My Genealogy Hound

David O. Bowles, planter, Arkansas City, Ark. Mr. Bowles is one of the oldest settlers of Franklin Township, and is a man who has the respect and esteem of all acquainted with him. He is a native-born resident of Desha County, born in 1838, and is the son of Oscar and Elizabeth (Melton) Bowles, natives of Nelson and Fluvanna Counties, Va., respectively. Oscar Bowles came to this State in 1832, and bought land adjoining that upon which Arkansas City is now standing. He came here in company with C. W. Campbell, and the latter bought the land upon which the city now stands. They tilled the soil upon adjoining farms for a number of years, and in the forties entered into a partnership in stock-raising. This partnership existed until the death of Mr. Campbell in 1866. They owned and operated a large farm in this township, known now as the Roston farm, and this they worked very successfully. They were large stock-raisers of cattle, horses and mules. Mr. Bowles was not a politician although one among the most popular men of the county. He was captain of the militia here previous to the late unpleasantness, and afterward filled the office of justice of the peace. He continued his agricultural affairs until his death, which occurred in 1874, when he was drowned while crossing a crevasse in the levee near old Chicot City. His widow still survives him, and is seventy-eight years of age, and makes her home with her granddaughter, Mrs. Lizzie Trippe, of Arkansas City. Mr. and Mrs. Bowles were the parents of four children: W. W. (a planter and stock-raiser of Franklin Township, and who now resides in the city), D. O., Mary E. (deceased wife of a Mr. Dickson), and J. M. (deceased). D. O. Bowles was educated principally in Desha County, at Chicot City, where, previous to the war, the planters of this county had built up a school, and at the age of seventeen years he became assistant to his father on the plantation. He acted as general superintendent, and managed the hands, etc. At the age of twenty-two he entered the Confederate service in Company H, Churchill’s First Arkansas Mounted Rifles, McNair’s brigade, and served first in the Western army, and was first in the battle of Oak Hills. He was captured at Elk Horn Tavern and sent to Alton. Ill. He was sent South in the latter part of the summer of 1862, reported to his old command, and entered the Army of the Tennessee. He participated in the battles of Barboursville, Perryville, Knoxville, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and was in all the battles from Dalton, Ga., to Atlanta. During the winter of 1864 or 1865 he was serving in the Secret Deciphering Department for the Confederate army from Dalton to Atlanta, and was ordered to report to the war department at Richmond, Va., four days previous to the time when Gen. Hood had taken command of the army in place of Gen J. E. Johnston. Mr. Bowles was commissioned captain, and while serving in that capacity from the war department was ordered to report to Gen. E. Kirby Smith in command of the Western army, then stationed at Shreveport, La. He was then ordered by Gen. Kirby Smith to operate in the secret service department on the Mississippi River, but only filled this position for a short time, when Col. Carlton appointed him as adjutant of his regiment. This position he held until the close of the war. His command was paroled at Pine Bluff, and although Mr. Bowles did not surrender, he, like all other good men, has accepted with a good grace the termination of the war. He returned home, engaged in tilling the soil in Drew County, where he was married in 1866 to Mrs. C. F. Henningway, widow of Gen. Henningway, of South Carolina, who was the uncle of one of the supreme judges of Arkansas. She is the daughter of Mr. Zoffjke, a Polander, who was a manufacturer of pianos and organs at Detroit, Mich., and afterward at Cincinnati, Ohio. The mother was born in Hamburg, Germany, and came to this country when three years of age. She died in 1879 and Mr. Zoffjke in 1878. Mrs. Bowles became the mother of three children by her first marriage: Charles, Theodore and Wilson. By her marriage to Mr. Bowles she became the mother of four children: D. O., Jr., C. Augusta (wife of Dr. J. M. Carter, of Augusta, Ga.). Ora and Olga (the last two attending school at Jackson, Miss.). In 1874 Mr. Bowles came to this county and followed farming for two years, and in 1876 was elected mayor of the town. He has held every position in the city within the favor of the people, from marshal to mayor, and has also served as deputy sheriff of this part of the county for a number of years. Mr. Bowles has under cultivation about 260 acres of land, on which is produced about 100 bales of cotton annually. He has a good gin and a nice frame residence. Mrs. Bowles is a member of the Baptist Church. The mother of our subject has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1833, and is one of the first members of that church organized in this city. She is a conscientious Christian woman, and although quite advanced in years is still actively engaged in church work. She will long be remembered for her great piety and the good she has done in the church.