Isaiah Bowman and Esther Matteson

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

ISAIAH BOWMAN and ESTHER MATTESON

Isaiah Bowman was born October 1828 in Washington County, Virginia near Tumbling Creek. His parents were John Bowman Jr and Elizabeth Lythcoe, poor farmers who migrated to Indiana in the early 1830 when Isaiah was a small child. His grandparents and many uncles and aunts made the trek out of Virginia also. With the move the stigma of being from a lower social economic and class stratum of the Old South was eliminated. Racially Isaiah’s relatives in Washington County were of mixed heritage of poor whites and poor free persons of color.

Growing up in the Midwest within Free States, Isaiah Bowman probably never had the sociality stigma of anything but being a poor white. His family, which included a younger brother Josiah and sister Sally, lived in several counties of Indiana but generally just for a short period of a couple of years. They would make a crop on rented land and then moving on looking for better opportunities. He would have been about 12 years old in the 1840 census but his father’s family was skipped. His grandparents and uncles were enumerated in Kendricks County, Indiana. His family may have been traveling with his aunt and uncle Anna and Abel Welch north into Wisconsin Territory. His uncle Abel Welch was located in Green County across the state line from Illinois in a tax record from 1842 and other family members are listed in the same county in 1846.

Isaiah Bowman was 20 years old when Wisconsin gained statehood and he is enumerated in his father’s household in the 1850 United States Census taken August 26th. The census recorded Isaiah Bowman in Sylvester Township, Green County, age 21 which would have been correct as he would not have been 22 until October. His occupation was listed as “farmer” as was his father.

About 1855 the Patriarch of the family, John Bowman died and Isaiah’s relatives began to split up. Some were staying in Wisconsin while others were heading further west to Missouri and Iowa. Isaiah’s uncle Isham Bowman had already settled in Des Moines County, Iowa before 1850.

It cannot be certain when Isaiah Bowman joined his father moving west but it was probably about the time his grandmother Susannah Rosenbaum died in 1856 or before.

Isaiah Bowman married Esther A Matteson about 1855 mostly likely in Wisconsin. However as that Isaiah and Esther first child was born in Missouri, they must have left Wisconsin soon after their marriage. It is doubtful they would have left by themselves but rather in the company of his father John Bowman. Census records show that Isaiah’s father in law did not leave Wisconsin until after 1859.

The 1850 census listed the two families of Bowman and Matteson as living 125 miles apart. Esther is listed in the household of her father Asa Matteson in Wheatland Township in Kenosha County that borders Lake Michigan and Illinois. However by 1855 Asa Matteson had moved to Green County and was living in Jefferson Township that was directly below Sylvester Township. His household included five white males and four females. As the Mattesons and Bowmans lived in close proximity of each other in 1855 it would have been easy for Isaiah and Esther to become acquainted. He was about 27 years old when they married and she was just 16.

On 11 June 1860 Isaiah Bowman was enumerated in Jasper County, Iowa near the town of Newton in Malaka Township. He is living next door to his father John Bowman and they probably were farming the same parcel of land. The move from Wisconsin was an expensive one as that both families had only $150 in personal estate which generally included livestock and farming implements. Both Isaiah and his father John had their last names spelled “Boman”. Isaiah listed his age as 35 when he would have been only 31 years old in June of 1860. His wife Esther gave her age as 20 when she would have been 21 years old at the time. The couple had two daughters according to the census. Henrietta Bowman was listed as 4 years old and born in Missouri and Elizabeth Bowman was 1 year old and born in Iowa. Also included in the household was Esther’s younger sister Martha Matteson who was 13 years old and a native of Wisconsin.

Isaiah Bowman’s father in law was also enumerated in Jasper County but he lived some distance away in Newton Township and was enumerated on 11 July 1860. He was a poor farmer with only $150 worth of personal estate and supporting six children at home ranging in ages from 16 years to 1 year old. All of these children were said to have been born in Wisconsin so he was also a recent arrival to Iowa.

