap Hywel and Jonet Stradling
Owain Owen Bowen, the son of Gwilym Bowen and Annes Verch James, was born about 1453, in Pentre-Ifan, Nevern, Pembrokeshire, Wales
He was married to Jonet Llyelyn, born about 1457, in Gumphreyston, Pembroke, Wales. Her father was John Harri Ap Llywelyn, son of Henry Ap Llewelyn.
Children:
James Bowen, son of Owain Owen Bowen and Jonet Llyelyn, was born about 1480, in Pentre Evan and Llwyngwair, Pembroke, Wales.
He was married about 1518, to Mary Herle, who was born about 1498, in Brecknockshire, Wales. She was the daughter of Margaret Verch Thomas, and John Herle, the son of John Ap William Flchan and Anne Delabeere
Children:
Mathias Bowen, son of James Bowen and Mary Herle, was born in 1524, in Llwyngwair, Pembroke, Wales.
He was married in 1548, Llwyngwair, Pembroke, Wales, to Mary Phillips, who was born in 1528,in Picton Castle, Pembroke, Wales, the daughter of Sir Knight, John Phillips and Elizabeth Griffith
Mathias died in 1629.
Children:
James Bowen, son of Mathias Bowen and Mary Phillips, was born 1524, in Llwyngwair, Pembroke, Wales.
He was married about 1573, in Llwyngwair, Pembroke, Wales, to Eleanor Griffith, born in Penrhym, Carnarvon, Wales, the daughter of John Griffith and Margaret Verch Meredydd.James died in 1629, will proved in Carmarthen, Wales
Children:
Richard Bowen Sr., son of James Bowen and Eleanor Griffith, was born in 1580, in Llwyngwair, Pembroke, Wales
He was married/1 about 1619, in Wales to Anne Born, who was born about 1592, in Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales, died in Rehoboth.
He was married/2 on 2 November 1648, to Elizabeth Marsh, who was born about 1600 in England
Richard died 4 February 1673/4 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts.
Children:
Richard Bowen, Jr., son of Richard Bowen Sr. and his wife Ann, was born about 1631, in Wales.
He was married 4 March 1645/6 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, to Ester Sutton, who was born about 1625, in Rehoboth, and died 6 November 1688.
John Sutton, born 1593, in Attleborough, Norfolk, England, died 1 June 1672, in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts.
Juliana Little, born about 1595, Attleborough, Norfolk, England, died in Massachusetts
He was married/2 20 January 1689/90, to Martha Allen, who was born 11 December 1641, in Nedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts.
Richard died March 1722/3 in Rehoboth; Martha died 11 January 1735/6, in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts.
Source: Vital Records of Rehoboth
Children:
Richard Bowen III, son of Richard Bowen Jr. and Esther Sutton, was born 17 January 1662/3, in Rehoboth, Bristol Massachusetts
He was married 28 February 1690/1 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony, to Patience Peck, born 11 October 1669, Rehoboth, Bristol, Plymouth Colony
A "husbandmand," Richard made his Will 29 August 1739, "being very sick and weak of body." He died 31 August 1739, in Rehoboth, buried in Newan Cemetery of old Rehoboth, now in Rumford, Rhode Island
Sons: Ichabod, Dan, Peter, Richard, Uriah, David & Christopher (deceased) Bowen. Daughters: Mary Cole & Zerviah Jones [a widow? - she was given liberty of dwelling in his house as long as she lives].
Grandchildren: [not named] (all under 21), children of my son Christopher deceased. Sons Ichabod & Peter to be executives,
Source: Jim Bullock
Children:
Uriah Bowen Sr, son of Richard Bowen III and Patience Peck, was born 9 July 1709, in Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
He was married 12 September 1737, in Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, to Elizabeth Perry
He died about 1790.
Source: "Baker-Bramlett Family"
Children:
Birth date, page 650;
Marriage intention to Uriel Bowen, 11 Jul 1767, page 203, 45, Marriage date, page 203, 45, married by Rev. Ephraim Hyde;
Birth dates of children, page 549
He was married to Esther Ide, who was born 17 January 1747/8, Rehoboth, Massachusetts, daughter of Timothy Ide, who was born 31 March 1719, and died 1763, and Esther Bosworth.
Uriah Jr, died about 1790.
All of the children were born in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts.
