Show 0 o atea e bmw 1 0 A al A fe a used bcd by y nt t r carbon packers knife X Owes BOW Bowie by ELMO SCOTT WATSON HB name bowle bowie knife Is as inseparably linked with the history ot of the american frontier as are the names of those other I 1 weapons which played their part in the winning of 0 the west the kentucky rifle which incidentally should be the pennsylvania Pennsylva jila rifle since it was first made in that stat ethe sharps buffalo gunabe win chester and the colts six shooter it figured in innumerable bloody af frays some of 0 which have become classics in western history it was a bowle bowie knife which wild bill hickok was sold to have wielded in the fight which gave uin him thi the wild bill the so called light fight with the mccandles gang it was a bowle knife with which al packer a prospector killed his big four companions while they were snowbound snow bound la in the san juan mountains of colorado and won for himself the dreadful title of the san juan man eater the bowle bowie knife has figured in tales of jim baldger and jim baker kit carson and california joel joe and a dozen other border notables some come of the aarns arns authentic and others no doubt the product of the dime novelists being such a famous weapon it would teem seem that its history should be well known but attempt to trace its origin and nd see bee how far you betl get I 1 out of the maze of conflicting testimony only one fact emerges dear clear that it was named for one of the bowles but was it resin john or jai ies las As tor for the inventor of the bowle knife consider this evidence read bead almost any encyclopedia and you will find it described as ao an american hunting bunting dagger named after ito if inventor col james camei bowl bowie in a mel melee near natchez 1827 1327 in which six ix men were killed and fifteen WO wounded laded the th colonel dispatched an op with a knife made out of a rasp rap or bigale and this knife be afterward had fashioned at philadelphia into the weapon with which his bla name in 1 associated edward S ellis bills one of the earliest biographers of davy crockett devotes considerable to rezin and james bowle bowie and respecting the invention ot of the la fa inous bowle bowie knife an intimate lady friend of the bowie family in a note to the writer under date of december 1818 and written in new orlen orleans says lay tin knife wax wa invented by rezin P trotter brother ot of james jamea for the purpose ot of hunting wild cattle on the plains plain of the opelousas Ope loua the first one was wa manufactured by one of 0 his hi slaves alave at the private vat blacksmith shop chop on hi his plantation it was wa never intended for any other hi U m 0 except that of a simple hunting kalfe k n alls nor wa was it ever used otherwise until in the duel at natchez katchel Katch ex when james jam bowle bowl acted as a second and all the seconds cond were drawn into the fight in may 1838 1836 the new tork lork star said aid of this knife it wa was invented by col james jame bowle bowie who we wa killed by the mexicans mexican at the capture of the alamo about II 11 month ago aco three brothers brother named bowle bowie in the tb state of mississippi had a deadly conflict with seven even other persons armed armea with every cecle of weapon the brothers brother belt armed only with a large knits knit attile weapon they handled with uch such dexterity as a to decide the con conflict flicht la in their favoro favor although numbers number were against them and it has ha since anc been called the bowle kalfe the red ked river herald of bachl toche la copied this article and to in june printed it with the following this account Is 19 entirely inaccurate the arst weapon ot of thin description wa an manufactured in the pariah of rapids rapid in the state of lout louisiana alana near the plantation of capt charles charle on bayou boeuf in 1820 1920 this knife was wa made mad according to the in M of col june james bowle bowie then known by the awal lation of els big jim y bowle bowie it was intended to answer the th purpose of blazing trees and of a hunting knife the colonel carried this weapon for five ave or six years when the dreadful conflict yet fresh in the recollections recola sections of many took place A in the state of mississippi a circumstance which at it once gave it an unrivaled reputation all the steel in the cou country n try was immediately converted into bow bowle le knives several years ago in a centennial edition of the arkansas gazette there appeared an article called the true history of the bowle bowie knife with a biographical sketch of its inventor james black written by dan W jones governor of arkansas from 1897 to 1901 who knew black intimately for 30 years this in brief Is his story black was born in new jersey to in 