Reese BOWEN

1737 - 1780  (43 years)

• Name	Reese BOWEN  [1]
  Born	1737	, Rockingham, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Died	7 Oct 1780
  	Battle of King's Mountain
  Person ID	I4109	An Armstrong & A Heffernan
  Last Modified	16 Mar 2016

  
  

  Father	John BOWEN,   b. 1705, , Chester, Pennsylvania, USA ,   d. 19 May 1761, , Augusta, Virginia, USA  (Age 56 years)
  Mother	Lilly MCILHANEY,   b. 1705, , Chester, Pennsylvania, USA ,   d. Between 4 Apr 1780 and 20 Jun 1780, , Augusta, Virginia, USA  (Age 75 years)
  Married	Abt 1731  [2]
  Family ID	F1539	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Margaret SMITH,   b. Oct 1741, , , England, United Kingdom ,   d. Deceased
  Married	1756	, Rockingham, Virginia, USA
  Children	1. John BOWEN,   b. 1757,   d. Deceased   2. Rebecca BOWEN,   b. 1758,   d. Deceased   3. Rees BOWEN,   b. 1759,   d. Deceased   4. Nancy BOWEN,   b. 1761,   d. 1835, , Johnson, Arkansas, USA  (Age 74 years)   5. Margaret BOWEN,   b. 1766,   d. Deceased   6. Louisa BOWEN,   b. 1768,   d. Deceased   7. Colonel Henry BOWEN,   b. 1770,   d. Deceased
  Last Modified	6 Dec 2008
  Family ID	F1876	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  He died in one of the Carolinas. Died at Battle of King's Mountain. >From "History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia" by Pendleton, p. 407 "Rees Bowen was the second white man who brought his family to make permanent residence in the Clinch Valley. Therefore, it is meet that he and his family should be the second considered in the sketches I am writing of the pioneer families. The Tazewell Bowens are of Celtic blood. Their immediate ancestor was Moses Bowen, a Welshman, who married Rebecca Rees. They came from Wales to America a good many years before the Revolution, and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Their son John was a Quaker, and he married Lily McIlhaney. He and his wife moved from Pennsylvania to Augusta County, Virginia, soon after the first settlements were made in the Shenandoah Valley, perhaps as early as the year 1732, and located in that part of Augusta now embraced in the county of Rockbridge. They had twelve children and Rees was one of their five sons. He married Louisa (?) Smith, whose parents then liven in that section of Augusta now known as Rockingham County. It is said that, after his marraige, he took up his abode on the Roanoke River close to where the city of Roanoke is now situated. In some way Rees Bowen learned of the fertile lands and abundance of game that could be found in the Upper Clinch Valley; and he concluded to abandon his home on the Roanoke River and settle in this region, where he could locate and occupy, without cost, a large boundary of fine unoccupied land. It is known from tradition that when he arrived with his family in the vicinity of the great spring, to which he gave a peculiar name, he had not then selected the boundary of land upon which he would settle. After they went into camp, on the evening of the day he reached the place that has since been the home of the Bowens, he went out to find and kill a deer to get a supply of fresh meat. While thus engaged he discovered the spring. Bickley thus tells of the discovery of the immense fountain and what followed: When Mr. Bowen first saw the spring, he discovered a fine young female deer, feeding on the moss within the orifice from which gushes the spring. He shot it, and when he went to get his deer, saw a pair of elk horns standing on their points, and leaning against the rocks. Mr. Bowen was a very large and tall man, yet he had no difficulty in walking upright under the horns. He chose this place for his, and the spring and river have since been known as Maiden Spring and Fork. The first four years after he and his family located at Maiden Spring were free from any hostile demonstrations by the Indians against the Clinch settlements. He was possessed of great physical strength and was very industrious, and in the four years he erected a large and strong log house, extended his clearings into the forests, and added considerably to the number of horses and cattle he brought with him from his home on the Roanoke. Then came trouble with the Ohio Indians, in 1773, when the whole frontier of Virginia was threatened by the red man; and Rees Bowen built a heavy stockade around his dwelling, converting it into an excellent neighborhood fort. In the meantime, his four brothers, John, Arthur, William and Moses moved out from Augusta to find homes in the country west of New River. John settled at some point in the Holston Valley; Arthur located in the present Smyth