James Bowie Jim Bowie was born in Logan County, Kentucky, in 1796 or, according to some authorities, was born in 1799 in Burke County, Georgia. His paternal grandfather had come to America in 1705. On his father's side Jim was Scottish and on his mother's side Welsh. His dad and granddad were signers of the Declaration of the Free Men of Maryland. In 1802, he moved to the Spanish province of Louisiana, in what is now Catahoula Parish. Then he moved south to the vicinity of Opelousas, a land of small prairies, great swamps and forests. The land was extremely rich and the Bowie plantation prospered. In 1803 the US made the Louisiana Purchase. In 1817 he set out for Texas, and quickly became a prominent citizen in San Antonio. As tough and rugged as he could be, he carried himself in a graceful and dignified manner. Settling in Texas, in 1828 he became a naturalized Mexican citizen. Two years later, he married Urselita Veramendi, daughter of the Mexican vice-governor. Bowie County and the city of Bowie in Montague County, both in Texas, are named for James Bowie.
Bowie, credited with inventing the Bowie knife, had blue eyes and reddish brown hair, was of average height, and was known for his great physical strength and personal magnetism. Famous already in his own right for his demonstrated bravery and daring, among the Indians he was called the fighting devil. His reputation as a knife fighter came about on September 16, 1827, at the Sandbar Duel near Natchez. The main duel ended with Dr. Thomas Maddox and Samuel Levi Wells III exchanging shots without hitting each other. But a fight broke out between the duel's observers in which Jim Bowie while being seriously wounded killed Norris Wright with a "big knife". Thus began the association of the Bowie name and the fighting knife.
Scholars agree that either Jesse Cliffe or Lovell Snowden made this knife, but what came of it is a persistent and fascinating question left unanswered by Bowie's death at the Alamo. But another bowie knife connection to Arkansas is James Black, a blacksmith in Washington, Arkansas, who, according to many sources, made a knife for Jim Bowie. An 1841 account in the Washington [AR] Telegraph called him the inventor of the bowie knife. It is likely Jim Bowie's knife, a real tried and true beauty, didn't go unnoticed and so went along with the Mexican army until they met up with General Sam Houston of the Texas Army. From there, it likely passed back into Texican hands, but there is still an uncertainty about it's current whereabouts.
There's one story about one fight where he and eight men and two boys fought a hostile force of more than one hundred sixty Indians. Eighty four Indians were killed and disabled, although Bowie's group only lost one man. Armed and ready, they were undoubtedly a formidable force of crack shots and knife-fighters. These knives were pretty awesome and one good bowie knife could make scap-iron out of traditional dueling sword with their long and heavy blades.
In Louisiana he owned a lumber company on Bayou Boeuf which he founded with his brothers in 1814. The Battle of New Orleans was this year, so it's quite likely he was acquainted with Jean Lafitte, a man of similar prestige and social class and likewise highly regarded by people. In San Antonio as well, Jim Bowie was also held in high regard. He was one of the leading citizens of San Antonio and married Urselita Veramendi, the beautiful daughter of Mexican vice-governor Veramendi. Sadly, she and their children died in a cholera epidemic in Saltillo, Mexico, where they had been forced to go by the Santa Anna regime, while Bowie had been away on a raid against certain Indians. With his dearly beloved's and children's tragic young deaths, his fight to the death at the Alamo is one of the most romantic stories of Texas history. Furthermore, it symbolized what they all fought for -- for their loved ones' lives, freedom and happiness.
At the earliest stage in the Texas fight against Santa Anna, Jim Bowie took a leadership role in the Texas Army. Colonel Bowie was there in the Battle at Concepcion Mission as well as the Battle of the Alamo. The day Travis drew the line on the Alamo grounds with eloquent appeal that those who crossed it would fight to certain death, Bowie, who was commissioned a colonel in the Texas army, while laying on a sick bed in extremely ill health with typhoid, pneumonia and fever, asked to be carried over the line to die among the other Texas heroes. Though he participated little in the battle's early days, that final day when Santa Anna's army came busting over the north wall and around to the room where he was, summoning all his strength with guns, pistols and knives, Bowie is said to have killed and maimed ten of them before succumbing.
James Bowie