Conecuh County AlArchives Biographies.....BOWLES, PINCKNEY D. July 7 1835 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 17, 2004, 8:40 am Author: Brant & Fuller (1893) COL. PINCKNEY D. BOWLES.-Among the representative men of southern Alabama, deserving of particular mention, the name of Col. Pinckney D. Bowles is especially prominent. Col. Bowles is descended from old and well known families of Virginia and traces his ancestry, both paternal and maternal, back through several generations, to England. On the mother's side the family contains an admixture of Scotch and Irish blo6d, and the characteristics of those sturdy races have been reproduced in a marked degree in the several descendants now living in Alabama and other states of the Union. The colonel's grandfather, Isaac Bowles, was born and reared in the Old Dominion state, and in an early day removed to South Carolina, Edgefield district, where he was extensively engaged for many years as a tobacco planter. He married into a French family by the name of Dupree, the lady being the accomplished daughter of a French Huguenot refugee. The colonel's father, also named Isaac Bowles, was born in Edgefield district, S. C., on the 14th of April, 1809, and followed the occupation of a planter and was also an accomplished civil engineer. He held various local offices, among others, high sheriff; was major in the state militia, and served as captain of a minute company in 1832, during the times of the nullification excitement in South Carolina. He was married in Edgefield district by Rev. Basil Manly, a noted divine of early times, to Emily Holloway, the ceremony being solemnized about the year 1832. As already stated, the Holloways were of English, Scotch and Irish descent, and were among the earliest permanent settlers of Brunswick county, Va., locating there a number of years prior to the Revolution, in which struggle the colonel's great-grandfather bore a conspicious part. Jordon Holloway, the colonel's grandfather, married Mary Rarden, daughter of an Indian agent in the employ of the English government who died some years before the war of independence. Mrs. Bowles was born and raised in Edgefield district, S. C., where she is still living at the advanced age of eighty-four years. One of her sisters has in her possession the patent to the old homestead, signed by King George of England. To the marriage of Isaac Bowles and Emily Holloway, were born seven children, whose names are as follows: Jane M., deceased at the age of thirteen; Col. Pickney D.; Savannah, wife of Presley M. Williams, of Duttonsville, S. C.; Permelia M., wife of Col. A. B. Dean, of Odom, S. C.; Mary S., wife of Dr. J. R. Beall, of Self, S. C.; Llewellyn H., a lawyer at Troy, Ala., also a Baptist minister, and Clarissa C., who resides with her widowed mother on the old home place in Edgefield district. Col. Bowles was born on the 7th of July, 1835, in Edgefield district, S. C., and enjoyed superior educational advantages in his youth, becoming a student in a boarding school at the age of fourteen. He supplemented the course of instruction at this institution by an attendance at another school of higher grade, and at the age of seventeen entered the government military academy at Charleston, S. C., where for two years he pursued his studies under the surveillance of superior and well disciplined tutors. Owing to physical disability he was compelled to leave this institution before completing the prescribed course, and after recuperating his health for some time in Florida, entered, in 1855, the university of Virginia, where he remained two years, graduating with honor in the literary course in 1857. On receiving his degree he entered the law office of Judge Samuel McGowan, now on the supreme bench, of South Carolina, under whom he pursued his professional studies until his admission to the bar in December, 1858. In April, 1859, he located at Sparta, then the seat of justice for Conecuh county, and practiced there for two years, during which time his superior abilities and thorough knowledge of the law gained for him an extensive legal business and much more than a local reputation as a lawyer. Col. Bowles was early imbued with a spirit of politics and was an active participant in the stirring events which eventually culminated in the war of secession. He entered heart and soul into the cause of the south, and in January, 1861, was one of the first from Conecuh county to offer his services to the state, enlisting at that time in a company of Alabama volunteers recruited for the purpose of capturing Fort Pickens. Returning home after this expedition, he assisted in the reorganization of the company and was unanimously elected its captain. On the 24th of April, 1861, the company, which had been given the name of the Conecuh Guards, left for the seat of war, and was ushered into the service as company E, of the Fourth Alabama infantry. Col. Bowles shared the honors and vicissitudes of this regiment in all of its varied experiences throughout the war, and on August 22, 1862, by virtue of the resignation of Charles L. Scott, major, he was promoted to that position. In September of the same year, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and three days afterward became colonel, on account of the advancement of Col. E. M. Law to brigade commander, which brigade he commanded in all the battles below Richmond in the summer and fall of 1864. On the 3rd of April, 1865, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the field, he was promoted to brigade commander, and served as such until severing his connection with the army at the close of the war. Col. Bowles participated in many bloody battles and was fortunate in escaping unhurt, but had many narrow escapes, one of which was at first Manassas, where his canteen was shattered by a ball from the enemy, and at Spottsylvania court house his cap was knocked out of his hand by a missle from a Yankee gun. At the close of the war Col. Bowles resumed the practice of his profession at Sparta and continued there until the removal of the county seat to Evergreen in 1867, at which time he removed to the latter place, where he has since been in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative legal business, and where he has won a conspicious place among the leading lawyers of southern Alabama. For ten years he filled the office of prosecuting attorney for Conecuh county, but is not now connected with any official position, giving his entire attention to his private practice. Col. Bowles' military record is one of which any brave son of the south might feel proud, and his professional career presents a series of successes such as few lawyers attain. He brought to his life work a mind well schooled by persistent and systematic study, and the reputation which he has achieved is not limited by the boundaries of his state. Endowed with an ardent love of his profession and with talents peculiarly fitting hint for its higher practice, he has been fortunate in having had ample opportunity of improving and cultivating his natural abilities by study, and his experience, added to these, has made him a leader among the most prominent in his profession. Col. Bowles and Alice Irene, daughter of Judge H. F. and Anna C. Stearns, were united in marriage at Sparta, Ala., on the 24th of February, 1862. They have two children living, Catherine E. and Mary Ella, and one deceased, Minnalula H. Col. and Mrs. Bowles belong to the St. Mary's Episcopal church, in which he holds the position of warden, and also that of superintendent of the Sunday schools, having been honored by the latter for twenty years. He has always been a democrat and takes an active interest in the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Greening lodge. No. 53, at Evergreen. Additional Comments: from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 703-705 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 8.1 Kb