The Bowens, of Tazewell Virginia John Skeggs (Skaggs) of Rees Bowen’s company is listed on the 1909 plaque as wounded at The Battle of King’s Mountain my 7th Great Grandfather. Lt. Rees BOWEN and wife, Louise SMITH (aka, Levisa, Louisa), were said to be the second white family on the frontier in SW Virginia in 1772. Their old home place still stands today in Tazewell Co, VA. Rees was killed in the Battle of Kings Mountain. Rees BOWEN was one of the first settlers of Tazewell County, Virginia, locating at Maiden Springs about 1772, where he owned a large estate, which is still in the possession of his decendents, having been owned by a Reece BOWEN for six generations. To protect their family from attacks by Indians, Mr. BOWEN built a strong stockade around his house, but later a much larger and stronger fort was erected near by, which became the historical Maiden Spring Fort which was also to protect neighboring families. The actual military defense of Virginias extreme western frontier did not begin, on a large scale, until the spring prior to the outbreak on Dunmores War in the fall of 1774, more commonly referred to by historians as the Point Pleasant Campaign. The third fort under Captain Daniel Smiths command was the Maiden Springs Station located at the Maiden Spring branch of Clinch River, and was the home of Rees BOWEN. No description has been found as to the construction details or size of this fort. There is no account that it ever came under direct assault by the Indians, but it did remain one of the frontier defense bastions throughout the troubled Indian days. He fought in the Point Pleasant Campaign in 1774, and went to the relief of the Kentucky Stations in 1778. During the illness of his brother, Captain William BOWEN, he succeeded as Lieutenant to his brothers command at the battle of Kings Mountain and was shot dead by a Tory from behind a baggage wagon. Because his brother, William, was ill, Rees took command under Major William Edmunson and Colonel William Campbell. Rees was lieutenant of Colonel Campbells regiment of riflemen of Virginia Militia when killed on Oct. 7,1780 at The Battle of Kings Mountain. The Battle of Kings Mountain was a pivotal and significant victory by American Patriots over American Loyalists during the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War. The battle fought on October 7, 1780 destroyed the left wing of Cornwallis army and effectively ended Loyalist ascendance in the Carolinas. The victory halted the British advance into North Carolina, forced Lord Cornwallis to retreat from Charlotte into South Carolina, and gave General Nathanael Greene the opportunity to reorganize the American Army. After his marriage to Louisa Smith he took up abode on the Roanoak River close to where the city of Roanoake is situated. From there he went to Clinch Valley. Was the second white man in Clinch Valley. He was a very large and tall man. He discovered and named Maiden Springs and settled in that vicinity. When the Dunsmore War came he and his brothers, William and Moses, went with Captain Russells company on the Lewis Expedition against the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk and others in the fall of 1774 to the mouth of the Kanawha River and were prominent figures in the Battle at Point Pleasant. He was a Lt. in the militia. In the fall of 1780 because his brother, William, who was a Captain, took ill, he took command and joined Colonel William Campbell. They traveled to Kings Mountain and engaged the British. During the battle despite the urging of his men to take cover remained in the open and was killed by a bullet through his chest. He left a wife and eight children. Colonels in charge of militiamen were John Sevier, Isaac Shelby and William Campbell. To encourage expansion, Virginias government was granting proof of settlement titles to land parcels to those who were brave enough to go after them. The young Virginians as well as a few older ones formed a group to explore the wilds of western Virginia. A fairly massive hunting expedition was put together. All were interested in obtaining a land grant and this would be a golden opportunity. The original hunting party was in place in the year 1767-1769. It consisted of: Morris Griffith, (for whom Morris Knob was named); James Burke, (Discoverer of Burkes Garden); Moses Higgenbotham; Rees BOWEN; Thomas Maxwell; Wm. Webb; James Moore; John Pogue; John Ridgel; Wm. Wynne; Wm. Butler; Jessee Evans; Elisha Cary; Wm. Webb; John Taylor; David Ward; Peter Harmon; Samuel Fergerson; Wm. Garrison; James Ogleton; Wm. Wynne; Jacob Harmon; Wm. Harmon; Benjamin Joslin; Wm Asbury. This family is of Welch extraction, and the immediate ancestors of those that came hither were, long prior to the American Revolution, located and settled about Fredericktown, in western Maryland. Restive in disposition and fond of adventure, like all of their blood, they sought, fairly early after the first whilte settlements were made in the Valley of Virginia, to look for homes in that direction. How early, or the exact date, that Reece Bowen, the progenitor of the Tazewell family of that name, came in to the Virginia Valley from his western Maryland home, cannot be named with certainty; doubtless he came as early as 1765, for it is known that for a few years prior to 1772, when he located at Maiden Spring, he was living on the Roanoke River, close by where the city of Roanoke is now situated, then in Augusta County, he married Miss Louisa Smith, who proved to him not only a loving and faithful wife, but a great helpmeet in his border life. She was ev idently a woman of more than ordinary intelligence and cultivation for one of her day and opportunity. She was a small, neat and trim woman, weighing only about one hundred pounds, while her husband was a giant in size and strength. It is told as a fact that she could step into her husbands hand and that he could stand and extend his arm, holding her at right angle to his body. Prize fighting was quite common in the early days of the settlements, by which men tested their manhood and prowess. The man who could demolish all who chose