Bartow-Gordon-Habersham County GaArchives History .....Whites among the Cherokees  December 1832
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Paula Grant paulaggrant@hotmail.com March 2, 2004, 7:38 pm

"WHITES AMONG THE CHEROKEES" BY Mary B. Warren and Eve B Weeks.
PAGE 110           THE BOWMAN MASSACRE
December 18, 1832, Salacoe Settlement near Salacoe Town, Cherokee Co., Petition 
of white settlers to Gov. Wilson Lumpkin disclosed the murders of the bowman 
family by Indians. On Dec. 15, 1832, James L. Bowman, his wife Bersheba Bowman, 
their infant daughter Martha Jane Bowman, and Bersheba's mother Elizabeth 
Halcomb were butchered and their home burned after it was plundered. Bowman was 
about 21 years of age and his wife about 18: and her mother was "a vary old 
lady and totally blind." The white settlers requested that a troop of 100 men 
be sent immediately to "awe the the Indians of the Salacoe Settlement into 
submission."  Petition was signed by:
JACOB R. BROOKS        SHERRED BOWMAN          
NATHAN RICE            JOSEPH HAMBLETON
BENJAMIN BOWMAN        JOHN BOWMAN
JOHN HAMBLETON         WILLIAM HAMBLETON
J.H. STOKES            NATH'N WOFFORD
WM. GRANT              HIRAM BRIGHT

A  postscript added that "two years since these same Indians rob'd murdered and 
burnt a travellor near the same place." The whites asked for help from either 
General John Coffee or Col. William W. Williamson.
SOURSE: Cherokee letters, page 385, Georgia Archives.

December 20, 1832, Camp Lumpkin, Etowah (Town) Col. William W. Williamson 
reported to Gov. Lumpkin of the Bowman murders and pillage of the home. He 
added "there must have been some difficulty between this unfortunate family and 
the Indians. The whole neighborhood were in the same situation insuspecting and 
unprotected. Your Excellency may rest perfectly satisfyed that all that can be 
done with the limited means I have, shall be done."
SOURSE: Telamon Cuyler Collection, Gov. Wilson Lumpkin papers, Box 49, 
University of Georgia Library. 

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