DELANEY BOWLIN  1774-1853


Delaney Bowlin was the son of Benjamin Bowlin I (1734).  He was born in North
Carolina, probably in Rowan County.   There is a dispute over his date of birth,
and his mother.  If the birth date of 1764 given in Harley Tucker’s book, is
correct , then he is the son of Patsy Phelps.  If the birth date (1774) supported
by the 1790, 1830,1840 and 1850 census records for him are correct, he is the son
of Charity Larrimore.

In 1790 he was living in Rutherford County, NC.  He was at least 16 years of age,
and was a married man with no children.  Living just two houses away were his
sister Elizabeth and her husband Brittain Williams and their children.  His
whereabouts during the years 1791 through 1800 are unknown to me.  Delaney often
left his family for extended periods of time, venturing into wild country to hunt
and trap for a living.

In 1801, he joined his sister Elizabeth and her husband, who had moved some
years earlier,  to Barren County, Kentucky.  Delaney, his wife and children lived
here through the year 1808.  Shortly after the birth of his youngest known son
Benjamin Franklin Bowlin on the 22nd of April 1808, he moved his family farther
west into the Territory of Missouri, settling in St Charles, County (current day
Montgomery County).  He built the first cabin in that county near a Spring known
as the Big Spring. It was located due north of the Island of Loutre  (French for
Otter Island), where a small community was settling.  

In  May of 1810, he and his wife Patsy were among the charter members of the
first church north of the Missouri River, a Baptist Church known as the Church on
the Loutre.  Among the other charter members were his sister Elizabeth Williams,
Joseph Baker, and his neice and her husband, Susanna nee Williams and William Savage.
In December of that same year, his son William married  Selah Williams, the daughter
of Brittain and Elizabeth Williams.  The marriage was performed by Rev. Joseph Baker.
Rev. Baker died in 1810.  After repeated Indian attacks, Delaney and his family left
Montgomery County in the year of 1811.

Moving upriver, to the fledgling community known as Boone’s Lick, so named because a
salt lick  was first discovered here by the sons of Daniel Boone, he settled on the
North side of the Missouri River in current day Howard County, very near Fort Kincaid.
He served in Captain Sarshall Cooper’s company during the War of 1812, along with his
brother-in-law Brittain Williams; nephews James and William Savage; Lindsay Carson,
father of the explorer Kit Carson; and his own sons William and Campbell.  Campbell’s
age, marital status, and number of children, if any, is not known.  In the year 1813,
the first school was established, taught by John Savage, and among the students were
three children of the settlers named Bowlin;  namely, William, Delaney, and Benjamin.
It has been assumed that they were all the children of Delaney, but Delaney’s son
William was married in the year 1810, and unless he had more than one son by that name,
the child William could possibly have been the son of  Campbell.  The child Delaney
could have been either Delaney’s or Campbells, but Benjamin was probably the youngest
son of Delaney who would have been age 5 at this time.	

Campbell was killed by the Indians in July of 1814, while he was tying flax at his
cabin.  This death, and others before it, caused the settlers to write the governor
and request troops for protection.  Among the officers in Colonel Dodge’s expedition,
sent to the Boone’s Lick area, was Nathan Boone, son of a frequent visitor to the
settlement, famed explorer Daniel Boone.

After the war ended, in the year 1817, Delaney and his family moved south of the
river into present day Cooper County.  Sometime during this period, William had lost
his wife Selah.  He then married  a woman named Polly Roupe.   Delaney owned 640 acres
of land in what is now the city of Boonville.  Here again, Delaney and his wife Patsy
were charter members of a new Baptist Church established in 1817, the Concord Baptist
Church.  On the 1st of January, 1819, Delaney and brother-in-law Brittain Williams
served aboard the first Grand Jury convened in Cooper County.

Cooper County marriage records show that his daughter Elizabeth married David
McGee in 1825, and his son Benjamin married Sophia Dodd in 1831.  By this time,
Delaney and his family had been in the Boone’s Lick area for twenty years, and it had
grown into a bustling commercial area.  Perhaps longing for the wilderness again,
Delaney, his wife and children again headed west.

In the year 1837, Delaney and his son William, daughter Elizabeth McGee and son
Benjamin Bowlin and their families moved farther upstream to Platte County, Missouri,
an area that would soon open up for settlement.  By 1840, Delaney’s son William was
again widowed.  William would marry twice more before his death in Feb of 1850.  Delaney
also lost his wife, Patsy, while living in Platte County.  He then married  Hannah Noland
on 6 Feb 1848.  He married again on the 20th of January , 1850 to Lizzie McDaniel.  His
last marriage was to Lisabeth Biggs on the 27th of Apr 1852.  