Isaiah Bowman’s first son Isaiah "James" Bowman was born 21 July 1860 in Newton, Jasper County, Iowa.

The Civil War began in April of 1861 and Isaiah Bowman had cousins on both sides of the conflict and even at least on uncle Archibald Lethcoe in the Confederate Army. Isaiah Bowman’s cousin and brother in law John Worley was a Union Soldier from Indiana and died in 1862 in what was then Cole County, the original name of Union County, South Dakota. Union County, created and organized in 1862, was originally named Cole County for Austin Cole, who was a member of the first Territorial Legislature. Two years later, the boundaries were rearranged and the name changed to Union because of sentiment for the Union side of the civil war. The county seat is located in Elk Point, The county is bordered by Iowa and the Big Sioux River on it’s Eastern side & Nebraska and the Missouri River on it’s Southern side.

Congress passed and Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862 to encourage the settlement of the west. The Bowmans and Mattesons took advantage of its terms and moved to Dakota Territory by oxen pulled wagons and settled near the pioneer community of Elk Point

Elk Point was first settled in 1859 along the Military Road running from Sioux City, Iowa to Fort Randall in the Dakota Frontier, making this community one of the oldest in South Dakota. Eli Wixson, who had come from Sioux City, Iowa to build the first cabin in 1859 and become Elk Point’s first citizen.

Almost as soon as Isaiah Bowman had moved to Dakota Territory The Dakota Indian War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising began which was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of Dakota.

By the summer of 1862 the situation for many Dakota families was desperate; annuity payments were late due to the U.S. government’s priority in financing the Civil War; some traders and officials at the Indian Agencies refused to extend credit for food and supplies until the Dakota had cash to pay their debts; and crop failures and poor hunting had left many Dakota families hungry. Due to these and other factors, tensions within Minnesota's Dakota community reached a breaking point.

It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota. In response to the Dakota War of 1862 in western Minnesota, the governor of Dakota Territory issued a proclamation on August 30, 1862 requiring every male between the ages of 18 and 50 in every settlement in eastern Dakota, be formed into militias to protect against expected attacks from the Native Americans. In response, the Yankton militia built a stockade. Settlers from the surrounding area, and as far away as Sioux Falls and Bon Homme County, fled to Yankton in order to seek shelter in the structure. Although roving bands of Native Americans did approach Yankton over the course of several weeks, no attack ensued. Many of the settlers at Elk Point fled to the safety of Sioux City. The war lasted nearly six weeks, during which more than 600 civilians and U.S. soldiers, as well as an estimated 75-100 Dakota, lost their lives. It ended with a mass execution of 38 Dakota men on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota. The remaining 38 men were hanged simultaneously in Mankato on Dec. 26 in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

On 12 October 1863 Isaiah Bowman and Asa Matteson swore in an affidavit that in elections held for County offices, a man who was fraudulently elected as County Registrar of Deeds was also had only been a resident of the Territory since July and not the required year of residency to hold office. In the deposition they said they had lived in Cole [Union] County for upward of one year.

Isaiah Bowman’s father in law was elected in September 1863 to serve as a representative to the Dakota Territory’s House of Representatives. The capital of the territory at the time was Yankton which was located about 55 miles northwest of Elk Point on the Missouri River. He took the Oath of Office on 8 December 1863 and on the same day the election of the County Commissioner, the registrar of deeds, and the office of the Probate Judge were deemed null and void by the legislature..

While the Dakota Indian War was over by 1863 skirmishes between the Sioux and American settlers continued for some time. Asa Matteson was killed by the Sioux on 5 May 1865 and as legislators held office for two years he died while a territory representative.

Isaiah and Esther Bowman had another daughter named Mary Jane Bowman who was born in 1863 in Dakota Territory and two more sons before the decade ended.

