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Show (' J used by. V ; J JSf V 1 Carson V". t Pg?kr5 the knife on his person thereafter. t .W JVnite There Is still another story of the W'-,?. "-f ' ' ntV origin of the Bowie knife and another V mtjJ inventor of itl This story names as Y 4 -4T75 the father of the weapon a Tennessenn V v? Tv? named John Sowell. who fought with " JM hh Jackson In the War of 1S12. then h V "K ?-$ryA moved to Missouri and finally settled J - r"r"'VV fifS4 In Gonzales, Texas. In 1820. Being a Vd,v 'a3PS$$1 - 'tyfc"t blacksmith, he began plying his trade T ' VWS5, ,hore. Then, the story as told by V , N " "Si W- Sowell descendants in Texas, con- V , v ' - v. - H vmUmkk i!'lPM tinues: V , , S ' -f.M James Bowie often passed throusrh 1$ Gonzales on his way East after a trip V -J . 1 S -f'r S?v V''.'K:A prospecting in the mountains to the VV yyi SL H'V J West, and he generally had 15 to 30 Vl - - j ...y-'V men with him all Indian lighters and .. yieiy N'ftwill'a:i-i;y they had many encounter with the Zs? ' Comnnches and other tribes. In one of darpes BOWe these fights Bowie thrust at an Indian the knife on his person thereafter. There Is still another story of the origin of the Bowie knife and another Inventor of iti This story names as the father of the weapon a Tennessenn named John Sowell, who fought with Jackson In the War of then moved to Missouri and finally settled In Gonzales, Texas. In 1S2!. Being a blacksmith, he began plying his trade there. Then, the story as told by Sowell descendants in Texas, continues con-tinues : James Bowie often passed through Gonzales on his way East after a trip prospecting In the mountains to the West, and he generally had 15 to :0 men with him all Indian lighters and they had many encounters with the Comnnches and other tribes. In one of. these fights Bowie thrust at an Indian with his butcher knife and his hand olipped over the blade, cutting him very badly This cut suggested the idea of a guard between the handle and blada and he cut a pattern from a piece ot ivnod and in passing through Gonzal.'S V stopped at Sowell's shop and asked him if he eoul-3 make one like it. Sowell replied that he could and, selecting a piece of steel, turned out a knife that pleased Bowie very much. Mr. Sowell asked Bowie if he (Sowell) might give the knife a name. Bowie replied in the affirmative and Mr. Sowell said. -'I will name It In honor of you, we will call it the 'Bowie Knife.'" "Who Invented the Bowie knife?" Let him who can, read that conflicting testimony and then give a reply which he can be sure is correct I 7 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON PJJjgpl'IE name "Bowie knife" Is VA as inseparably linked with f'i the history of the Ameri- fSjN. ean frontier as are the "i names of those . other gi I weapons which played V J their part In the winning fyS of the West the "Ken-, "Ken-, 5 : tucky rifle" (which, inci-wwl inci-wwl dentally, should be the iajj' Pennsylvania rifle," since """"" it was first made in that state), the Sharps buffalo gun.the Winchester Win-chester and the Colt's six-shooter. It figured in Innumerable bloody affrays, some of which have become classics in Western history. It was a Bowie knife which Wild Bill Hickok was said to have wielded in the tight which gave him the "Wild Bill" nicluanie the so-called so-called "fight" with the "McCandles gang." It was a Bowie knife with which Al Packer, a prospector, killed his four companions while they were snow-bound In the San Juan mountains moun-tains of Colorado and won for himself the dreadful title of the "San Juan Man-Eater." The Bowie knife has fig ured in tales of Jim Bridger and Jim Baker, Kit Carson and California Joe and a dozen other border notables-some notables-some of the yarns authentic and others, no doubt, the product of the dim, 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 Out of the maze of conflicting testimony, only one fact emerges clear that it was named for one of the Bowies. But was it Resin. John or Jai .es? As for the inventor of the Bowie knife, considei this evidence : Read almost any encyclopedia and you will find it described as: An American hunting dag-ger named after its inventor; Col. James Bowie. In a melee near Natchez ( 1S27) in which six men were killed and fifteen wounded, the colonel dispatched an opponent op-ponent with a knife made out of a blacksmith's rasp or big file; and this knife he afterward had fashioned at Philadelphia into the weapon with which his name is associated. Edward S. Ellis, one of the earliest biogra pliers of Davy Crockett, devotes considerable epace to Rezin and James Bowie and Respecting the invention of the famous. fa-mous. Bowie knife, an intimate lady friend of the Bowie family, in a note to the writer, under date of December, 1 87 S, and written in New Orleans, says: The knife was invented by Rezin P., brother of James, for the purpose