Children:
Ephraim Bowen, Sr., son of Levi Bowen, was born 22 October 1769, in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
He emigrated to Mason County, Kentucky, and was married there 26 August 1798, to Hannah Hale, daughter of James Hale and Catherine Baird, who was born in 1777, in Baltimore, MD, and died 1 September 1844, Greensfork t ownship, Randolph County, Indiana.
Ephraim was a soldier in the War of 1812, and the County Historian states that he was an honest, upright, God-fearing man, considered �pretty well-off� for those times.
In Ohio, Ephraim owned an 86 acre farm. He wanted to sell it and move to Indiana, but Hannah objected to taking the children away from the schools and society into the wilderness, and opposed the move. The children were anxious to move and besought Hannah continually to let him sell the farm. �Mammy, do let him sell the farm. Oh, Mamma, do let him go, do let him go.� until she finally gave up and consented.
Ephraim moved from Ohio in a big Shaker wagon with a load of �plunder� and arrived at Randolph County, Indiana, on 22 October 1814, the day he was 45 years old, the 4th settler in the wilds of Randolph, and northernmost of the four. North and northwest of him was an endless wilderness, except a few soldiers at Fort Wayne and Fort Dearborn, Green Bay and Mackinaw. He then went back for his family, (then 6 children).
Ephraim entered the NE Quarter of Sec.28, Twsp 16, Range 1. His patent was signed by Pres. James Madison. Hunting was splendid, and game plenty in the woods. Deer, turkeys, bears (and wolves) were abundant. There were about 11 white people living in the territory of the county. Having no neighbors but the uncivilized Indians, they were thrown upon their own resources to clear a homestead from the unbroken forest.
Squire Bowen reported: �We moved into the thick, green woods. We would cut out the trees a foot and under, grub the undergrowth, pile and buried the logs, girdle the big trees, and kill them by building brush piles around them.�
(During this time the children began to complain to their mother about the lonesome condition, and Hannah would remind them of their own words when they had begged so hard to come.)
�Plenty of wild plums and grapes (and some blackberries) were to be found. The plums and grapes grew on the banks of the creeks, and along the edges of the (wet) prairies. There were different sorts, red and purple, small and round, but very sweet and good, better than most tame plums. Some grapes were fall grapes and some winter grapes. The blackberries grew on the �windfalls.� There was one near Spartansburg. There were crab-apples, but too sour to use, and papaws, but no one would eat them. The woods were full of weeds of many kinds, and of pea-vines, and horses and cattle lived well on them. Some places had been buriedned over, and the woods, in those spots, were open like a big orchard.
�I knew Johnny Cornstalk, the Shawnee chief. My mother-in-law once made him an overcoat. He was a large, portly, fine looking, genteel Indian, strait as an arrow. He once came (with his wife) to my father�s on horseback, to tell him that they had found a bee-tree in his woods.
They rode up. Cornstalk dismounted, but his wife sat still upon her horse, tall, straight and lady-like, genteel, dressed richly in Indian fashion, with a beautiful side-saddle and bridle, and a fine pony. Mother said, �Won�t you light?� Spry as a cat, she sprang off, and they went into the house. She was waiting for an invitation. They were a stately elegant-looking couple.
"Cornstalk told father of the bee-tree, and father went and cut the tree down and gathered the honey and gave Cornstalk half. I knew Chief Richardville 5 miles above Fort Wayne, on St. Mary�s river. He was a Miami Chief, had a large, brick house and was rich. His daughter dressed Indian fashion, but very grand and stylish. He was a good, honest, genteel, friendly man, and much respected, both by the Indians and white men. We made bricks one season at Fort Wayne, and saw him often.
�The last time I went to Fort Wayne was in 1829. Several tribes drew their payments there for years after Fort Wayne was laid out as a town. The Indians around here were Shawnees. They would trap in April and May, and then go back to their towns. The squaws would plant and raise the corn, and dress the skins. The men did the hunting and the women did the work. At one time at Fort Wayne, 13 Indians were killed during one payment in drunken fights.
�We would catch wolves in a wolf-pen. We could pay our taxes with the �scalps.� A wolf-pen was made, say 6� long and 4� high, of poles for bottom, sides and top, the size of your arm. The top was made like a �lid,� withed down to the pen at one end, and so as to lift up at the other. The lid would be set with a trap so as to fall and catch the wolf and fasten him into the pen. The bait would be deer meat.
