Isaac Hite Bowman (1757 - 1826)

Born 24 Apr 1757 in Cedar Creek, Shenandoah, Virginia

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 9 Sep 1826 at age 69 in Strasburg, Shenandoah, Virginia, United States

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Captain Isaac Bowman served with Illinois Militia during the American Revolution.

Biography

Isaac Bowman, son of Hans George Bowman and Mary Hite, was born on April 24, 1757, in Frederick, Virginia. He married Elizabeth Gatewood and they had one daughter together. He then married Mary Cline on December 7, 1792, in Frederick, Virginia and they nine more children. He died on September 9, 1826, in Strasburg, Virginia, at the age of 69, and was buried there.

Birth

• Isaac Bowman was born on April 24, 1757, in Cedar Creek, Frederick, Virginia, to Mary Hite, age 49, and Hans Georg Baumann, age 58.^[1][2]

Prisoner of the Indians

• In 1779, Isaac was taken prisoner by the Chickasaw Indian's while escorting a party from Virginia to the Ohio falls. He eventually escaped, and returned home in 1782, after three years of being gone. (see Research Notes)^[3][2]

Marriages

• Isaac married, first, Elizabeth Gatewood in 1783 when he was 26 years old.^[3][2]
• Isaac married, after the death of Elizabeth, Mary Cline in Frederick, Virginia, on December 7, 1792, when he was 35 years old.^[3][2]
• There is a story that Isaac was adopted by an indian Chieftain and later married his daughter. This story cannot be verified, there is an account of members of the Lewis and Clark expedition who, in 1804, encountered an Indian woman who had the name of a "J. Bowman" tattooed on her arm. (see Research Notes)

Military

• Isaac the colonial cause enlisting in 1778 in the Illinois Militia and serving as a Lieutenant and Quartermaster under his brother Major Joseph Bowman in Colonel George Rogers Clark Illinois campaign.^[2]

Death

• Isaac died at his estate, on September 9, 1826, in Strasburg, Virginia, when he was 69 years old.^[2]

Burial

• Isaac is buried in the Bowman Graveyard in Strasburg, Shenandoah County, Virginia.^[4]

Property

• On 8 April 1788, Isaac received land grants in Louisville for surveys 1, 158,213 and 289, totaling 2000 acres.^[5]
• On 7 July 1789, Isaac received a land grant in Louisville for 156 acres, part of survey 32.^[5]
• At his will probate, Isaac also owned several lots in Jefferson, Indiana and a ferry across the Ohio River, between Jeffersonville and Louisville.^[5]

Will

• Isaac's will is dated 20 June 1824 and was proved on 13 November 1826.^[5]

Research Notes

• During the mid-1770s, he accompanied his cousin Isaac Hite and his brothers Abraham, Joseph and John to Kentucky where, in 1775, he and the other thirteen pioneers carved their names into a beech tree in Warren County, Kentucky. Isaac Bowman did not become a major landowner as his brothers did, most likely due to his age. ^[2]
• Military Service^[2]
  • In 1778, at age 21, he enlisted in the Illinois Militia and participated in General George Rodgers Clark's Illinois campaign serving as a lieutenant and quartermaster under his brother Major Joseph Bowman. During this time, he was assigned to escort a number of high-level British officials and military officers as prisoners-of-war from Fort Vincennes to Williamsburg, Virginia, including Governor Henry Hamilton and Philippe-François de Rocheblave.[2] He also delivered messages, including letters from his brother Joseph describing the progress of the expedition. Returning to Illinois, he was reportedly present at the capture of Fort Vincennes and attended the burial of his brother in August 1779. He also paid the expense of the services. He was one of the officers awarded a land allotment in Clark's Grant, Bowman being given 2,156 acres (8.73 km2) for his services. Part of his land was used to build Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1802, the city eventually becoming the county seat of Clark County.
• Prisoner of the Indians^[2]
  • In November 1779, shortly after the campaigns' end, he was placed in charge of a small party of settlers by John Todd, a party which was to be escorted from Kaskaskia to Kentucky County. Bowman was also entrusted with a number of articles belonging to the commonwealth of Virginia, which he was to deliver to the lieutenant governor. According to Todd in a letter to Governor Thomas Jefferson on June 2, 1780, he reported "Mr. Isaac Bowman, with seven or eight men and one family, set off from Kaskaskia on November 18th last in a batteau, attended by another batteau with twelve men and three or four families in it, bound to the falls of the Ohio. I judged it safer to send to the falls many articles belonging to the commonwealth, by Bowman, than to bring them myself by land. Bowman's batteau fell into the hands of Chickasaw Indians and the other arrived in March or April at the French Lick on Cumberland, with the account that Bowman and all the men except one Riddle (Ruddle) were killed and taken.”.
  • It was long assumed that Bowman had been killed defending the party against the Chickasaw. However, he survived the battle and was, in fact, taken prisoner by his attackers. He was treated harshly and was tortured by his captors being "subjected to every torture, short of death, that the cruel savages could devise". However, he was eventually taken in by the tribe and was made an adopted son of one of the chieftains. He was later chosen as a son-in-law and, although the details of this marriage is unrecorded, there is an account of members of the Lewis and Clark expedition who, in 1804, encountered an Indian woman who had the name of a "J. Bowman" tattooed on her arm.
  • Bowman eventually escaped from Indian country with the help of a local Indian trader, possibly a Spaniard, who left with him for Cuba and eventually made his way to the United States. Accounts differ as to the exact circumstances of his escape, another being that he was purchased by a man named Turnbull for a keg of whiskey and remained in his service until his debt was repaid.

Sources

1. ↑ Wayland, John W. The Bowman’s, A Pioneering Family in Virginia,Kentucky and the Northwest Territory. The McClure Company; Staunton, VA; 1943, page 4.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8} Wikipedia contributors, "Isaac Bowman," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isaac_Bowman&oldid=853479393 (accessed October 11, 2020).
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Wayland, John W. The Bowman’s, A Pioneering Family in Virginia,Kentucky and the Northwest Territory. The McClure Company; Staunton, VA; 1943, page 131.
4. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 October 2020), memorial page for Capt Isaac Hite Bowman (27 Apr 1757–9 Sep 1826), Find a Grave Memorial no. 61766788, citing Bowman Graveyard, Strasburg, Shenandoah County, Virginia, USA ; Maintained by Sue McDuffe:) (contributor 47122067) .
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3} Wayland, John W. The Bowman’s, A Pioneering Family in Virginia,Kentucky and the Northwest Territory. The McClure Company; Staunton, VA; 1943Wayland, John W. The Bowman’s, A Pioneering Family in Virginia,Kentucky and the Northwest Territory. The McClure Company; Staunton, VA; 1943, page 134-135.

• See Also:
  • https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LT3G-9B2/capt-isaac-hite-bowman-1757-1826
  • http://www.miles-shute-kouns-families.com/getperson.php?personID=I4755&tree=Kouns_06
  • http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~flebbe/genealogy/surnames/bowman.html