Show 0 o tet te james bowie T by ELMO SCOTT WATSON HE name bowle knife Is as inseparably linked with the history of the amerl can frontier as are the names of those other weapons which played their part in the winning ot the west the ken tucky rifle which dentally should be the pennsylvania rifle since it was first made in that state the sharps buffalo gunthe win chester and the colts six shooter it figured in innumerable bloody affrays some of which have become classics in western history it was a bowle knife which wild bill hickok was said to have wielded in the fight which gave him the wild bill nickname the so called fight with the mccandles gang it was a bowle knife with which al packer a prospector killed his tour compa alons they were snowbound in the san juan moun bains of colorado and won tor himself the dreadful title of the san juan man eater the bowle knife has fig ared in tales of jim baldger and jim baker kit carson and california joe and a dozen other border notables some of the yarns authentic and others no doubt the product of the dime novelists being such a famous weapon it would seem that its history should be well known but attempt to trace its origin and see how far you get I 1 out of the maze of conflicting testimony only one fact emerges clear that it was named for one of the bowles but was it resin john or baues As for the inventor of the bowle knife consider this evidence head almost any encyclopedia and you will find it described as an american bunting dagger named after its inventor col james bowle in a melee near natchee 1827 in which six men were killed and fifteen wounded woin ded the colonel dispatched an op portent with a knife made out of a blacksmith s rasp or big file and athla knife he afterward had fashioned at philadelphia into the weapon with which bis name Is associated edward S eells one of the earliest biographers of davy crockett devotes considerable to rezan and james bowle and respecting the invention of the famous boate knife an intimate lady friend of the bowle family in a note to the writer under date of december 1878 and written in bew orleans says abe knife was invented by rezan P brother of james for the purpose of hunting wild cattle on the plains of the opelousas the first one was manufactured by one of his slaves at the private blacksmith shop on his plantation it WAS never intended tor any other use except that of a simple hunting knife nor waa it ever used otherwise until in the duel at natchez when camei bowle acted as second and all the seconds were drawn into the fight in may the isea york star said of this knife it was invented by col james bowle who was killed by the mexicans at the capture of the abamo about 18 months ago three brothers named bowle in the state of mississippi had a deadly conflict with seven other persons armed every species of weapon the brothers belag armed only with a large knife tails weapon they handled with uch dexterity as to decide the conflict in their favor although number were against them and it has since been called the bowle kalte tho red river gierald of bachl boches la copied this article and in june printed it with the following this account Is entirely inaccurate the first weapon of this description was manufactured in the parish of hailds in the state of louisiana near the plantation ot capt charles land on bayou boelt in 1820 this knife was made according to the in of col james bowle then known by the appellation of big jim bawlo it was intended to answer the purpose 0 blazing treba and of a bunting knife the colonel carried athla weapon for alv or six years when the dreadful conflict yet fresh in the recollections of many took place in the state of mississippi a which at once gave it an unrivaled reputation all the abeel in the country was immediately converted into bowle kalves several years ago in a centennial edition of the arkansas bazette there appeared an article called the true of the bowle knife with a biographical sketch of its inventor james black written by dan W jones governor of arkansas 1897 to 1901 who knew black intimately for 30 years this in brief Is his story black was bom in new jersey in 1800 ran away from home at the age of eight to philadelphia where he was apprenticed to a manufacturer of sll ver plate after serving his alpren and becoming expert at the trade he emigrated to the west in 1818 eventually coming to the town of wash ington ark where he found employ ment with a blacksmith washington was a frontier town where all men went armed the favorite weapon being a black began manufacturing lohes which soon became famous for the temper of their steel he was ac customer cus tomed to make them to order from a pattern of the exact size and shape desired by the customer lie plated them with gold or silver and his price ranged from 5 to 52 depending upon how they were plated but the quality of the tempered steel was always the same according to jones who con about 1831 james bowle came to washington and gave black an order for a knife furnishing a pattern and desiring it to be made within the following 60 or 90 days when he would cal for it black made the knife according to bowle s pattern he knew bowle well and had a high estimation of him as a man of good taste as well as of unflinching courage he had never made a knife which suited his own taste in point of shape and concluded this would be a good opportunity to do so consequently after completing the knife ordered by bowle he made another an when bowle returned black showed both of them to him and explained the difference at the same time giving him his choice at the same price bowle promptly selected black s pattern shortly after this bowle became involved in a difficulty with three dea pera does who assaulted him with knives lie killed them all with the knife black had made after this when anyone ordered a knife from black he would order it to be made like bowle s which finally was shortened into make me a bowle knife thus this famous weapon acquired its name bowle himself was not a mechanic of any kind he was killed in the alamo with davy crockett and the legend runs that his body was surrounded by dead mexicans whom he had killed with that same knife other men made in those days and hey are still being made but no one has ever made the bowle knife except james black ita value was in its temper black undoubtedly possessed the damascus secret it came to him mysteriously and it died with him in the same way such Is one story of the invention of the bowle knife which sounds authentic then tic but says another story the real inventor of the knife was jesse cliffs a blacksmith employed by the elder resin bowle father of the three bowle boys some time after the invention of the knife james engaged in an altercation with agaj norris wryght which resulted in wryght shooting at jamea the latter was saved when a silver dollar in his pocket deflected the bullet drawing bis own pistol james aimed at but the trigger snapped nig father the ngae james the knife saying this win never snap it was this circumstance that led james bow ie always to carry A knife used by it carson the knife on hia person thereafter there Is still another story of tha origin of the bowie knife and another inventor of it I 1 this story names aa tha father of the weapon a named john sowell who fought with jackson in the war of 1812 then moved to missouri and finally settled in gonzales texas in 1829 being a blacksmith he began plying his trade there then the story as told by sowell descendants in texas con james dowle often passed through gonzales on his way east after a trip prospecting in the mountains to tha west and he generally had 15 to io men with him all indian fighters and they had many encounters with th Coman chea and other tribes in one of these fights bowle thrust at an indian with his butcher kalf and bis hand lipped over the blade cutting him very badly this cut suggested the idea of a guard between the handle and blade and he cut a pattern from a piece of wood and in passing through gonzales topped at sowell s shop and asked him if be coull make one like it replied that be could and selecting a piece of steel turned out a knife that pleased bowle very much mr sowell asked bowle it he sowell might give the knife a name bowle replied in the affirmative and mr sowell said 1 I will name it in honor of you we will call it the bowle knife who invented the bowle knife let him who can read that conflicting testimony and then give a reply which he can be sure Is correct I 1 |