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Archiver > BRETHREN > 1998-02 > 0886800901


From: "Arthur H. Laube" <>
Subject: Ohio Bowsers and Brethren Friends 1800, Part I of III
Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 16:35:01 -0500


PART I OF III
THE FIRST OHIO BOWSERS, AND A FEW OF THEIR BRETHREN FRIENDS

Conclusions:

* In the speculative scenario which follows, we conclude that
although the Bowsers of Jonathan Creek and the Bowsers of the Miami

River Valley were both in Ohio around 1800, and probably came
together, they may not be closely related.

* Also, there is good reason to believe that the Jonathan Creek
Bowsers, of Hopewell Township, Perry County, Ohio and their closest

Brethren neighbors came from the Cumberland Gap/Hagerstown area
of Maryland . Whereas the Miami Valley Bowsers came from
Frankstown Township, Bedford/Huntingdon County.
* The facts presented here are skimpy - but this scenario may be
close enough to the truth to give us an insight into the lives of
these strong characters who built our country. They would not be
able to imagine what "poverty level" meant.

In the last decades of the 18th Century, the Indian tribes were forced
further west and the land north and west of the Ohio River was organized

into the Northwest Territory. The land was divided in neat
checker-board squares by surveying teams and sold by the Congress of
the United States at public auction and through territorial land
offices.
Barbara Bowser Bowman was the first Bowser to arrive in the Ohio
country. She and her husband David were married in 1795, in Huntington
County, Pennsylvania. David was offered a job as a miller in the
wilderness of the Scioto River Valley, in the Territory of Ohio. Since
he was expected and had friends in the wilderness, he felt secure enough

to bring his wife to this wild country. Later David was an Elder of
the Brethren church. He was no doubt the leader of the group of
Brethren who went up the Big (Great) Miami River Valley.(1)
Barely mentioned is another party of Brethren who were led by the
minister, Elijah Schofield, from Allegheny County, Maryland. Elijah's
group either traveled with David Bowman or followed close behind. It
was far too dangerous to travel alone, and we suggest that these two
parties of Brethren became one; sent by their churches to take the Word
to the frontier - the Territory of Ohio. Individual family groups
assembled in western Pennsylvania, on the Yohogania River, at the
crossing of the Nemacolin Indian trail (near Fort Redstone). In the
spring of 1798, after the spring floods had subsided they took to their
rafts. Floating down the Yohogania River to the Monongahela River and
on to Fort Pitt, they took their last look at the comforts of
Pennsylvania civilization as they embarked upon the Ohio River.(1)
Their rafts and huge canoes were tied together; three wide, in four
rows. Women and children in the center and armed men facing the
shoreline and guarding against any approach from upstream or
downstream. They had many Indian friends in Pennsylvania and Maryland
and they expected to establish friendly relations with any Indian
neighbors they might have, but there were many reports of Indian trouble

along the banks of the Ohio River.(1)
They arrived at Marietta without incident. Here, Elijah Schofield and a

few other Brethren left the group.(11) David Bowman led his group on to

the mouth of the Big Miami River. As they were poled up the river, the
party began to disband, but David Bowman led his family on to his
destination in Montgomery County, near present day Dayton.(1)
David Bowman's wife, Barbara, was one of the six children of Daniel
Bauser/Bowser and Anna Mary Wagoner. Daniel and Anna Maria
Bauser/Bowser lived in Frankstown Township, Huntingdon County,
Pennsylvania. When Daniel learned his son-in-law, David Bowman, was
going west he decided to relocate his entire family, and he was one of
the first to join David's group. Some of David's family also joined the

group; we will call it the Bowman/Bowser party.(2)
Jacob Bowser, a cousin, also came with the Bowman/Bowser party; he
lived and died in nearby Turtle Creek Township, Warren County.(3) The
Kuhlman/Coleman family and the Prouds also lived in Warren County. The
Coleman tribe were plentiful in Pennsylvania and early Ohio and some of
them may have come with the Bowman/Bowser party. The Prouds arrived from

New Jersey in 1805.(4) These families were all Brethren and they
intermarried - more on this later.
Another Jacob Bowser and his wife Mary and their son John were also
with this first contingent of Bowsers as they rafted down the Ohio River

in 1798. Jacob and Mary's origins are not clear. Mary may have been a
Twigg; that family lived near Flintstone, Allegheny County, Maryland.
Jacob and Mary had one child, a son, John. He was born in Pennsylvania,

March 16, 1783.(18)
As will be told below, Jacob chose to live with the Brethren of Jonathan

Creek and without exception, his Brethren neighbors in Hopewell Township

seem to have come from the Cumberland Gap/Hagerstown, Maryland area.
Believing in the fundamental law, "Like Attracts Like," we propose that
Jacob and perhaps Mary are also somehow connected to this area. We even

go so far as to contemplate that Jacob was descended from a Henry
Bowser, who lived in Salisbury Hundred, Washington County, Maryland,
or that John Bausser, who also lived in Salisbury Hundred, was his
father.(5) Neither of these connections have been documented.
Jacob needed cash to buy land and the river port of Marietta offered
several opportunities. Attracted by the hustle and bustle of the first,

permanent Ohio settlement, he left the Bowman/Bowser party and joined
those who were clear-cutting for 50 cents a day. Jacob and his family
lived and worked in Salem/Union Township, Washington County, Ohio for
more than fifteen years.. In about 1805, John married Mary Magdalena
(Someone.) Mary Magdalena (Someone) was born in Pennsylvania. Their
first five children were born in Salem Township. Son Henry was born
March 11, 1814. By this time John had accumulated enough cash to buy a

piece of Jonathan Creek property from George Nye. The Jacob and John
Bowser families joined the other Brethren who had settled around George
and Lewis Nye along Jonathan Creek. In 1817 Jacob purchased the balance

of George Nye's property along Jonathan Creek.(6) END OF PART I OF III

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