ADAM RANKIN BOWEN
ADAM RANKIN BOWEN, son of William Russell Bowen
and Elizabeth Speed Rankin, was born
30 September 1821 in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee and died
17 March 1891 in Bartlett, Williamson County, Texas. He married
4 April 1844 in Montgomery County, Texas to
CLOANTHE TRECILLA ROE, daughter of Rueben Roe
and Ann Martha Lehr, born February 1828 in Mississippi
and died 31 December 1912 in El Campo, Wharton County, Texas.
Issue:
WILLIAM RUSSELL BOWEN, born 1845 in Texas.
JOHN RANKIN BOWEN, born 29 March 1847 in Anderson, Grimes
County, Texas and died 24 June 1923 in Wharton, Wharton County,
Texas. He married 30 December 1886 in Williamson County, Texas
to Elisabeth Rebecca Zirkle.
MARY ALICE BOWEN, born 1848/50 in Huntsville, Walker County,
Texas.
CLOANNA BOWEN, born 1851/52 in Huntsville.
ADAM LEWIS BOWEN, born 1852 in Huntsville.
LUCIEN BOWEN, born 1854 in Huntsville.
IDA LOUETTE BOWEN, born 11 April 1856 in Huntsville and died
12 December 1923 in Corpus Christi, Neuces County, Texas. She
married 28 November 1877 in Williamson County, Texas to Thomas
William Evans.
LENORA BOWEN, born May 1860 in Huntsville.
ROBERT BOWEN, born 11 February 1865 in Huntsville and died 31 August 1937
in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. He married Olive Zirkle.
SUSAN E BOWEN, born February 1869 in Huntsville.
CURTIS TAYLOR BOWEN, born 1871 in Huntsville.
CHARLES BOWEN.
Died young, born in Huntsville.
Adam Rankin Bowen was born on the old Bowen homestead on
Mansker's Creek in Tennessee. When he was about 16 years of age,
he, his older brother Will, all of his younger siblings and his
mother arrived in Texas to join his father William Russell Bowen.
William R had journeyed to Texas approximately a year earlier in arriving by
October 1835 to help the Texians whip ole' General Santa Anna. Finally,
after months of waiting, they had received word from his father that
the country was secured and safe for the women and children. It is not
unlikely that young Will and Adam, being head of the family in their
father's absence, joined with many other families heading for the newly opened Republic of Texas, and made
their way down the Natchez
Trace to Natchez, Mississippi. There families would either proccede to
the port of New Orleans and board a ship to Galvez Island or to Indianloa,
while other families chose to continue by land across Louisiana and on
into East Texas. Which ever way the Bowens came, they settled on 400
acres which William R Bowen was now entitled to by means of his military
service, and choose a parcel just east of Navasota. The Declatarion
of Independance had been signed just a few miles southwest of Navasota some 13 months
earlier. Young Adam must have been inspired by the stories the men had to
tell of the recent wars, for the year 1840 found him enlisted in the
Texas Milita serving under General Felix Huston. He served a tour of
duty as private from 18th June until 12 July, 1840 in the Vasquez Campaign.
Very interestingly, Adams' grandmother was Mary Huston Rankin.
Once home, young Adam was nearing his 20th year and began to look to settling down. They must have made many trips to nearby Huntsville for
market and supplies, because by 1844 Adam had met Miss Trecilla Roe. She lived with
her father, Rueben Roe, and her grandfather John Lehr near town. They
had come from lower Mississippi and her grandfather had even traveled
across the Indian Territory of Georgia in 1819 from South Carolina to Mississippi.
Adam and Trecilla were some of the very first marriages recorded in
Montgomery County, indeed the marriage book in which their marriage was
recorded in lay hidden in the basement of the
courthouse in Conroe for many, many years, only coming to light in the mid
1980's. However, Adam soon decided that the bustling town of Huntsville
was the place for his family, for by 1850 they were living there. Here his
children could attend good schools. His own education had not been
lacking, even though the plantation back in Tennessee where her spent his
childhood was nearing deplorable conditions, his family was of 'good, gentiel stock'
and believed in educating the children. In Huntsville, Adam Bowen
became a respected and affluent member of Grand Forest Lodge #19 of the
Fraternal Order of Free Masons. Quickly becoming a Master Mason,
he went on to hold many of their higher offices, including Worshipful Master
in 1857 and 1861, Grand Pursuviant in 1857.
Adam continued living with his family in Huntsville until the mid 1870's when they
moved to Central Texas to take up farming in Williamson County, north of
the new capital Austin. The land here was rich and dark, rolling prairie, and just on the edge of indian territory. The end of the
Civil War had brought some difficult times to all parts of Texas, and until
Texas was re-admitted to the Untied States in 1870, it was all Adam and Trecilla could do
could do to keep a good home for their family with the help of 2
black servants, Geraldine and Realfonia Smith. Land out in Williamson was cheap and
plentiful, as long as one didn't wander to far west. Adam's father had chased
many a indian raiding parties as far as Kerrville before he died in 1856.
There Adam spent his last days at their farm near Bartlett and was buried in the
nearby Jarrell Cemetery 17 March 1891. A few years later in 1895, Trecilla
decided to move with her son John Rankin to the rich bottomlands of
Wharton County, some 145 miles SE. There she lived her widowed days with
her grown children and grandchildren until her death there the last day
of the year 1912.
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