Robert Bowman was born circa 1868 in Union County [South] Dakota Territory. Francis Marion Bowman was born 23 September 1869 in the township of Civil Bend in Union County.

The family is enumerated 9 August 1870 living in Civil Bend Township, Union, Dakota Territory and getting their mail at Post Office in Elk Point. Isaiah is listed as a 42 year old farmer still without any real estate and $300 in personal property. Esther gave her age as 27 years when she was 31 years old. They had six children living at home, 14 year old Henrietta, 12 year old Elizabeth C., 10 year old Isaiah James, 7 year old Mary Jane, 3 year old Robert F, and 1 year old Francis M. Esther was listed as keeping house and the rest of the children were listed at home. Henrietta was born in Missouri, Elizabeth and Isaiah James were born in Iowa and the rest were born in Dakota Territory.

On 20 January 1873, Isaiah Bowman’s eldest daughter married Albert Sheldon Green in Union County. She was about 16 years old. Later that year on 19 June 1873 Isaiah was appointed post master for the community of Texas in Union County. The community now is a ghost town. He would have been fortunate to have that position as that in 1873 there was a national financial panic which hurt farmers especially. He may have lost his position as that by 1874 Isaiah pulled up stakes and moved to neighboring Nebraska where another daughter was born in 1874 at Ponca in Dixon County. It was about this time that his parents and sister probably returned to Washington County, Virginia. They must have told relatives about the Dakotas as some of Elizabeth’s Lethcoe relatives would move there.

Ponca, Nebraska is about 25 miles due south from Elk Point, Dakota Territory across the Missouri River. Today by car its about 55 miles but in those days ferries would carry wagons, livestock, and people across the river. People traveled during the summer when the river was at its lowest point.

In 1876 Elizabeth C Bowman married George Wesley Royer in Ponca, Dixon County. She was about 17 years old. A year later another son named George Bowman was born in 1877 also at Ponca. In 1900 Esther Bowman said she was the mother of 13 children with 8 still living. That is five children who were either still born or who died young between census year. These babies were probably born between Mary Jane Bowman born in 1863 and Robert F Bowman born in 1868, and Marion Bowman born in 1869 and Esther Ann Bowman born in 1874.

The 1880 United States Census taken on 16 June showed Isaiah Bowman’s family residing at Ponca, in Dixon County, Nebraska. Isaiah. Bowman is 51 years old and farming but whether he owned or rented the land he farmed is not stated. Esther is listed as “Hester” and 41 years old. The children who were still at home were “James” Bowman age 20 years old and “working of R.R. [railroad]. 17 year old Mary Jane was listed as “at home” while 12 year old Robert F, 10 year old “Marion F”, and 6 year old “Ester” are all listed as “at school.” The baby of the family was 3 year old George Bowman.

The agricultural census for 1880 listed 50 farmers in the Ponca District. Only 10 of these farmers did not own the land they farmed. Isaiah Bowman was of these who stated that he rented his farm for a share of the produce. Essentially he was sharecropping. His neighbors M B DeWitt and L W Herring both owned their lands. Details from the census showed that he rented an 80 acre farm but only had about half in cultivation. Thirty-five acres were tilled, 39 acres untilled, and 6 acres were a permanent meadow. The untilled acres were grasslands which produced 80 tons of hay. On the tilled acreage he had 20 acres in wheat, 14 acres in “Indian Corn” and 1 acre in oats. In 1879 he produced 300 bushels of corn, 68 bushels of oats but only 7 bushels of wheat which must have been a financial disaster for him. Grasshoppers that plagued farmers may have destroyed his 1879 crop.

For livestock he had three horses, 4 milk cows, 1 steer, 13 hogs, 60 chicken, and 4 geese. He stated that he sold off 2 heads of cattle but had 3 calves born in 1879. His cows produced 300 pounds of butter and his chickens produced 150 dozen eggs. He listed no fruit trees on his property evidently not wishing to plant trees that he wouldn’t be around to harvest. His livestock was worth $320. The worth of his entire farm was given at $600 which would have been the fences, and building as he didn’t own the land. He also had $30 worth of farming implements, ploughs, harnesses, tools, knives etc.

