By: Laura Deyton
Jacob Bowman and Daniel Bowman arrived in Philadelphia from Rotterdam 2 Oct. 1727, on the English ship Adventurer, John Davies, Ship Master. The passenger list included 55 heads of families and about 140 souls.
The journey began in German Palatinate on the Rhine in 1719, when due to economic and political pressures, a large number of the German Baptist Brethren sect moved down the Rhine to Holland, where eventually they obtained passage to America in 1727 in the month of June.
The new immigrants settled in the Lancaster County area near the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line. Then some of them, including Jacob and Daniel Bowman, moved with their families across the line into the Monacacy River Valley of Northern Maryland, and later across the Potomac into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, settling in Franklin County. Thomas Bowman and his son Jacob (grandson of the German immigrant Jacob) moved with their families over the Unaka Range and settled in the mountain wilderness of Burke County, North Carolina.
According to the 1800 Burke County census, Jacob Bowman’s family consisted of himself, his wife and three children when they moved to Burke County, two of whom were Charles and Hannah. Another son, Joseph, was born in Burke County in 1804. There were probably other children.
Hannah married Henry Masters. Their daughter was Clarrisa Masters (27 Feb. 1827 – 1 Aug 1890) married H.P. “Posey” Griffith (2 May 1824 – 2 Aug. 1897). They are buried at Kelley-Walsh Cemetery, Washington County, TN.
Their children are: Harriett Rosanna, b. 1846, married Elhannan Peterson; Winchester, born 1848, died 1872; Nancy Ann, born 8 Dec. 1854, died 1884, married Sam Whitson; Susanna; Fine; Emma Adeline, born 1859, died 1938, never married and buried at Pleasant Valley, Washington Co., TN; Hannah Ridelia, born 1861; Martha Alzina, born 1862, died 1906, married William Fleming; Malinda, born 1865; Jane Amanda, born 1868, died 1940, married Charles Zebedee “Zeb” Deyton, both buried at Pleasant Valley; and Noah Waycaster, born 1870, died 1932, married Emma Carr.