James Bowie - Handbook of Texas
 

Painted by George Peter Alexander Healy

Colonel James Bowie
Man of Mystery, Martyr of the Alamo

Jackson County history would not be complete without a sketch of Colonel James Bowie who practically made his home in Jackson County before the joined the army and became a martyr of the Alamo.

James Bowie was born at Elliott Springs, Tennessee, in 1798. He had three brothers and two sisters. It is claimed that one of his sisters married a Mr. Burnett, for whom “Burnettville Community,: which is located about five or six miles above Edna, was named. One child from this union, Miss Bettie Burnett, married Newton A. White, and after his death married a Mr. Meriwether; and she died a few years ago at Hondo, Texas.

James Bowie while quite young left his Tennessee home and settled in Louisiana. Here he operated a large sugar plantation. This profession was too quiet a life for such a character as James Bowie. He was seeking adventure and fortune.

He amused himself for some time exploring the Texas wilderness, fighting Indians and Mexican bandits and dealing in Texas lands. He was a shrewd businessman. He discovered the method of having native Mexicans apply for eleven-league tracts under the state colonization law and then purchase this land from them.  By this method he obtained more than seven hundred thousand acres of land in this manner in 1830. He amassed a fortune of more than $200,000 before he was thirty-three years of age. He was considered the wealthiest man in Texas in 1830.

He made a trip to San Antonio from Nacogdoches in the early part of 1831 with some Mexican troops. While there he met and fell in love with a beautiful dark-eyed Castilian, Ursula Maria de Veramendi, who was a daughter of Vice-Governor Veramendi of Texas. They were married at the Veramendi Palace in San Antonio. Although Col. James Bowie married into the ruling Mexican family of Texas, the was always loyal and faithful to the Texas colonists.

He very often encountered wild animals that he had to fight at close quarters as well as hand to hand combat with Indians. The ordinary knife was not large enough for such defense and a sword was too long and heavy for use at good advantage. He invented a large hunting knife to meet the needs of the Texas pioneers that bears the famous name “Bowie Knife” to this day.

Colonel Bowie in the year of 1833 suffered the most crushing defeat of his life, when the lost his young wife and their two children to the epidemic of cholera in San Antonio. He left that locality, and Jackson County was as much his home as any other part of Texas. He spent much of his time in the old town of Texana. Capt. Sylvanus Hatch’s home on the Lavaca was his favorite headquarters. Legendary history gives an account of a love romance between Bowie and Miss Clara Lisle of Texana.

He joined the Texas Army in 1835 under Deaf Smith. He helped win the Battle of Concepcion and was in the “grass fight.” He went to relief of the Alamo. Bowie was ill before the Battle of the Alamo. After the battle his body was found on his cot in one of the rooms of the low barracks; there was evidence that he shot with his pistols more than one of his assailants before he was butchered. His body was burned by the orders of Santa Anna along with those of Travis and David Crockett. Thus on March 6, 1836, Col. James Bowie gave his life for the birth of a new republic. Jackson County claims him as one of her most distinguished citizens.

The Cavalcade of Jackson County, by I. T. Taylor, Third Edition, Pages 362-364
Used by permission of the Jackson County Historical Commission