In 1881, Isaiah’s son Isaiah James Bowman married a woman named Eliza Thompson. He was 21 years old and she was 19. About the same time daughter Mary Jane Bowman met Walter Owens a teamster from Fort Pierre in Stanley County, Dakota Territory. He was probably freighting when he met Mary Jane. Whether they married or eloped is unknown but she had a son named John William Owens in Fort Pierre in 1882 where Walter’s father John W. Owens was running a boarding house. Nothing more is known of the couple but in 1900 Mary Jane’s son was living in Isaiah Bowman’s household.

Almost all of Isaiah James Bowman were born in Ponca, Dixon, Nebraska it can be assumed that Isaiah Bowman remained there and farmed perhaps until he moved to Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa by 1897 when he was 69 years old.

He is listed in the Sioux City Directory as a resident at 120 Steuben Street as did his son George Bowman who was listed as a laborer. There is no Robert or Marion Bowman is Sioux City so they and Isaiah Bowman’s older children except Isaiah “James” stayed behind. The girls Henrietta Green , and Elizabeth Caroline Royer were married and in Nebraska. Mary Jane Owens may have died as her son John Owens was living with his grandparents in 1900. His son “James” was working at the Cudahy Meat Packing Plant and had moved to Sioux City in 1896 most likely the first to leave the farm. The where abouts of Robert and Marion Bowman are unknown. Robert Bowman would have been 29 years old and Marion would have been 28 years old in 1897. It is not known whether Robert was alive in 1897 but Marion who remained a batchelor all his life was a bartender in a saloon in 1910. Isaiah did not list an occupation in any of the directories therefore he was either retired or unemployed.

The following year in1898 when Isaiah Bowman turned 70 years old he had moved from Steuben Street with his son 21 year old son George to 1521 Grand Street. This was James Bowman’s and James’ daughter Lilly’s address also. This home would have had 11 people living there including Isaiah’s pregnant daughter in law.

While James Bowman is listed in the 1899 directory, Isaiah and his son George are not. Either they were overlooked or they had left the city. By 1900 Isaiah Bowman was back but without his son George. He was renting a house at 304 Pavonia Street next door was his son James Bowman at 306 Pavonia who was working at the International Packing Company. The 1900 Census taken on June 5th lists Isaiah Jones at 304 Pavonia Street in a house he was renting. He stated he was born in October 1828 and he was 71 years old and born in “West” Virginia. He probably meant western Virginia but the census taker wrote West Virginia as he did for the birth place of Isaiah’s parents. He stated that he had been married 45 years [1855]. His wife Esther A Bowman stated she was born in March 1839 and was the mother of 13 children with 8 still living. This would suggest that her children 32 year old Robert and 26 year old Esther were alive in 1900 but their whereabouts are unknown.

Daughter Henrietta Bowman Green was 44 years old living at Silver Creek, Dixon County, Nebraska with her husband Albert and 10 children. Forty-two year old Elizabeth Catherine Bowman Royer was living at Santee, Knox, Nebraska with her husband George with one son still at home. The whereabouts of Mary Jane Owens is unknown but according to her mother still living. Her only son John Owens is living with Isaiah and Esther. The where abouts of Robert and Marion are unknown however could have been in Knox County as Marion is found there in 1910 as a bartender. Nothing is further known of George and Esther either.

John W Owens was listed as an 18 year old grandson born in January 1882 in South Dakota and working as a Day laborer on the railroad.

The 1901 directory reported Isaiah Bowman residing at 2110 on 3rd Street in Sioux City and that John Owens had moved to Des Moines, Iowa. The following year the directory reported Isaiah Bowman "moved to Yankton South Dakota". He would have been 72 years old when he moved and would not have moved there unless he had family there to assist him. In the days before social security and medicare old people were entirely dependent on family for their care. Esther would have been 63 years old at the time of their relocation 63 miles up the Missouri River west of Sioux City.

