James Bowie was an American soldier. He is famous for the invention of the Bowie knife and also for taking part in the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
Background
James Bowie was born in 1796 in Logan County, Kentucky. He was the son of Rezin (probably James Rezin) Bowie. His mother's name is recorded in Spanish documents as Alvina (also Elvy) Jones, but the surname may be only a blundering attempt to write the word "Jane. "
The year of his birth has been variously given; some writers place it as late as 1805, but the date is inconsistent with the generally accepted statement that his parents moved to Catahoula Parish, Louisiana, in 1802. He had four brothers David, Rezin P. , John J. , and Stephen all of whom appear in the early chronicles.
Career
Of Bowie's youth little is known. Tradition makes him a participant in a desperate encounter on the banks of the Mississippi, September 19, 1827, in which, after being badly wounded by a bullet, he killed his opponent with a knife. It has been many times asserted that with two of his brothers, Rezin P. and John J. , he made large sums of money through the sale of African slaves smuggled into Louisiana and Texas by Lafitte the pirate. The story is, however, denied by the family of Rezin P. Bowie.
About 1828, he came to Texas, making San Antonio his home and prospecting the San Saba region for a lost mine. On October 5, 1830, Bowie became a Mexican citizen and at once began to acquire extensive tracts of land, largely through the device of inducing Mexicans to apply for grants and then buying them, when obtained, at merely nominal prices.
The growing tension between the Americans and the Mexican Government found him usually with the element favoring resistance. As a captain, he was in the fight at Nacogdoches in August 1832, and after the surrender of Piedras's command conveyed the prisoners to San Antonio. During the comparative quiet of the next twenty months he was busy with his own affairs, but on the revival of the movement against the central government he at once took a leading part. He was chosen a member of the first committee of safety, organized at Mina (now Bastrop), May 17, 1835.
With the outbreak of hostilities shortly afterward his qualities of energy, daring, and resourcefulness came into full play. As a colonel of the revolutionary forces, though never in command of more than a handful of men, he was an important factor in the campaign which by December 15 had cleared Texas of the Mexican army. When at the beginning of 1836 the army, with Santa Anna at its head, returned, Bowie was located with Colonel William Barret Travis, and about 150 men, at San Antonio.
Retreating across the river and making their stand at the abandoned Alamo mission, they were overwhelmed after a desperate resistance, and all of them including Bowie, who was lying ill on a cot, were killed.
Achievements
One of Bowie's titles to fame is the reputed invention of the bowie knife. The accounts, however, are conflicting, some attributing it to his brother Rezin; but a correspondent, Gid L. Sowell, of Rosedale, Oklahoma, in Frontier, August 1925, repeats a family tradition that James Bowie had injured himself in an Indian fight by letting his hand slip from the hilt to the blade of his butcher knife; that he thereupon suggested to John Sowell, the blacksmith of Gonzalez, the addition of a guard, and that Sowell, from a model cut in wood by Bowie, made the first weapon and gave it the name it has since borne. It is certain that the weapon became widely popular.
As early as 1840, occasionally known as the "Arkansas toothpick, " it was being made in large quantities by a firm in Sheffield, England, for the Texas trade.
Jim Bowie was inducted posthumously into the Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame at the 1988 Blade Show in Atlanta, Georgia, in recognition of the impact that his eponymous design made upon generations of knife makers and cutlery companies.
A number of films have depicted the events of the Battle of the Alamo, and Bowie has appeared as a character in each.
From 1956 to 1958, Bowie was the subject of a CBS television series, The Adventures of Jim Bowie, which was primarily set in 1830s Louisiana, although later episodes ventured into the Mexican province of Texas. The show, which starred Scott Forbes as Jim Bowie, was based on the 1946 novel Tempered Blade.
Rock star David Bowie, who was born David Robert Hayward-Jones, adopted the folk legend's surname. Jones changed his last name in the 1960s because he feared confusion with Davy Jones, a member of the already famous The Monkees. He chose the Bowie eponym because he admired James Bowie and the Bowie knife, although his pronunciation uses the BOH-ee variant.
Bowie County in northeast Texas, and the city of Bowie in Montague County, Texas, were both named in honor of James Bowie. James Bowie Elementary in Corsicana, Texas was also named in honor of James.
Religion
James Bowie was baptized into the Roman Catholic faith in San Antonio on April 28, 1828.
Personality
Bowie was six feet tall, well proportioned, with erect carriage, fair complexion, and small blue eyes. He was quiet and unobtrusive in demeanor. Of his courage, strength, and agility many stories are told; it has been said of him that he "was known to rope and ride alligators. "
Connections
James Bowie was married, April 25, 1831, to Ursula, the daughter of Vice-Governor Juan Martin de Veramendi of San Antonio.
