OHGREENE-L Archives

From: Ann Trimmer <>
Subject: [OHGREENE-L] Bowen Hale bio
Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2000 17:32:15 -0400

I found this bio on the Wells Co IN genweb site
http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/In/WellsBios?read=61



Biography of Bowen Hale

Posted by Wells CC on Sun, 18 Apr 1999

Surname: HALE, BOWEN, DEAM

Biographical sketch extracted from:

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana.
Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887. pp.
651-654.

BOWEN HALE, of Harrison Township, Wells County, Indiana, was born in
Mason County, Kentucky, July 4, 1801.
His father, John Hale, was born in Maryland, and was a son of James
Hale, a native of England, who immigrated to
America and located in Maryland, and subsequently removed with his
family to Kentucky. Being a slave-holder, he
carried with him a number of slaves, but being opposed to involuntary
servitude, he here set his slaves free, after they
had cleared his farm and had made a home for him. He passed the
remainder of his days on this farm. In 1802 his widow
removed to Greene County, Ohio, with her son, with whom she made her
home, afterward removing to Randolph
County, Indiana, where she died some six years later. John Hale, the
father of our subject, was married in Kentucky to
Sarrah Bowen, a native of Pennsylvania, of Welsh ancestry. She died
January 2, 1813. They had three sons — James
Hale, of Randolph County, Indiana, born about the year 1799, died in
1882; Bowen Hale, the subject of our sketch, and
Silas Hale, of Greene County, Ohio, born in the year 1803; he still
lives near and owns the old homestead in that county.
John Hale removed to Greene County, Ohio, in the year 1802, where he
followed farming and tanning until the year
1837; he then removed to Whitley County, Indiana, where he entered 1,120
acres of land from the Government in
Whitley and Kosciusko counties, and built a saw and gristmill, the first
in that section of the country. In 1812 he joined a
rifle company as a volunteer soldier, and served in Northern Ohio for
one year. He died in Whitley County, Indiana, on
his farm, at the age of seventy-three years. Bowen Hale, the subject of
our sketch, was only one year old when his father
removed to Greene County, Ohio. Here his youth was passed on his
father's farm near the now old town of Bellbrook,
assisting his father in the tannery and on the farm; here, too, in a log
schoolhouse in the neighborhood, he received what
education he possessed, which was sufficient to enable him to teach
school as schools were taught in those days, he
having filled that important position for a few months on the occasion
of the sickness of the regular teacher. He remained
with his father, his mother having died when he was quite young, until
he reached his majority, when he left home and
learned the chair-making business, which he followed for several years,
working in Dayton, Xenia and Cincinnati.
During this time too he took a trip South, going down the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers in a steamboat. In the State of
Mississippi he followed house-painting, having become skilled in that
trade while painting chairs in the shop. After his
return from this trip he engaged in the mercantile business in
Bellbrook, Ohio, until 1834, when he sold his interest in the
store, and came to Wells County, Indiana, in 1835, his physician having
advised him to go West for his health, telling
him that unless he did so he could not hope to live very long,
consequently he started into the woods to seek a home. He
came down the Wabash River, and being charmed with the fertile lands
along the Wabash, he stopped near the town of
Murray and resolved to make this his home. His father three years later
passed by these lands and settled on the higher
and more broken lands in Whitley County. Here Mr. Hale entered forty
acres of land, hired a man to build him a cabin,
and started to Cincinnati for a stock of goods, having resolved to start
a trading point to trade with the Indians and the
few white inhabitants in the county, there being only about twelve white
families within the limits of Wells County. On
his return, in the spring of 1836, he found that his cabin had not been
built; but he went to work, and with the assistance
of Henry Miller and others, he soon had a comfortable cabin, suitable
for store-room and living-room. His customers
were mostly Indians, who were peaceable, yet, like all good Indians,
were dangerous when filled with fire-water,
dishonest and treacherous at at all times. His stock of dry goods,
consisting of brass rings, whisky and such articles of
clothing as the Indians usually wore, were converted into pelts, there
being but little money in the country. These pelts
were conveyed usually on Henry Miller's wagon to Dayton, Ohio, or
Cincinnati, and there sold. As a matter of course he
left nothing behind in his cabin, as the Indians ransacked that as soon
as he was gone. The trip to Dayton and Cincinnati
usually took about three weeks or longer. Although Mr. Hale had made his
home in this wild country, and in common
with all that hardy race of pioneers, the first settlers of Wells
County, had many narrow escapes from wild animals and
wild men, yet he was strictly a man of peace, and never was a hunter,
and tells with considerable satisfaction that he
never killed but one deer in his life, and that he stood in the door of
his cabin and shot. Seeing the deer quietly grazing in
front of his door, an Indian who was present picked up his gun to shoot
it, when Mr. Hale asked him to let him shoot,
and he took his gun and shot, killing the deer. He often said he had all
the hunting he wanted in keeping the turkeys,
squirrels and other animals out of his corn fields. Mr. Hale was first