1800 ran away from home at the age of eight to philadelphia where he be was apprenticed to a manufacturer of ver plate after serving his apprenticeship tice ship and becoming expert at the trade he emigrated to the west in 1818 1813 eventually coming to the kwil town of washington ark where he be found employment with a blacksmith washington was wag 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 he was accustomed cus tomed to make them to order from a pattern patter not of the exact size and shape desired by the customer he plated them with gold or sliver 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 continues about 1831 james bowie c came am 0 0 to o washington and gave black S an n order orde r tor for a knife furnishing burnishing shing a pattern ani and des desiring ring it to be made w within 1 thin the following CO 60 or 90 days when he would u d kniten cal tor for it black made the knife 1 according m to bowles pattern he fie knew bowle bowie well and had bad a high estimation of him as a man of good taste as well as of ion unflinching flinching courage he had never made a knife which suited his bis own taste in point of shape and concluded this would be a good opportunity to do so go consequently after completing the knife ordered by bowle bowie he be made another ani when bowle bowie returned black showed both of them to hin him and explained the difference at the same time giving him his bis choice at the same price bowle bowie promptly selected blacks black pattern shortly after this bowle bowie became involved in fit a a difficulty with three desperadoes pera does who assaulted him with knives he be killed them all with the knife black had bad made after this when anyone ordered a knife from black he would order it to be t made like bowles bowies which finally was shortened into nake make me a bowle bowie knife thus this famous weapon acquired its name bowle bowie himself was not a mechanic of any kind he was killed in the alamo with davy Croc crockett kettl and the legend runs that his him body was our fur rounded by dead mexicans whom be bad killed with that same knife other men made knives in those days and they are still being made but n no one has ever made the bowle bowie knife a except james black its value was wag in its temper black undoubtedly possessed the damascus secret it bolth came m to him mysteriously and it died W with him in the same way such in if one story of the invention of the bowle bowie knife which sounds founds authentic then tic tle buts but says say another story the real inventor of the knife was wag jesse cliffs it i blacksmith employed by the elder resin dowle bowle father of the three bowle bowie boys some time after the invention of the knife tames james engaged in an altercation with maj norris wright which resulted in wright shooting at james the latter was saved when a sliver silver dollar in his bis pocket deflected the bullet drawing his bis own pistol james aimed at wryght but the trigger snapped his father then gave james the knife saying this will never snap it was this circumstance that led james bowle bowie always to carry the knife on hla big person thereafter there la Is still another story of the tha origin of the bowle bowie knife and another inventor of tl this story etory names as aa the father of the weapon a Tennes span named john sowell who fought with jackson la in the war of 1812 then moved to missouri and finally settled in gonzales texas in 1829 being a blacksmith he began plying his bis trade there then the story as told by sowell descendants in texas continues james bowl boalt often parsed through gonzales Goni alca on nil his way east after a trip prospecting in the tha mountains to the west and h he generally vene raly bad 16 26 to 30 0 men with him bim all indian fighters and they had many encounters encounter with the Co Coman manches cheB and other tribes in one of these then lights bowl bowie thrust at an indian with hi big butcher knife and big hand slipped over the blade cutting him very badly this thia cut suggested the idea of a guard fuard between tb the handle band leand and blade and he be cut a pattern from a piece ot of wood and in pasting passing through gonzales Gonz alef topped stopped at sowells sowell shop and aked him it he coull mke make one like it sowell ba ropi replied ed that la be could and selecting electing a piece ot of steel turned out a knife that pleased bowle bowie very much mr sowell asked bowle bowie if he sowell might give the knife a name bowle bowie replied in th the affirmative and mr sowell said 1 I will name n m e it in honor of you we will call it the tb a bowle knife who invented the bowle bowie kriff griffer er let him who can read that conflicting testimony and then give a reply which he be can be sure Is correct I 1 |