1834 - Marriages of Lawrence County, Tenn

  Bowden, Jackson L.   Lay, Salina   8-11-1834 B

1834 Marriages of Lawrence County, Tennessee Film #976304

  Marriage Bond
  Jackson J. Bowden to Salena Lay 11 Aug. 1834
  Winston McAnally Bondsman
  (Jackson's & Winston's signature very poor)
	
1850 Census - Pope County, Arkansas
18 Nov 1850

  534 534
  Jackson Bowden   36 M Farmer GA
  Cornelia         36 F        SC
  Rody             15 F        Tenn
  Ann              11 F        Tenn
  Nancy J.          9 F        Tenn
  Mary L.           3 F        Ark
  James T.       4/12 M        Ark

From Goodspeed's History of Pope County Arkansas:

Rev. J.J. Bowden, farmer, Moreland, Ark. Mr. Bowden , who is familiarly known as "Uncle Jacky Bowden"
was born in Georgia, January 22, 1814, and is the son of John and Anna (Blackburn) Bowden, both
natives also of Georgia, and of English and German descent, respectively. The father was born in
1751, and was married about 1796. He and wife emigrated from Georgia to Tennessee, and here they
received their final summons, the father dying at the age of ninety-five, and she at the age of
sixty-five years. Their family consisted of fifteen children, eight sons and five daughters of whom
grew to mature years. Two died in infancy. Those living are named as follows: Polly, William, Feriba,
James, Anna, Jane, John S., Jackson J., Charles, Newton, Wiley, Lucinda and Allen. The paternal
grandfather of these children emigrated from England to America at an early day, and fought for
independence in the Revolution. When about six years of age Rev. J.J. Bowden emigrated with his
parents to Tennessee, and there remained until 1844, when he moved to Arkansas. While a resident of
Tennessee he met and married Miss Salina Lay, a native of Georgia, who bore him six children, tow of
whom are now living, one in Texas, and the other in Conway County, Ark. After coming to Arkansas Mr.
Bowden settled in Gum Log Valley, but afterward purchased eighty acres of land on Crow Mountain,
where he resided six years. He afterward purchased 300 acres at Gravel Hill, and gave eleven acres of
this to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the land, at the present time, being valued at $100 per
acre, upon which he has expended on his own account, and out of his own pocket, at least $500. Later
he sold this farm, and retired to his farm at Gravel Hill, where he now resides, and where, despite
his increasing years, he still carries on his occupation of farming, though in a limited way, having
rented most of his land to tenants. When Mr. Bowden first located on his present farm, the country
was thinly settled, and in all the country from Cross Plains to Dover there were but two families. On
Crow Mountain, where there are now about 200 families, there were at that time just two families. Mr.
Bowden joined the church in 1828, and has always taken a deep interest in church work. When leaving
Tennessee he brought letters from his church, which he deposited in Gum Log Valley, in what is now
known as David Chapel, where he assisted in erecting the first church edifice in Valley Township. And
probably the first in Pope County. Mr. Bowden was licensed to preach in 1848, by Dr. A. Hunter;
ordained a deacon by Bishop Paine in 1852, and ordained an elder by Bishop Early in 1857. His first
ministerial work was on Crow Mountain, where he organized and erected the first church. In 1865,
after the close of the war, owing to the unsettled condition of affairs, Mr. Bowden was called upon
to take in hand the organization of the churches of Dover circuit, on which there were twenty-four
appointments, and to which it was difficult or impossible to send a regular itinerant, Mr. Bowden
found the churches in a demoralized condition, but undertook the work, which he successfully
accomplished in about a month, presiding over that circuit only a year. He organized the Sunday
school at Gravel Hill, or Bowden Chapel, directly after the war, and also assisted in the
organization of several others. He went to Little Red River in 1840, where Methodism had never
penetrated, and established a church, which has grown from the seed thus sown to a flourishing
circuit. His first wife dying in 1852, Mr. Bowden was married, in August of the same year, to Miss
Narcissa E. Bewley, daughter of R.S. Bewley, of Pope County. The fruits of this union were ten
children, three of whom died in infancy. The remainder are all married, with the exception of one son
and a daughter. They are named as follows: Robert S., Benjamin B., Charles D., George A., Anhana C.,
Miles E., and Sallie F., all but one of whom are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
From 1845 up to the beginning of the Civil War, in which he took no part, Mr. Bowden was militia
captain. He was appointed postmaster at Moreland post office in 1866, which position he held for
three or four years. He joined a temperance organization at Dover in 1867, and as this is a subject
in which he takes a great interest, temperance organizations have been established all over Pope
County. Although in his seventy-seventh year and somewhat deaf, Mr. Bowden can read ordinary print
without the aid of glasses. He lost his wife in 1885. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church also, and was an active worker in the same. Despite his old age, he raised, the present year,
with his own hands, two and one-half bales of cotton, thirty bushels of corn and forty bushels of
sweet potatoes, besides he preached nearly every Sunday.