married in 1837 to Miss Sarah James, a native of
Virginia, who died in two years and three months after her marriage,
without children. In the year 1840 he married Miss
Mary Ann Deam, of Montgomery County, Ohio, a daughter of Adam Deam,
probably from Virginia, who afterward
removed to Wells County and settled near Murray and built the first
grist-mill at that place. Adam Deam had four sons —
Abram, William, John and James P. William and James P. each served as
treasurer of Wells County; and four daughters,
Rachel, Mary Ann, Harriet and Ann. Mrs. Hale died in the year 1872,
leaving Mr. Hale again a widower. They had eight
children, seven of whom survive — John D., clerk of Adams County; Hon.
Silas W., of Geneva, Adams County; James
P., of Bluffton; Lewis B., residing on the old homestead; Emerillas,
wife of A. R. Vanemon; Jane, the wife of Daniel
Markley, and Mary, living at home with her father. At the organization
of Wells County, in 1887, Bowen Hale was
elected to the offices of auditor, clerk and recorder, or rather these
three offices were then combined in one. He continued
to hold these three offices until 1841, when an auditor was elected and
he was relieved of the duties of that office. Ten
years later Wilson M. Bulger was elected recorder, leaving Mr. Hale with
the office of clerk, which he continued to hold
until 1855, making a total of twenty years in the clerk's office alone,
his time having expired by the limit of the
Constitution,and although urged to accept it again he declined to do so.
He also for a short time during this period held
the office of postmaster, he being the first postmaster in the county.
In the year 1858 he was elected to the office of
magistrate and filled the office for three years. Again, in the year
1865, he was elected, against his wishes, to the office
of county commissioner; he being indisposed at the time, was not even
aware that he was a candidate until the day of his
election. Thus is his history the history of Wells County; coming into
public life before the organization of the county,
for twenty-six years he was a servant of the people of Wells County, and
her interest was his interest, and to say that he
did his work well is wholly unnecessary; the people have said as much by
their ballots; never were the affairs of any
county better or more honestly administered. His records are neat,
legible, perfectly formed, accurate, complete and
excite the admiration of the most skilled attorneys. When he removed
from his farm near Murray he brought his dry
goods store with him and continued in that business for a short time,
his store being a log cabin on Market street, the
town being then in the woods with heavy timber and thick underbrush in
all the streets. Hon. John Studabaker became
his rival in business, his store being also on Market street, and they
cleared the brush out of the street so that they might
be able to see from their boarding-house, a square away, to their
respective places of business. Mr. Hale tells, among
many instances of his early pioneer life, of a young limb of the law who
landed in Bluffton with the avowed intention of
practicing his chosen profession. He sought Mr. Hale and asked
permission to make the clerk's office his law office for a
short time, which request was granted, and the young lawyer sat down to
work. Concluding it would be well to advertise
his business, he wrote his card on a sheet of paper and posted the same
on a tree standing at the crossing of Main and
Market streets. When Mr. Hale went to supper he walked up and read it,
and after the young lawyer's name, in large
letters, were the words "Eterney at Law." Mr. Hale informed the young
man of his mistake, who immediately tore down
the advertisement and left town; he located in an adjoining county, and
now bears the honorable title of "Judge." Thus,
by a mistake in spelling, the town lost a lawyer, judge and citizen. Mr.
Hale was always a Democrat, his first vote for
President being cast for Andrew Jackson. He never was, however, much of
a politician, according to the usual
application of that term, and never electioneered for himself; it is
said that he once started out for that purpose, but was so
disgusted with the business that after going a few miles in the country
he turned his horse toward home and never tried it
again. When the civil war broke out two of Mr. Hale's sons enlisted and
at the battle of Mission Ridge John D. was shot
through the body, and lay in the hospital at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr.
Hale, even then an old man, went to
Chattanooga and brought him home. In 1858 Mr. Hale retired with his
family to his farm, where he still lives at the ripe
old age of eighty-six years. Truly he has been a faithful servant to the
people of Wells County; has served them long and
well, and he in return has been well rewarded by the love and confidence
of the people. His strict economy has enabled
him to lay up sufficient property to keep him comfortable in his old
age, and his temperate habits have given him strength
of mind and body, enabling him to endure the hardships of pioneer life
and to resist the ravages of disease, and now at
the age of eighty-six his mind is clear, his memory good, his hand
steady and he is in the full enjoyment of all his senses,
with a prospect of many more years of a happy existence. In his earlier
life he became a member of the Universalist
church, and was for many years a trustee of that church at Bluffton, and
is still a believer in the doctrines as taught by
Ballou, Chapin and others. He also joined the Masonic lodge at Bluffton,
and was for many years a member of Bluffton
Lodge, No. 145, and still believes in their teachings and lives in the
hope of a blessed immortality.

Portrait of Bowen Hale [1887, p. 650]

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