of hunting wild cattle on the plains of the Opelousas. The first one was manufactured manufac-tured by one cf hip slaves at the private pri-vate blacksmith shop on his plantation. It was never intended for any other use except that of a simple hunting-knife, hunting-knife, nor was it ever used otherwise, until in the duel at Natchez, when James Bowie acted as second, and all the seconds were drawn into the fiht. In May. 1S.1C, the New York Star said of this knife : t was invented by Col. James Bowie, who was killed by the Mexicans at the capture of the lamo. About 18 months ago, three brothers named Bowie, m the state of Mississippi, had a deadly conflict with seven other persons armed with every species of weapon, the brothers being armed only wilh a large knife. This weapon they handled with such dexterity as to decide the conflict in their favor, although numbers were against them, and it has since been cailed the "Bowie-knife." The Red River Heiald of Nachi-toches, Nachi-toches, 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 Rapids, in the state of Louisiana near the plantation of Capt. Charles Mulhol-land, Mulhol-land, on Bayou Boeuf. in 1S20. This knife was made according to the instructions in-structions of Col. James Bowie, then known by the appellation of "Big Jim" Bowiu. it was Intended to anssver the purpose of blazing trees and of a hunting hunt-ing knife. The colonel carried this weapon for five or six years, when the dreadful conflict, yet fresh in the recollections recol-lections of many, took place in the state of Mississippi, a circumstance which at once gave it an unrivaled reputation. All the steel In the country was immediately converted into bowie-knives. bowie-knives. Several years ago in a "Centennial Edition" of the Arkansas Ouzette there appeared an article called "The True History of the Bowie Knife, with a biographical sketch of its inventor, James Black," written by Dan W Jones, governor of Arkansas from IS'.'", to 1901, who knew Black intimately for 30 years. This, in brief, is his story : Black was bom In New Jersey in 1S00, ran away from home at the age of eight to Philadelphia where he was apprenticed to a manufacturer of silver sil-ver plate. After serving his appren ticeship and becoming expert at the trade he emigrated to the West in 1818 eventually coming to the town of Washington, 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 knife. Black began manufacturing knives which soon. became famous for the temper of their steel, tie was ac-customed ac-customed to make them to order from a pattern of the exact size and shape desired by the customer. He plated them wdth gold or silver and his price ranged from $3 to $52, depending upon how they were dated. But the quality of the tempered steel was always the same, according to Jones, who continues con-tinues : About 1831 James Bowie came to Washington, and gave Black an order for a knife, furnishing a pattern, and desiring it to be made within the following fol-lowing 60 or 90 days, when he would cal for it. Black made the knife according ac-cording to Bowie's pattern. He knew Bowie 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 hi. own taste in point of shape and concluded con-cluded this would be a good opportunity opportun-ity to do so. Consequently, after completing the Knife ordered by Bowie, he made an-other, an-other, an when Bowie returned Black showed both of them to him and explained ex-plained the difference, at the same time giving him his choice at the same price. Bowie promptly selected Black's pattern. Shortly after this Bowie became in- volved in a difficulty with three des-perado-s who assaulted him with knives. He 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 Bowie's, which finally was shortened short-ened into 'make me a Bowie-knife.'' Thus this famous weapon acquired its name. Bowie himself was not a mechanic me-chanic of any kind. He was killed in the Alamo with Davy Crockett, and the legend runs that his body was surrounded sur-rounded by dead Mexicans whom he had killed with that same knife. Other men made knives in those days ind they are still being made, but no one has ever made the "Bowie-knife"' except James Black. Its chiefest 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 ot the Bowie knife, which sounds authentic. au-thentic. But, says another story, the real Inventor of the knife was Jesse Cliffs, a blacksmith employed by th; elder Resin Bowie (father of the three Sowie boys). Some time after the invention of the knife James engaged in an altercation with Maj. Norris Wright which resulted in Wright shoot ing at James. The latter was saved when a silver dollar in his pocket deflected de-flected the bullet. Drawing bis own pistol, James aimed at Wright but the trigger snapped. His father then gave James the knife, saying, "This win never snap." It was this circumstance that led James Bowie always to carry |