Summers County, West Virginia -  Bowles Family History: Surnames: Bowles
Preston and Richmond
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The records for this work have been submitted by Carol Benjamin, 
E-mail address: <carol.benjamin@wdn.com>, March, 1999.
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History of Summers County, West Virginia
James H. Miller, published 1907
                      
BOWLES

Pages 571-572

There is living on the Hump Mountain, in Green Sulphur District, several
families by the name of Bowles, which is a familiar name to all of the
inhabitants of Summers County. The original settler, whose name was
William Allen Bowles, was an  Englishman who crossed the ocean shortly
after the Declaration of Independence by the thirteen American colonies.
His wife's name was Sarah Preston, and was Irish.  Both  he and his wife
crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the same ship before their marriage, and
were unable to pay their transportation.   Both were arrested and sold
for the amount of their ship fare across the sea to New York.
William A. Bowles was sold to a tanner, and Sarah Preston was sold to
a baker, each for a term of seven years.  After the expiration of this
long period they were married, and removed to Franklin County, Virginia.

David Bowles, the oldest son, was born in Franklin County,
Virginia, and was bound out at the age of ten years.  Before his
term of service expired he was removed to Raleigh, then Giles
County.  After his majority he married Ruth Richmond, a daughter
of William Richmond.

David Bowles was a great hunter in his day, the forests then
abounding in bear, deer, wild turkeys, panthers and wolves.   On one
occasion he killed a buck that weighed 150 pounds, which he carried
to Blue Sulphur Springs, a distance of twenty miles, and sold
it for $8.00.  He used to relate to his children that he had seen
thirty-one deer in one herd.  He killed on Lick Creek a panther
measuring eleven feet from the end of tail to the end of its nose.
He was attacked by this vicious animal, having no weapons with which
to defend himself except a dirk knife, one dog and two pups.  He
stabbed the panther nine times, eight times through the heart.
He built the first schoolhouse in all that region at his own expense,
and employed the teacher at like expense.  The house was made, as
was universal in those days, with a dirt floor and clapboard roof.