In February 1853, Delaney Bowlin died, leaving a will on file in Platte County.  He
names only two children in his will, Elizabeth McGee and Benjamin Bowlin. As to any
other children, he stated "And to my other child or children I have done for them
heretofore as much as I ought to have done and more than I am now able to do for
Elizabeth and Benjamin as aforesaid, by this my last will I therefore leave this to the
balance of my children; nothing more than what they have already got."  He left his land
to his son Benjamin, with the stipulation that his widow be allowed to live on it as long
as she remained single.  Benjamin and his wife Sophia W. Bowlin of Camden County,
Missouri, sold this same land recorded in Book L, Page 522, following his father’s
instuctions that "relict and widow of Delaney Bowlin for her natural life if she should
never marry" could live on it.

The KNOWN children of Delaney and Patsy Bowlin were:

	1.  Campbell  Bowlin, born about 1791/1792, location unknown.
            died July 1814, in St. Charles County, Missouri.  Marital status unknown.

	2.  William Bowlin, born Abt 1793-1797, in Kentucky.
            Married 1st Selah Williams in Dec 1810, St Charles County, MO.  2nd Polly 
	    Roupe, date unknown probably  in Cooper County, MO, no record found.  3rd
	    Ann Grooms 30 June 1842 in Platte County, Mo. and 4th Isabell McCollum 
            on 26 July 1846 in Platte County.  He died in Feb of  1850 in Platte County, 
	    Missouri and left a will on file.

	3.  Elizabeth Bowlin, born about 1805 in Barren County, Kentucky.  She married
	    David McGee in Cooper County, Missouri in 1825.  Moved to Platte County, Mo
            in 1837.  No record found of her after 1860.

	4.  Benjamin Franklin Bowlin, born 22 Apr 1808 in Barren County, Kentucky. 
	    Married Sophia W. Dodd in Cooper County, Missouri on 30 Jan 1831.  Died in
	    Laclede County, Missouri on 10 Feb 1874.

	There were other children, but I do not know their identity.  If anyone knows 
	anything about any of them, please contact me, Kathy Bowlin at
	mkbowlin@iland.net.  What follows is a list of my sources.  With the exceptions
	of source 1 and source 24, all of the other sources can be seen in their entirety
	in the Bolin archives by using the search word DELANEY. 


	Sources:
	 1. The materials of Judge Zelma Price. Exact title unknown.
	 2. Sarshall Cooper’s Muster Roll, "Draper Manuscripts", Vol 23S pg 113.
	 3. "Annals of Platte County, Missouri," by W. M. Paxton, 1897, pg 167
	 4. 1790 reconstructed US Census for North Carolina, pg 119, Rutherford County
	 5. "Melton’s History of Cooper County, Missouri" by E. J. Melton, 1937, pgs 
	    28-31, 37, 151.
	 6. "History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri", by Goodspeed, 1883,
	    pgs 95-98, and pg 158.
	 7. "History of Cooper County Missouri" by W. F. Johnson, 1919, Vol 1, pgs 135,
	    136,144 & 266.
	 8. "History of Cooper County Missouri", by Levens, Pgs 20,25,32-38, 49.
	 9. Platte County, Missouri Will Book B, pg 116
	10. Personal Property Assessment List of 1839, Platte County, Missouri
	11. First Surveyor Maps of Platte County, June 19, 1862.
	12. Platte Map for Township No 52N of Range 35W, in Platte County, Missouri.
	13  U. S. Census Record for Platte county Missouri, Slave Schedule for 1850.
	14  "Platte County Missouri Records 1839-1849" transcribed by Betty Runner 
	    Murray, 1993.
	15. Platte County, Missouri Federal Census of 1850, printed source by Nadine 
	    Hodges  pg 139.
	16  "History of St. Charles, Montgomery and Warren Counties, Missouri" by 
	    Goodspeed, pgs 537, 545, 751, 752 and 755.
	17  "History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri" by Goodspeed, 1885, pg 93.
	18  1830 US Census Records for Cooper County, Missouri pg 213.
	19. 1840 US Census Records for Platte County, Missouri pg 108
	20. 1850 U. S. Census Records for Platte County, Missouri pg 419
	21. Barren County, Kentucky Tax Records for 1801-1809 from Microfilm
	22. "A History of the Baptist in Missouri," by R. S. Duncan, 1882. pgs 145,149,
	    and 150.
	23. "A History of The Missouri Baptists" by R. S. Douglas, 1934 pg 62.
	24. "A History of the Bowline Family" by Dr. Benjamin Franklin Bowline, better
	    known in the family as the "Red Book" date of publication after 1926.
	25. "Centennial History of Missouri," Vol 1, by Walter B. Stevens, 1921. pg 490.
	26. Cooper County Tax Records on microfilm for the years 1822, 1827, 1828, 
	    1829, 1830, 1832 and 1834.
	27. Howard County, Missouri Tax Records on microfilm for the year 1816.
	28. Land Transactions of Platte County, Missouri Book A pg 344.
	29. Land Transactions of Platte County, Missouri Book L pg 522.
	30. Early marriage records of St Charles County, Missouri
	31. Early marriage records of Cooper County, Missouri.
	32. "Judge Jenkins History of Miller County, Missouri" pg 209.

© Kathy Bowlin 1998-2005

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