Between 1902 and 1910 Isaiah and Esther moved from Yankton to Cooper in Gentry County, Missouri where his daughter Mary Jane was living with her 2nd husband Charles Huff. The 1910 census listed Isaiah’s name as Isaac but the rest of the information is fairly accurate.

Isaiah, his wife Esther and his granddaughter Lizzie Owens, and her two daughters were living with them on Missouri Street, Stanberry Addition in the town of Cooper in Gentry County, on Northern Missouri. They were living almost 230 miles south of Sioux City, Iowa as of 23 April 1910 in a house they were renting.

Isaiah gave his age as 81 which he would have been in April and his birthplace as “West Virginia” again meaning western Virginia. He gave his father's birthplace as “West Virginia: but his mother's as Virginia. The census showed that Isaiah was literate ad was able to read and write. No occupation was given which confirms that he was retured.

His wife was listed as “A Esther Bowman” age 71 which she would have been with a March birth month. Who ever gave the information to the census taker stated that her birthplace was New York State as well as that of her parents. This of course is wrong as she and they were born in Bennington, Vermont. She listed the number of children born to her as 12 and the number living as 8 which indicated that all of her known children that grew to adulthood were still alive as of 1910 but any information on Robert and Esther is not known. She also stated she was literate.

Their youngest son was still living in their household. He is enumerated as “G

Abraham Bowman” which tells us his full name was George Abraham Bowman age 37 and born about 1873 in “Dakota” which would have been South Dakota. He was listed as being single with no occupation. He was literate.

Lizzie Kerling was the other adult in the household and is listed as a granddaughter of Isaiah Bowman. She listed her age as 29 but if her birth month was December 1880 she sould have been 30 years old. Her birthplace was listed as “Dakota.” She stated she was the mother of 4 all living but with this household only two are listed, Ruth Kerling 13 born in Missouri and J Jule [Julie] Kerling born in Nebraska. She listed her marital status as “Married”. She was also literate.

Enumerated next to Isaiah Bowman was his son in law Charles Huff and his daughter Mary Jane. She is listed as “J Mary Huff “ age 47 with a birth year of Birth 1863. He birthplace was listed as “Dakota.” Her husband “C Charles Huff’ was at least 12 years younger than she ;isted as 34 years old. Living within this household also was

“W John Owens” who was the John Owens that lived with Isaiah in Sioux City in the 1900 census. Both Charles Huff and his stepson John Owens were listed for an occupation “R’y” which probably meant rail yard.

Shortly after this census was taken Lizzie Bowman Kerling moved back to Sioux City and remarried a cabinet Maker named Harry Daniel Trowbridge. Her mother Mary Jane Huff died in 1914 of Uterus Cancer and Lizzie was the informant on the death certificate. Mary Jane Bowman Owens Huff died in Gentry County.

Isaiah and Esther Bowman are not listed in the 1915 State census of Sioux City and surely had died by then. Some family researchers state that Esther Matteson Bowman died in Sioux City in 1911 however a grave marker for her or Isaiah are not listed in any of the cemeteries of Sioux City or in Gentry County therefore their final resting place is undetermined.

