Rezin Bowie - Early Years

Early Years

Rezin Bowie was born September 8, 1793, near Gallatin, Tennessee, one of ten children born to Rezin Bowie and Elve Ap-Catesby Jones. Bowie was one of twins, with brother Rhesa. His father had been injured while fighting in the American Revolution, and, in 1782, married the young woman who had nursed him back to health. The Bowies moved a great deal, first settling in Georgia, where they had six children, and then moving to Tennessee. The year after Bowie's birth, the family moved to Logan County, Kentucky. By 1796, his father owned 8 slaves, 7 horses, 11 head of cattle, and 1 stud horse. The following year the family acquired 200 acres (80 ha) along the Red River. In 1800, Rezin Bowie sold his property and the family spent two years in Missouri. They moved to Spanish Louisiana in 1802, settling on the Bushley Bayou in Rapides Parish.

The Bowie family moved again in 1809, settling on Bayou Teche in Louisiana before finding a permanent home in Opelousas, in St. Landry Parish, in 1812. Each of their homes was on the frontier, and even as a small child Bowie was expected to help clear the land and plant crops. He and his siblings were educated at home, and learned to read and write in English. With his younger brother James, Bowie learned to speak, read, and write Spanish and French fluently. The children were also taught how to survive on the frontier, as well as how to fish and run a farm and plantation.

Bowie converted to Roman Catholicism in 1814 and married Margaret Nevil in the St. Landry Parish Catholic Church on September 15, 1814. Later that year he and James enlisted in the Louisiana militia in response to Andrew Jackson's plea for volunteers to fight the British. The War of 1812 ended on December 24, 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, and the Bowie brothers arrived in New Orleans too late to participate in the fighting. Bowie later joined the Avoyelles Battalion, and was commissioned a captain of the Mounted Rifles in 1825, later becoming a colonel.