Notes for: Bowling Bodine, Sr.
I think most of the following two paragraphs is based on information from Ronny Bodine.
On Sept 12, 1835, Francis Bodine included his son Bowling in his will stating, "I give to my beloved son, Bowling Bodine two dollars." Because he was named does not mean his father knew his whereabouts. This two dollar bequest of his father in his will of 1835, when his other sons all received bequests of land, was certainly made not knowing of the whereabouts of his son, or was intended to preclude his contesting the will if he believed he had been inadvertantly omitted as a beneficiary.
The name Bowling itself, or possibly Bolling or Boling, is not a common first name and appears nowhere else in the family. It would not be improbable to believe that Francis named his son after his wife's family name, Bolling, a very prominent Virginia family, descended from the Indian princess, Pocahontas.
From Ronny Bodine:
Bowling Bodine appeared before the county court of McMinn County, Tennessee on 9 March 1825 charged with an affray. He plead guilty and paid the ten dollar fine (McMinn Co. Court Minutes, 1824-1831, p. 64). There is no record of him thereafter and it appears likely he died before 1830, as he is not recorded in the census of that year. A $2.00 bequest of his father in his will of 1835 was certainly made not knowing of the whereabouts of his son. He was probably married in Sevier County, Tennessee about 1824/5. The record of his marriage and thus the name of his wife, and any other mention of him, was lost in the 1856 fire that destroyed the Sevier County courthouse. However, his wife was probably the Sarah Bodine, who, in conjunction with Nancy Longley, Bowling's sister, was received on 11 May 1827 by experience at the South Liberty Baptist Church in McMinn County.