Bowens May Be Borens

 In that 1860 census book a few pages away, meaning not far away by address, is a William Boren and he and his wife are listed as born in Geo. (Georgia). Daniel is 41, this William is 45. Perhaps they are brothers.

William Rich Bowen

 I recently wrote here about William Rich Bowen, my great grandfather. I noted that his middle name apparently was related to a Rich family that lived nearby.

 William Rich Bowen married Anne Smith (my great grandmother, who's mother was Lavina Taylor, who had a brother named Charles, who had a daughter named Margaret. Margaret married a Rich as aslo did her sister Mary.

So, we actually have connections to this Rich family through both my great grandfather and great grandmother.

Huntland in Franklin County Tenn

After reviewing many death certificates, marriage records, etc. I feel very confident in the relationships show here. Daniel Bowen is how he was apparently known. He was born and lived at Huntland in Franklin County Tenn.  Still continuing to try to find more on Daniel's father.

Evolving Counties

 One thing that makes researching families confusing is that counties started out large and eventually were divided into smaller counties to maker it more convenient for citizens to access government facilities such as courthouses.  I was reading a land survey document about land owned by John Bowen, father of Daniel Bowen. It says his land is in Bedford County, TN. Later documents show him in Lincoln County. Bedford was divided and Lincoln and Moore counties were created. The Bowen family was mostly in Lincoln County and the Hensley family was in Moore County. The Elk Mill sat on the bank of the Elk River near the county line. My grandparents, Rawls Coston Bowen and Myrtle Hensley worked there as children. They later (1920s) married and eventually moved to Roanoke Rapids, NC for better paying jobs at the new J.P. Stevens Mill. Later they moved to Durham that built new mills.

Bowen/Boren/Boreing/Boring/Bowring

 Today I received several documents I have not seen previously which give  a great deal of detail on the Bowen/Boren/Boreing/Boring/Bowring line. All of these surnames are actually the same family. They are apparently NOT related to families that came here as Bowens from the UK. 

Ronnie Bowen, my cousin, did many years of research on the Bowen family. He reached the conclusion that our Bowens were actually Boren at one time. I believe he was correct. These recent documents give what seems to me to be the missing link between our Bowens and the Boreings who apparently arrived via Baltimore, Maryland.

I will be sharing more details here. But for now, here is a very brief outline:

Boreings arrive from England at Baltimore, Md. about 1656. They became owners of large tracts of land just north of present day Baltimore.

One of the Boreings later served in the War of 1812. After the war he received a grant of land in Washington County, NC which is in present day Tennessee. Rather than move there, he sold it to a son, who did relocate there with a wife and other family. This is apparently the point where our family arrived in TN. Today there is a small community there named Boring, TN.

One of the Boreings wrote some family history in the 1800's and mentioned that he and one brother had dropped the 'e' from their name and now wrote it as Boring.

One of the Borings in his will left portions of his large land holdings to his sons, except to one son he left only one shilling. Apparently the father and son had had some sort of falling out with one another. It was the son who was not left any land that bought the land grant in Tennessee. Once in TN this son shows up with his name being Boren and his son is recorded as Bowen. Perhaps this was a clerical error. Boren might sound like Bowen and Bowen was a prominent name in TN at the time, there being a Governor Bowen with very prominent war heros in his family (not related to our family).

I am very excited about these new documents to study and will share more details soon.

James Daniel Bowen

 James Daniel Bowen

He is listed on the 1860 Census as Daniel Bowen. A newspaper article referred to him as Dan Bowen.

He had two wives:

 #1 Clementine Bradley 7 children (she died 1860)

 #2 Nancy (McClure) Ethridge 6 children (she was previously married to Mcclure)  James Bowen married her in 1872.

My line is through wife #1

My cousin Brenda Mason Campos in Colorado who is a member of this Facebook group is of the line through wife #2.

Named after a doctor?

I have often wondered where the Rawls Coston Bowen name came from. This morning I discovered that at the time my grandfather Rawls Coston Bowen was born, there was a physician practicing in Fayetteville, TN named Hamilton Ralls Coston. Even though the name ended up being spelled differently, I suspect he may have gotten his name after this doctor.


Naming a child after a doctor was a common thing at one time, particularly the doctor who delivered the child.