Notes for: Bowling Bodine, Jr.
From Ronny Bodine:
There is no direct evidence to establish the parentage of Bowling Bodine other than his bearing the same unusual name as an earlier Bowling Bodine. Since there is no record of his marriage to Elizabeth Jones, daughter of William and Lydia (Moon) Jones, among the surviving statewide marriage records, it appears likely that this marriage may also be numbered among the lost records of Sevier County.
On 6 Nov 1850, the family is found living in Murray County, Georgia, adjacent to the Tennessee state line and bordering on Bradley and Polk Counties of that state. Several days later, on 18 Nov 1850, the family was apparently visited again and the details of their farming endeavors were recorded in the agricultural portion of the census. This inventory gives an insight into the size of the family farm:
25 acres of improved acres of land valued at $150.00
farming implements and machinery valued at $12.00
1 horse
1 milk cow
2 other cattle
livestock valued at $100.00
5 swine
20 bushels of what
Homemade manufactured goods valued at $10.00
300 bushels of Indian corn
Slaughtered animals valued at $40.00
30 bushels of oats
There is no subsequent record of the family in Georgia. It is known from family sources that a daughter, Mary, was born to the couple in 1850 and later censuses note Georgia as her birthplace. Around this time Bowling Bodine seems to have died. Elizabeth Bodine returned to Roane County, Tennessee and was there married on 14 Feb 1856 to Jasper Clowers. Her two children were placed in the care of her family and Elizabeth went on to bear her second husband another seven children. Jasper Clowers died 17 March 1881 and Elizabeth lived on until 6 April 1922, four months short of her 95th birthday. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Mount Zion Cemetery, in Meigs County, Tennessee.
The births of her two Bodine children and her death and that of her husband, Jasper Clowers, were recorded in the Clowers family Bible.