To kill the wolf, take a hickory switch and make it limber by �witheing� it, i.e., twisting it limber. Make a noose and slip it through the pen and around the wolf�s neck, and lift him against the top of the pen and choke him to death. If the wolf were shot and bled in the pen, no more wolves would come into it. One big wolf, father undertook to choke, but the dogs wished so much to get in at him, that we let them in, but the wolf fought them terribly, and whipped the dogs out, till father put an end to the battle by choking him in dead earnest.�
Ephraim was perhaps the first Justice of the Peace in Greensfork, performing his first married in 1819. He was an intelligent, devoted Methodist, and did much to help plant the foundations of religion in this western wilderness. When Ephraim completed his first cabin, the first article taken inside, was the Holy Bible. His dwelling was the �preacher�s home,� and a preaching station for more than thirty years. All the Methodists in the region were there, and others, perhaps 30 persons.
Squire Bowen reported: �The first religious meeting was held in father�s cabin. Stephen Williams exhorted, perhaps in 1815. The first sermon was preached there also, in 1815, by Rev. Holman, of Louisville, Kentucky, text, Isaiah: �Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is the hurt of daughter of my people not recovered?� It was a good Gospel sermon, and was food to the hungry souls longing to be fed in the wilderness.
�We used to go to meeting to Dwiggins� house (near Newport) and they would come up to our house. The Methodist meeting house near Dwiggins was warmed thus. They had a box, nearly filled with dirt, standing in the middle of the floor, and would make a fire with charcoal in the box. That house never had a stove in it, but was warmed in that way as long as it stood, 15, or 20 years. They would have a rail-pen near the church to hold the coal, and carry it in as it might be needed. Mrs. Bowen (Elizabeth Dwiggins, Squire�s wife) says she has carried many a basket of coal to replenish the fire.
�The first (Quaker) meeting house was at Arba, built by the Friends in 1815, and used for church and schoolhouse both; I went to school there four or five years. Afterward they built a hewed-log church, and had a stove in it.
�In plowing, when father first moved, we used a bar-share plow; and a wooden mold-board. I could tell tales by the hour of those old times, but is not worth the while to print so much of an old man�s gossip.� All of the products of the farm that were not used for home consumption were marketed at Fort Wayne, a distance of about 90 miles. The only means of conveyance was a wagon drawn by oxen. They were compelled to cut their own road through the dense wilderness. It required from 16 to 20 days to make the trip and return.
Squire Bowen reported: �The �Quaker Trace� was begun in 1817. James Clark, with 25 or 30 men started with three wagon loads of provisions, and also a surveyor and chain, etc., and they marked �mile trees,� and cut the road out enough for wagons to pass. They wound around ponds, however, and big logs and trees, and quagmires, fording the Mississinewa above Allenville, Randolph County, and the Wabash just west of Corydon, Jay County, and so on to Fort Wayne.
"My brother, James, and myself first went to Fort Wayne (with a four horse team) in 1820. James himself had been on the trip a year or so before that. We took our feed along for the whole trip, as there was but one house from one mile north of Spartansburg to Fort Wayne.
"At Black Swamp we had to wade half-leg to knee deep, walking to drive. (We always had to do that) After that first trip, we always took oxen, generally three yoke for a team. No feed was needed for the oxen, for they could be turned out to pick their living. Our load was commonly about 2,500 pounds of bacon, flour, etc. Bacon would be 10 to 12 cents a pound, and flour $7 to $8 a barrel. The trip would take about two weeks, and we expected to make about $40 a trip. It would take 8 days to go, 3 days in Fort Wayne, and 4 days to return. Once an ox team came through in 3 days, which was the quickest trip ever made. We would unyoke the oxen, �hopple� them, put a bell upon one of them and turn them out.
"For ourselves, we would build a fire by a log, cook supper, throw down an old bed on the leaves under a tent stretched before the fire, and lie down and sleep as sound as a nut. We would start early, drive till 9 o�clock and get breakfast, and let the oxen eat again.
"From 2 to 6 teams would go in company. Sometimes the teams would get �stuck,� but not too often. If so, we would unhitch the �lead yoke from another team, hitch on in front, and pull the load through. Once only I had to unload. I got fast in the quicksands in crossing the Mississinewa. We got a horse from a settler, carried the flour to the bank of the river on his back, hitched the oxen to the hind end and pulled the wagon out backward.�
"The older children had a brief attendance with school in Ohio. But all obtained a fair common education at Arba, in the old log pioneer schoolhouse, used as a Friends� Meeting House.
"In early times, there was a distillery above Arba. Considerable whisky was drank at gatherings, and as a natural result, many got �groggy� by its use.
