Samuel Adams Bowen

GEDCOM Note

Biography ==Samuel Adams Bowen was the youngest son of Revolutionary War patriot and hero, Captain William Bowen of Virginia and his wife, Mary Henley (Russell) Bowen. He was born on Christmas Day, 1790, at his family homestead in Gallatin, Sumner Co., Tennessee, where his parents had moved about 6 years prior, taking advantage of the newly-constituted United States government's allocation of land to revolutionary militia veterans in Tennessee and Kentucky, often in lieu of back-pay owed them for their military service. His family were prosperous and better educated than most pioneer contemporaries. Samuel Adams Bowen, named for the American revolutionary politician and hero from New England, was what is now called "a replacement child," having had an older brother of the same name who died in infancy about a year before his birth.<ref>Note: Samuel Bowen had an older brother (b. 1787) also named Samuel Bowen, who died as an infant, about 1789. The 2 profiles are on WikiTree and should not be confused. Added by Chet Snow, May 30, 2015.</ref>

On September 5, 1821, at age 29, Samuel A. Bowen, a Captain in the US Army, married a cousin, Amanda Warren Stone, b. March 30, 1802, in Hannibal, Missouri. They lived in Hannibal, Missouri at a time when there were only 35 homesteads. Samuel and Amanda had the following 7 children together:<ref>Clary/Bowen Families - Samuel Adams Bowen</ref>

1. John H. Bowen b: 16 October 1822; m: Harriet Blakey, d. 1883 Denver, Colorado
2. Mary Russell Bowen; b ?; m. Moses J. Green in Hannibal Missouri
3. Barton Stone Bowen b: 1830 in Hannibal, Marion Co, MO; d. unmarried.
4. Elizabeth Campbell Bowen; b?; d. unmarried before 1873#William Bowen b: 1836 in Hannibal, Marion Co, Missouri; m: Mary Cunningham, 1858 St Louis.#Samuel Adams Bowen b: 1838 in Hannibal, Marion Co, Missouri; m. Sally Robards, St. Louis, Missouri; was Mississippi River pilot; d. 1878.<ref>Bart, Will & Sam Bowen were childhood friends of Hannibal MO native, Samuel J. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. See NOTE below for a quote from Twain's memoirs. Added by Chet Snow, May 30, 2105.</ref>
5. Amanda Stone Bowen; b?; m: Archibald Matson in Hannibal MO Captain Samuel A. Bowen died in Hannibal, Marion Co., Missouri, on November 2, 1852. The following brief note was published on November 10 in the Palmyra Whig newspaper: :"Died on the 2nd, in Hannibal, Capt. Samuel A. Bowen, age 65 years, one of our oldest & most esteemed citizens. Left a family." Samuel's wife, Amanda (Stone) Bowen moved into her youngest daughter, Amanda (Bowen) Matson's home in Hannibal, after her husband's passing. She was noted there in the 1880 Federal Census and died on June 1, 1881.<ref>[ http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=mnphill2&... Clary/Bowen Families - Amanda Warren Stone]</ref>

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   NOTE: The Bowen family lived in Hannibal, Missouri, when it was a very-small Mississippi River farming and shipping depot town. They were close friends with the Clemens family, their neighbors. Samuel J. Clemens is better known as Mark Twain. He mentioned Bart, Will & Sam Bowen in his autobiography as follows: :"Will Bowen was another schoolmate, and so was his brother, Sam, who was his junior by a couple of years. Before the Civil War broke out both became St. Louis and New Orleans pilots. While Sam was still very young he had a curious adventure. He fell in love with a girl of sixteen, only child of a very wealthy German brewer. He wanted to marry her, but he and she both thought that the papa would not only not consent, but would shut his door against Sam. The old man was not so disposed, but they were not aware of that. He had his eye upon them, and it was not a hostile eye. That indiscreet young couple got to living together surreptitiously. Before long the old man died. When the will was examined it was found that he had left the whole of his wealth to Mrs. Samuel A. Bowen." :"Then the poor things made another mistake. They rushed down to the French suburb, Carondelet, and got a magistrate to marry them and date the marriage back a few months. The old brewer had some nieces and nephews and cousins, and different kinds of assets of that sort, and they traced out the fraud and proved it and got the property. This left Sam with a girl wife on his hands and the necessity of earning a living for her at the pilot wheel. After a few years Sam and another pilot were bringing a boat up from New Orleans when the yellow fever broke out among the few passengers and the crew. Both pilots were stricken with it and there was nobody to take their place at the wheel. The boat was landed at the head of Island 82 to wait for succor. Death came swiftly to both pilots - and there they lie buried, unless the river has cut the graves away and washed the bones into the stream, a thing which has probably happened long ago."<ref>Mark Twain's Autobiography, quoted on: Clary/Bowen Families - Samuel Adams Bowen (Jr.)</ref>

Sources

<references/> See also:*<i>William Russell and His Descendants</i> by Anna Russell des Cognets, (Samuel F. Wilson, Lexington, Kentucky, December, 1884) (A Google-book.)

• Clary/Bowen Families - Samuel Adams Bowen
• Clary/Bowen Families - Samuel Adams Bowen (Jr.)
• Ancestry.com Goff/Sperry tree

Acknowledgments ===*WikiTree profile Bowen-447 was created through the import of LaBach Family TreeApril28_2011.ged on 05 May 2011.

• Thanks to Laura Guthrie for creating WikiTree profile Bowen-2080 in April 2014. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Laura and others.
• Thanks to Chet Snow for researching and writing this biographical sketch and adding sources and the connection to Mark Twain, on May 30, 2015

GEDCOM Note

GEDCOM Note

Biography

Sources

<references/>* des Cognets, Anna Russell, <i>William Russell and His Descendants</i> (Samuel F. Wilson, Lexington, Kentucky, December, 1884) (Free e-book. Available at Google Play)

GEDCOM Note