Children of Isaiah and Esther Matteson Bowman

1. Harriett Bowman born 4 October 1856 Missouri and died 19 June 1928 at Civil Bend, Union, South Dakota. She married Albert Sheldon Green [1850–1931] 20 January 1873 in Elk Point, Union, South Dakota

• Amelia Lanoria Green 1874–1913 married Frank Engel

• Cora Green 1875–1953 married Robert Rosenbaum

• Hayes Green 1877–1909 married Nellie Hittle

• Charles Lewis Green 1879–1965 married Edith Marie Crombie

• Effie Green 1882–1908 married LeRoy Crombie

• Myrtle Francis Green 1884–1959 married William Howard Crombie

• Olive E Green 1886–1961 married Bert Benedict

• Alta May Green 1891–1979 married Ernest Flinn Parmiter

• Mildred Green 1892– 1892

• Albert Shelton Green 1894–1979 married Lucy Elizabeth McConville

• Bessie S Green 1897–1916 unmarried

2. Elizabeth Catherine Bowman was born 20 June 1858 Iowa City, Wright County, Iowa and died at 22 June 1943 Bon Homme, Bon Homme County, South Dakota. She married in 1876 George Wesley Royer [1851–1929]

• Charles Augustus Royer 1876–1956 married Margaret Frances Keegan

• Emma Mae Royer 1878–1965 married William Oscar Schroll

• Guy Royer 1881–1882

• George L Royer 1890–1907 never married

3. Isaiah "James" Bowman was born 21 July 1860 in Newton, Jasper, Iowa and died 15 December 1919 in Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa. He married Eliza Thompson then divorced

• Lilly Bowman 1883– 1907 never married

• Jennie Bowman 1886–1950 married Jesse Bishop, Frank Jenkins, Wallace McPherson

• Jesse James Bowman 1891–1942 never married

• Charles Herman Bowman 1893– after 1938 married Kathleen Irene Coffey

• Nellie Lavina Bowman 1898–1940 married Fay Mark Heywood and Grover Cleveland McPherson

• Mary Elizabeth "Mamie" Bowman 1899–1983 married Edmund McPherson and Byron Anthony

4. Mary Jane Bowman was born 19 August 1863 Elk Point Cole County [Union], Dakota Territory and died 12 August 1914 Cooper, Gentry County, Missouri. Married 1st Walter Owens and 2ndly Charles Huff.

• Elizabeth “Lizzie” Owens [1880-1937] married Charles Kerling and Harry D Trowbridge

• John W Owens never married and may have been gay. He was born 30 January 1882 at Fort Pierre, in Dakota Territory and died 8 Jan 1950 in Colusa County, California. During World War II men of a certain age was required to register. John Owen was living in Bend, Oregon unemployed and 60 years and he gave as a mailing address General Delivery for Washram, Washington, Dawson, Minnesota as well as Bend, Oregon which was crossed out. He had to provide a “name and address of a person who will always know your address” and he gave the name of “Mads Madsen of Hubbard, Nebraska”. Madsen was a Danish emigrant who immigrated in 1906 and came to the Nebraska where he acquired a small farm in the community of Homer. He was born 1887 in Demark and died 1957 having never married. He was described as a blue eyed blond in the WWI draft registry. In the 1920 Census he is listed as a single 35 year old head of a household in Dakota County, Nebraska. The only other person in his household is 37 year old John Owens whose occupation was listed as “Laborer”. Nearly 22 years later John Owens listed Mads Madsen as someone who would always know where he lived. Both the 1930 and 1940 census listed Mads as living alone on his farm as a single man. John Owens can’t be located in the 1930 census but is found living in a Hobo Jungle Camp in the rail yards of Bend, Oregon in 1940. In this census he said that in 1935 he was living in Ventura, California. No occupation or trade was given for him. Evidently after he left Mads Madsen he became a Tramp riding rails and living in Hobo Jungles during the Great Depression. Often hobo camps were a refuge for homosexual men. 27 men were recorded in the “jungle” ranging from ages 21 and 64. The majority of the men were in their 30’s and 40’s with 7 in their 20’s. John was one of the oldest men there at 58.

5. Robert F Bowman 1868–after 1910 nothing more is known

6. Francis Marion Bowman 1869–1936 never married but lived with his niece Jennie Bowman McPherson.

7. Esther Ann Bowman 1874– after 1910 nothing more is known

8. George Abraham Bowman 1877–after 1910 nothing more is known