Octavia (Bowdoin) Donaldson (abt. 1845 - abt. 1881)

Born about 1845 in Stewart County, Georgia

Ancestors

Died about 1881 at about age 36 in Coffee County, Alabama

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Biography

Octavia was born about 1845. She was the daughter of Turner Bowdoin and Rebecca Maddox. She passed away about 1881. ^[1]

REFERENCE TO OCTAVIA IN BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HER BROTHER, DANIEL T. BOWDOIN:

DANIEL T. BOWDOIN, planter of Beat No. 6, Coffee county, Ala., was born in Stewart county, Ga., in 1840. He is a son of Turner Bowdoin and Rebecca Maddox Bowdoin, natives probably of Monroe county, Ga., where they were reared and educated and whence they removed to Stewart county.

About 1855, they moved to Coffee county, Ala., and lived there until about 1880, when they removed to Texas, where they both died in 1890, aged about ninety years. They were both Methodists. Mr. (Turner) Bowdoin was a blacksmith, wood worker, etc., and also a farmer. He was very industrious and accumulated a good deal of property, but lost heavily in slaves on account of the war. He was one of a large family reared by William Bowdoin, who died in Georgia and who was one of the early settlers. Daniel T. Bowdoin was the fifth of eleven children, viz.: Emeline S., widow of S. W. Stevson; Eli. O., of Crenshaw county, who served in company K, Twenty-fifth Alabama infantry, from 1852 until the close of the war, being wounded once; John (Franklin) and William, twins, were both in the same company in the army; John lost an arm at Chattanooga, and William died after the war; (Alfred) Benjamin, deceased; Octavia, deceased, wife of William H. H. Donelson (Donaldson); Laura, deceased; (Candora) Dora, wife of William Taylor of Texas; (Clotilda) Trambrona; Robert; and (Rebecca) Jane, wife of William Brown of Texas. Daniel T. Bowdoin was reared on a farm, received a limited education, and married at eighteen years of age, in 1858, Miss Tempa A. Mills, whose parents were in all probability South Carolinians, but who died at Memphis, Tenn., when Tempa A. was a girl. She was born in Pike county, Ala., where her parents lived a short time. She is the mother of ten children, viz.: James Thomas, died in infancy; Sarah Victoria, died while young; (George) General Washington; John C.; Daniel Theodore; Josephus (S.); Turner Monroe; Rebecca; Francis, and one that died in infancy. Mr. Bowdoin has lived near Elba ever since he has been in Alabama.

In August, 1862, he joined company K, Twenty-fifth Alabama infantry, and served with Gen. Bragg in 'the Kentucky campaign, and was in the battle of Murfreesboro, the only general battle in which he was engaged, but he was in many skirmishes. He was struck by a shell at Murfreesboro in the left leg, and at Chattanooga he became so afflicted that he was furloughed home. He did no more active service in the war, and from the wound he has never recovered. He has, however, since returning home performed considerable labor on the farm, and has followed farming all his life. He now resides three miles north of Elba, where he has a farm of nearly 2,000 acres, of which about 1,000 are in the home tract, the rest being scattered and some of it being pine timbered, lands. He has acquired it all by hard labor and good management. Upon this farm he is engaged in raising general supplies and cotton. Mr. Bowdoin is a Methodist Protestant. Mr. Bowdoin is not a politician, but he liberally supports the democratic party, notwithstanding he was reared a Whig.

• Brant & Fuller, "Memorial Record of Alabama: A Concise Account of the State's Political, Military, Professional and Industrial Progress, Together with the Personal Memoirs of Many of Its People, Volume 1", 1893, pp. 655-656. Words contained in (parentheses) added by Curtis Bowden.

Sources

1. ↑ First-hand information as remembered by Curtis Bowden, Monday, January 5, 2015. Replace this citation if there is another source.

• 1850 Census: "1850 United States Federal Census"
  The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: District 19, Stewart, Georgia; Roll: 82; Page: 111a; Line Number: 24
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 8054 #18937083 (accessed 17 February 2024)
  Octavid Bowdoin (5) in District 19, Stewart, Georgia, USA. Born in Georgia.