John Joseph Bowman

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker on John Joseph Bowman tells it, and I'm going to give it to you straight. John Joseph Bowman came into this world on August 15th, 1807, in Tennessee — and he wasn't long for Tennessee, because in 1822, he came to Texas with his family and put down roots in Stephen F. Austin's colony on the Colorado.

A boy becoming a man on that frontier, in that company. That's not nothing. He later moved to Matagorda County, and then 1835 rolled around, and you know what was coming.

He enlisted in the Texian Army. Not alone, mind you — his father, Joseph, enlisted alongside him, and so did his brother James. The whole Bowman men, marching into the Texas War for Independence together.

When that war was won and the dust had settled, John Joseph Bowman wasn't done movin'. He lived a spell in Nacogdoches County before he finally decided — this is the place — and made a permanent home in Cherokee County. He lived long enough to see a great deal of Texas become what it became, and on March 30th, 1890, at the age of — well, he'd been born in 1807, you do the math, but the years speak for themselves.

His brother James is buried right here alongside him. Two men who answered the call together, resting together at the end. Some families write their history in the land itself.

What the marker says

(Aug. 15, 1807-Mar. 30, 1890) Tennessee native John Joseph Bowman came to Texas with his family in 1822 and settled in Stephen F. Austin's colony on the Colorado. He later resided in Matagorda County, where, in 1835, he enlisted in the Texian Army, and served in the Texas War for Independence with his father, Joseph, and his brother James, who also is buried here. After the war, Bowman lived in Nacogdoches County before making a permanent home in Cherokee County.