to undertake him was the champion, and wore the belt until some man flogged him, and then he had to surrender it. At some period after Reece Bowen had settled on the Roanoke, and after the first child came into the home, Mrs. Bowen desiring to pay a visit to her people in the Valley, she and her babe and husband set out on horse-back along the narrow bridle way that then led through the valley, and on the way they met a man clad in the usual garb of the day-that is, buck-skin trousers, moccasins, and hunting shirt, or wampus. The stranger inquired of Mr. Bowen his name, which he gave him; proposed a fight for the belt. Bowen tried to beg off, stating that he was taking his wife and child, the latter then in his arms, to her people. The man would take no excuse; finally Mrs. Bowen said to her husband; Reece, give me the child and get down and slap that mans jaw. Mr. Bowen alighted from his horse, took the man by the lapel of his hunting shirt, gave him a few quick, heavy jerks, when the man called out to let him go, he had enough. It is also related of Mr. Bowen, that in a later prize fight, at Maiden Spring, with a celebrated prize fighter who had, with his seconds, come form South Carolina to fight Bowen, and wh en he reached Bowens home and made known to him his business, he, Mr. Bowen, did what he could in an honorable way to excuse himself from engaging in a fight; but the man was persistent and Bowen concluded to accommodate him and sent for his seconds-a Mr. Smith and a Mr. Clendenin. The fight took place and the gentleman form South Carolina came off second best.Just when Reece Bowen first saw the territory of what is now Tazewell County cannot be definitely stated. Whether he was one of the large hunting party organized of men from the Virginia Valley, North Carolina and New River, which rendezvoused at Ingles Ferry in June, 1769, and hunted on the waters of the Holstein, Powells River, Clinch, and in Kentucky, is not known; his name does not appear among the number, but the writer, Haywoods Civil and Political History of Tennessee, does not profess to give all the names of the party. Nevertheless it is highly probable that Bowen was along, or he may have gone out with the party the next year, or he may have met with the Wittens, and others, on their way out in 1771, and joined them. He seems not to have made his settlement at Maiden Spring until the year of 1772. He went with Captain William Russells company to the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774, leaving home in August of that year, and leaving Daniel Boone in command of that part of the frontier. As already stated in this volume, Boone had been forced to give up his journey to Kentucky in September 1773, on account of the breaking out of the Indian War, and had spent the winter of 1773-4 in the neighborhood of Captain William Russell, near Castleswoods. Captain Russells company belonged to Colonel William Christians Fincastle Regiment, the greater part of which did not participate in the battle of Point Pleasant, being in the rear in charge of the pack horses carrying provisions for the army; but Shelbys and Russells companies went forward with the main body and took an active part in the conflict. Moses Bowen a relative of Reece, was with Russells company, but died on the journey, from smallpox. (Moses Bowen was Reeces youngest brother. He died at the age of 20 years old.) From 1774 to 1781, when Reece Bowen marched away to the battle of Kings Mountain, the border on and along the Clinch was harassed by bands of marauding Indians, and in many of the skirmishes and troubles Reece Bowen took a hand. During the period from the date of Bowens settlement at Maiden Spring until his death, to procure salt, iron, and other necessary materials he had to travel across the mountains to Salisbury, North Carolina, carrying them on a packhorse, and would be absent for weeks, leaving his wife and children alone. His trips, however, were always made in winter, when there was no danger from the Indians. He left rifle guns and bear dogs at home, and with these his wife felt safe from danger, for she was a good shot with a rifle, often exceeding the men in ordinary rifle practice. Mr. Bowen had selected a lovely country for his home, and around and adjacent thereto, prior to the fall of 1780, had surveyed and secured several thousand acres of that valuable land, of which his descendants today hold about twelve square miles. When it was known that Lord Cornwallis Army was marching northward through the Carolinas, and that Colonel Ferguson, who commanded the left wing of his Army, had sent a threat to the Over Mountain Men that if they did not cross the mountains and take the oath of allegiance to the King, that he would cross over and destroy with fire and sword, Evan Shelby, John Sevier, and William Campbell determined to checkmate Colonel Ferguson by crossing the mountains and destroying him and his army. Colonel Campbell commanded the Washington County Military Force, and William Bowen (William Bowen was the brother of Reese Bowen) a company that belonged to Campbells Command, though a part of his company lived on the Montgomery county side of the line. In this company Reece Bowen was a First Lieutenant, his son John a Private, and James Moore a Junior Lieutenant. When the order came for Bowens company to join the regiment it found its Captain William Bowen, sick of a fever, and this situation devolved the command of the company upon Lieutenant Reece Bowen, who led it into the battle of Kings mountain, and there, together with several of his men, was killed and buried on the field. His remains were never removed, for the reason that when the opportunity was offered for their removal the spot in which he was buried could not be identified. Campbells Regiment lost in this battle 35 killed and wounded; among the killed, other than Lieutenant Reece Bowen, were Captain William Edmondson, Robert Edmondson, Andrew Edmondson, and Henry Henninger from the upper Clinch Waters.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:24:56 +0000
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