"In the pigeon roosts, one locality of which was near Spartansburg, the trees were loaded with nests, built of sticks, somewhat like baskets swung to a limb, the inside being beautifully lined with soft and tender moss. Pigeons would live on mast. Hogs would keep fat nearly the year round, during the fall and winter upon the mast, and in the summer upon wild pea vines, which grew 2, or 3, feet high, and as thick as thick clover. Hogs would run in the woods and grow wild.
"The old ones would be marked, and then the whole drove running with these old ones would be claimed by the same owner. But where none in a herd were marked, the herd belonged to nobody, and any person might kill such. They would fatten themselves wholly without corn, and entirely upon oak, hickory and beech mast."
James Bowen reported: �We used to go to mill to Newport, to George Sugart�s mill, but oftener to White Water, to Jere Cox�s mill. Sugart had a little �corn-cracker� run by water power. The buhr went around no oftener than the wheel did. Sugart would throw in a bushel of corn, and go out and swingle flax, etc, for an hour or two, and then go in attend to his grist again. Awful slow! One day a hound came in and began licking up the meal as it came in spurts from the spout. It did not come fast enough for him and he would look up with a pitiful howl, and lick for more meal!�Ephraim would send his boys the 14 miles to mill on horseback. Sometimes they would go with a wagon and take a load, go 20 miles to Cox�s Mill, get it ground, and then it would take 2 days.
Often the settlers had to go over to the Big Miami for provisions. Two men would join teams, and go with four horses, and bring a big load. Pork was $1.50 a hundred net, and sometimes $1.00, or even less than that. As late as 1835, when Ephraim�s son James was Justice, James rendered judgment on a debt, and the defendant said he had wheat at Jeremiah Cox�s mill, and that he could not get 12 and a half cents a bushel, in money to pay the debt. At Newport, Jonathan Unthank sued David Bowles for $5.00, balance on a store debt. Benjamin Thomas said he had as good wheat as ever grew, and he could not get 12 and a half cents a bushel, in money, to pay his taxes!
After the death of Hannah on 15 September 1844, the care of Ephraim fell to his son Squire. (Squire and his family lived on the home-place with his parents. When he retired in 1867, it was taken over by his son James D Bowen, and family)
Ephraim died 20 August 1858, both in Randolph County, Indiana. His obituary says: �He was a fine specimen of the hardy pioneers who subdued the wilds. Courageous, honest, industrious, devout, intelligent, energetic, upright, humble, he was the very image and ideal of an aged patriarch of the olden time.� At his death there were 70 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren.
Greensfork Township
From �History of Randolph County, Indiana� (1882)
�Altogether, Spartansburg is a fine little town. When first laid out, the name of the place was Newburg, but for some reason it was changed to Spartansburg. It is one of the few interior villages in Randolph, which are having a vigorous and solid growth. A large number of houses have been erected during five or six years past. Its prosperity is now threatened by the fact that the new railroad east and west misses Spartansburg about one and a half miles. The people, however, do not seem alarmed at the prospect.
"There are two hotels, two churches, a graded school, two sawmills, a corncracker, a planing-mill, a tile factory, two smith shops, two wagon shops, two shoe shops, etc., and a brisk business is maintained.
"Distances: Union City, eleven miles; Ridgeville, twenty-one miles; Lynn, six miles; Huntsville, twelve and a half miles; Harrisville, ten miles; Farmland, twenty-one miles; Bartonia, four miles; Bloomingsport, ten miles; Winchester, twelve miles; Rural, nine miles.�
Ephraim Bowen, Sr., was born in Chester County Pennsylvania, October 22, 1769; emigrated to Mason County, Kentucky, married Hannah Hale in that State and came to Green County, Ohio, in 1795, seven years before Ohio became a member of the Union and from there moved to Randolph County, Indiana, arriving October 22nd, 1814, the day he was forty five years old.
He was the fourth settler in the wilds of Randolph County. He brought six children with him, namely, Nancy, James C., Jane, Squire, Rebecca and Hannah. Rachel and Ephraim L. were born in this County, making eight in all.
Ephraim Bowen was a soldier in the War of 1812, and the County Historian states that he was an honest, upright, Godfearing man: considered "pretty well off" for those times.
The first settlement in Randolph County was made in April, 1814, by Thomas W. Parker, who located his cabin on the east side of the Old Boundary, just north of the Wayne County line. Mr. Parker says that during the summer John W. Thomas and Clarkson Willcutts settled farther north and on October 22nd, Ephraim Bowen drove up to his father's door, and he went still farther up Nolan's Fork, and the farthest north of any. North and northwest of him was an endless wilderness, except a few soldiers at Fort Wayne and Fort Dearborn, Green Bay and Mackinaw.
