My Genealogy Hound

Thomas Jefferson Bowman. Prominent among the many enterprising farmers and stock raisers of Watkins Township stands the name of the above mentioned gentleman, who was born in Greene County, Tenn., in 1833, the son of Benjamin and Millie (Skyles) Bowman, also natives of Greene County, Tenn., where they remained until about 1852 or 1853, when they moved to what is now Dent County, and here the father died two years later, at the age of sixty-five years. He was a farmer, and one of the early settlers of the county. The mother died in 1871; she was the daughter of William Skyles, who was also an early settler of Greene County, Tenn., and died in that State while en route for Missouri. He was with Gen. Jackson in one of the Indian wars, and was at the battle of Horseshoe Bend. Sparling Bowman, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Maryland, and was one of the first white settlers of Greene County, Tenn., where he died. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, was also in the Indian wars, and was sheriff of Greene County many years, and one of its best citizens. Thomas Jefferson Bowman was the third of six children born to his parents; he received a limited education in the common schools of Tennessee, and moved with his parents to Dent County, Mo., where in 1858 he married Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Robert and Prudence Thompson, natives of Virginia and South Carolina, respectively. Mrs. Bowman was born in Tennessee, and came to Dent County about 1851 or 1852. Her father died in Arkansas about 1862, and her mother in Phelps County shortly after coming to Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. Bowman were born two children, Benjamin F. and Thomas J. Since his marriage Mr. Bowman has lived on and adjoining the old farm on which his father first settled. He is the owner of 400 acres of land. In 1863 he served about four months in the Federal army, in Company B, Forty-eighth Missouri Infantry, on guard at Rolla. He has been a Democrat in his political views all his life, and cast his first presidential vote for James Buchanan in 1856, and for every Democratic candidate since. Mrs. Bowman is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in good standing.