County, four miles west of Marion; and William and Moses took up their abode in the Clinch Valley, but in what immediate locality is now unknown. When Dunmore's War came on the three brothers, Rees, William and Moses went with Captain William Russell's company on the Lewis expedition to the mouth of the Kanawha River; and were prominent figures in the eventful battle of Point Pleasant. Moses Bowen was then only twenty years old; and on the return march from the Kanawha, he was stricken with smallpox, from which frightful malady he died in the wilderness. After his return from Point Pleasant, for two years Rees Bowen, like all the pioneer settlers, was actively engaged in clearing up fields from the forest and increasing the comforts of his new home. While thus occupied, the war between the colonies and Great Britain began; and the British Government turned the Western Indians loose on the Virginia frontier. This caused the organization of a company of militia, expert Indian fighters, in the Clinch Valley. The two Bowen brothers were members of the company, William being Captain and Rees, Lieutenant. This company, composed of pioneers, did effective service for the protection of the settlers in the Clinch and the Holston Valleys. When Colonels Shelby and Sevier, in the fall of 1780, appealed to Colonel William Campbell to join them in the expedition to King's Mountain, with a volunteer force from Washington County, Virginia, the company from Clinch Valley volunteered to go. Owing to illness from a serious attack of fever, Captain William Bowen was unable to lead his men on the expedition and the command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant Rees Bowen. He marched with his company and joined Campbell at Wold Hill (now Abingdon) and thence on to the Carolinas, and gave his life for American freedom, while leading his men in the memorable Battle of King's Mountain." Draper, in his "King's Mountain and Its Heroes," tells of Lt. Rees Bowen. It seems he did not think hiding behind trees was the way to fight, so he did not hide. The result was a rifle ball in the breast and death in battle on 07 Oct 1780. Draper states: "Lieutenant Reece Bowen, who commanded one of the companies of the Virginia Regiment, was observed while marching forward to attack the enemy, to make a hazardous and unnecessary exposure of his person. Some friend kindly remonstrated with him - 'Why, Bowen, do you not take a tree--why rashly present yourself to the deliberate aim of the Provincial and Tory riflemen, concealed behind every rock and bush before you?--death will inevitably follow, if you persist.' 'Take to a tree,' he (Bowen) indignantly replied - 'no!--never shall it be said that I sought safety by hiding my person, or dodging from a Briton or Tory who opposed me in the field.' Well had it been for him and his country, had he been more prudent, and, as his superiors had advised, taken shelter whenever it could be found, for he had scarcely concluded his brave utterance, when a rifle ball struck him in the breast. He fell and expired. (Garden's Anecdotes, second series, p. 212, presumably communicated for that work by Judge Peter Johnston, of Abingdon, Virginia, a distinguished officer of Lee's Legion during the Revolution, and the ancestor of the present Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and Hon. John W. Johnston, United States Senator from that state.)" As Draper tell it, "Reece Bowen was born in Maryland about 1742. He first emigrated to what is now Rockbridge County, VA, and, in 1769 to the waters of the Clinch, in what is now Tazwell County. He shared in the battle of Point Pleasant, went to the relief of the Kentucky Stations in 1778; and on the King's Mountain campaign, he was Lieutenant of his brother, William Bowen's company. His brother being ill of fever, Reece Bowen succeeded to the command of the company. His heroic death has already been related; he is said to have been shot by a Tory boy, behind a baggage wagon, near the close of the engagement, when Campbell's men were driving the enemy toward the north-eastern end of the mountain. He was remarkable for his herculean strength and great activity. He left a family--his son, Colonel Henry Bowen, lived in Tazewell County to a good old age." (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes; History of the Battle of King's Mountain, p. 406]

  
  

• Sources

  [S887] Will, Book 1, page 73, Lilly McIlhaney Bowen. ... my sons Reese, William and Robert Bowen ... [S868] Historic Sumner County (TN), Cisco, Jay Guy, (1909, Folk-Keelin Printing Company, Nashville, Tennessee), pg 231. ... married Lily McIlhaney and ...