Squire Bowen says the first religious meeting was held in Ephram Bowen's cabin, probably in 1815, and that Stephen Williams exhorted at that meeting. The first sermon was preached also in Ephraim Bowen's cabin by Rev. Mr. Holman of Louisville, Ky. Text from Isaiah, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then, is the hurt of the daughter of my people not recovered ?" James C. Bowen and others who heard that sermon spoke highly of this first effort by that gifted servant of Christ in his introduction of the gospel message into this new land.
Ephriam Bowen's dwelling was long a place for the Methodist meetings of that region. It is said that when Eplariam Bowen completed his cabin the first article taken therein was the Holy Bible. The third marriage license issued in Randolph County was to Samuel Frazier and Mary Cook, dated June 21, 1819. The marriage was performed by Ephriam Bowen, Justice of the Peace, August 3, l819, six weeks after the license was issued.[a10023.FTW]
Children:
James Colier Bowen, son of Ephraim Bowen, Sr., and Hannah Hale, was born in 1801, in Green County, Ohio, and came to Randolph County, Indiana in 1814, when he was 13. >
He grew up in the woods, and married 1 October 1829 to Elizabeth Jeffrey. She died in 1879, aged 68. James was living then (aged 81 in 1882,) somewhat feeble.
He was Justice of the Peace 9 years; a Methodist in religion, and a Democrat in politics. He lived within 1/2 mile of the spot where his father settled in the forest more than 68 years before. He owned a large farm, and deeded considerable land to his children.
They had 14 children, nine living in 1882.
James died 17 May 1884, was buried at Arba, Randolph County, Indiana. See: The Bowen Family, and Bowen Family 2
Children:
He was married 18 August 1829 to Elizabeth Dwiggins of Wayne County, Indiana, for over 53 years.
They settled 2 1/5 miles from Spartansburg, Indiana, the farm his father entered a quarter section of land, and lived there, until 1867, when they moved to Arba. They lived in that village 9 1/2 years, then moved to Spartansburg.
Both were still living in 1882. They had 12 children, 4 boys and 8 girls, nine of whom were still living in 1882. With one exception, they all lived within 10 miles from the old homestead.
Squire died in 1889, and was buried at Spartanburg.
Children:
James Dwiggins Bowen, son of Squire Bowen and Elizabeth Dwiggins, was born 23 December 1832, in Greensfork Township, Randolph County, Indiana. He was born and raised on the farm entered by his grandfather.
He was married 13 September 1855, to Mary E Chenoweth, daughter of John B. and Sarah B. Chenoweth, of Carroll County, Maryland, and lived in Arba, Indiana.
In 1873, he owned the farm, which consisted of 200 acres, of which 140 acres were in a �high state of production.� The house was a large two-story structure, situated on a beautiful knoll, surrounded by shade trees.
He was Enrolling Officer of his township during the Civil War, an appointment from the Government; he made 3 trips to the front to look after the sick and wounded soldiers from his district.
In addition to farming, he owned a mercantile business at Spartansburg and Arba, and a pork-packing business at Richmond, and an interest in a mercantile and grain business in Lynn, also in Randolph County
He was a Township Trustee, Justice of the Peace, a Ditch Commissioner, a staunch Republican, a Methodist, and a Mason of Bethel Lodge No. 250.
They had nine children, 3 boys and 6 girls, all living in 1882. Two of his sons were engaged with their father in Business at Lynn, one as a partner, the other as clerk.
Ephraim L. Bowen, son of Ephraim Bowen and Hannah Hale, was born 20 March 1819, on the family homestead, in Greensfork Township, Randolph County, Indiana.
A farmer, he remained at home assisting his father until 20 years of age, and was then married to Ruth Dwiggins, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and began farming for himself. His place in 1882 consisted of 280 acres of good land.
Ruth died 5 August 1858. They had 8 children, six living in 1858; all were later married and had children.
Ephraim was married/2 to Mrs. Anna J. Corbett, who was born 16 December 1827, in North Carolina, and came to Randolph County, Indiana, as a child with her parents, John and Mildred Thornburg.
Ephraim, still living in 1882, was a Mason, Bethel Lodge, No. 250, and a member of the Christian Church. He died in 1901, was buried at Spartanburg.
Children:
History of Randolph County, Indiana (1882) Greensfork Twsp
The Bowen Book, 1814-1914