If you have ever watched the movie Roots, read Alex Haley’s
book, or read about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, you will know
about runaway slaves. However, when you
read and find out about people who are in your own family tree, it takes on a
whole other meaning. When you do find
this out and you have thought for over 75 years you were all white, never a
hint of African blood flowing through your veins, what kind of thoughts might be
running through your mind?
Darlene started out as a client from the company I work for
called Ancestor Seekers. We soon became
friends and then I believe it was on her second trip to one of our research
weeks, that we found out we are also related, sixth cousins one generation
removed from our common ancestors. This
line is from my Dad’s side through his mother’s people and for Darlene it was
also from her Dad’s side but through her father’s, father. The line I will be telling you about is from
her fathers, mother’s side of the family.
Family information had always said that Darlene’s
great-grandfather, Joseph Henry Bowman was born in Boston, Massachusetts on
March 22, 1828 and that he was the son of William Samuel Bowman and Catherine
Minifee. The stories also said William
and Catherine were from Washington DC which for the reader’s information use to
be known as Washington City during the time this family lived there. She also knew that Joseph had at least five
brothers, one older and four younger then himself. Darlene had found a number of records in
Massachusetts for the family there, but everyone was always listed as white, so
she had never even entertained the thought of looking for African American
records. That was to change quickly
after she found the following marriage record.
On one of our research weeks that Darlene
attended she was able to find the marriage of William Bowman and Catherine
Minifee who were married December 27, 1824 in the District of Columbia. This is when we
first realized that there was going to be a lot more to the story than what
Darlene or any of us who were helping her, could even begin to imagine.
When Darlene found this marriage record she came to my
co-workers and me and asked what the ‘blk’ stood for after Catherine’s
name. The first thought for all of us was
black, but then this is 1824 and typically, black marriages weren’t registered,
so it must mean something else. However,
after a little more research we came to realize that in the District of
Columbia and a handful of other places throughout the country, mainly in the
north, blacks could be legally married just like anyone else at that time, even
if they were slaves. We never even thought
we would find anything past this marriage for William and Catherine since they
were black, but again we were in for a big surprise.
We knew William and Catherine had a son named Edward R.
Bowman who was born about September of 1825 in Washington City or possibly
Georgetown, before they moved to Massachusetts where the rest of their children
were born. It wasn’t until we found the
next record in an old newspaper that we really got hot on the trail.
From the Daily National Intelligencer in Washington City
issue dated Wednesday, March 29, 1826 we found the runaway notice for William
and Catherine when they disappeared from Washington City. We found the newspaper at
www.genealogybank.com. The paper says they ran away about the 6th of
March. The paper also says their names
are Bill and Kitty, but they call themselves William Southerland Bowman and
Catherine and that they have a little child aged about six months that they
took as well. There was also a white
indentured boy named Philip Ferner/Fenner, nicknamed Rat, that they think may
have run off with them as well. There
was a reward of $100 for Bill and $50 for Kitty.
The article goes on to say that Bill and Kitty
are, “so near white that they may pass as such unless detected by close
examination”. The article also says that
they are, “artful, deceitful and ungrateful”, apparently because they will try
and pass themselves off as white. Something
else this article tell us which is really cool is a complete description of
Bill and Kitty. The notice asks for it
to be posted in five other papers, but so far we have only found just this one
notice. The Boston Courier is one of the
papers the notice is to be posted, but since they ended up in the Boston area,
it makes me wonder if the notice was ever posted there, especially since they
used the same names they had been known by in Washington City.
Can you even imagine, taking off with a six month old child,
running for your life, knowing what would happen if you got caught!!! William was pretty valuable it sounds like
from the above ad, so they aren’t going to shoot him if at all possible, but
they probably feared they would be separated if caught and the baby taken from
them. If the indentured boy really left
with them, did he stay with them for any length of time or did he head in a
different direction after getting away from DC? From the way the ad is written we are
assuming that William and Catherine were being leased and not owned by Edgar
Patterson, 1773-1835, the man who placed the ad. But who exactly owned them and how long had
Edgar Patterson leased them is unknown.
We have found that Edgar Patterson, who posted the runaway notice was a
fairly prominent man in the Georgetown area in the District of Columbia.
One of Darlene’s cousin found the following portrait and
brief bio about Edgar Patterson at:
http://www.schwarzgallery.com/catalog.php?id=84&plate=5&menu=1. This portrait of Edgar Patterson, was painted
by Charles Peale Polk, 1767-1822. This
portrait depicts Mr. Edgar Moses Patterson, a prominent businessman and
merchant, as well as an officer, from Georgetown, in the District of Columbia
and has descended through the Patterson family until its most recent ownership.
Patterson built a series of mills along the Potomac River,
at Little Falls Bridge, just three miles from Washington. During the
Revolutionary War (This should be the War of 1812, since Patterson would have
been just about 10 years old at the end of the Revolutionary War. Plus I found a book called “A Travel Guide to
the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake: Eighteen Tours in Maryland, Virginia &
the District of Columbia, By Ralph E. Eshelman, which mentions Edgar Patterson
and his gristmill.). Patterson's
gristmill was used in the heroic effort to save the Declaration of Independence
and other prominent government documents.”
You can read more about Edgar Patterson and his mills in the
following book, “American Paper Mills, 1690-1832: A Directory of the Paper
Trade, with Notes ... By John Bidwell”.
According to the runaway notice Bill, William Southerland Bowman, was
quite familiar with the paper mill and woolen industries and the book I just
mentioned states that Edgar Patterson owned paper mills and woolen mills. In another book called, “Grist Mills of
Fairfax County and Washington, DC” we read: “It was Edgar Patterson who
realized the full potential of Pimmit Run.
In 1815 Patterson obtained the property from Joseph Deane. Between 1816 and 1821 this was the busiest
two hundred feet of shoreline on the Potomac River.
In an 1821 newspaper this ad appeared: “To manufactures,
paper mill, flour mill, wool factory, stone quarries, and land for sale.” The flour mill was described as a large three
story stone building with three runs of buhrstones and all necessary machinery
to manufacture flour. The mill is located
at Little Falls Bridge, three miles from Washington and Georgetown. At this point, the river was forty to sixty
feet deep. This was considered to be the
most profitable milling establishment in this part of the county. The lower story of the mill was built on a
rock base that also served as a landing for the boats. These men could load a
barge with three hundred barrels of flour in one to two hours.
There was a two story stone wool factory that adjoined the
mill. The building was one hundred ten
feet long. Inside were carding machines,
billes and jennies, twelve broad and a number of narrow looms and all necessary
machinery for the manufacture of blankets and cloth. There was a stone fulling mill, a stone dye
house, and a stone bleach house. There
was a paper mill at this site and was probably built west of the gristmill. The Patterson Mills were located where Pimmit
Run enters the Potomac River. This was a
favorable location for mills because there was a 27 foot drop from Pimmit Run
to the river.
Patterson had a wool factory, a flour mill and a paper
mill. If one starts at the Kennedy
center and begins to hike the Rock Creek trails the first mill site will be the
Patterson’s Paper Mill that was on the east bank of Rock Creek, at P Street and
Florida Avenue. This mill was a water
powered mill that was also known as the Columbia Paper Mill. This mill was built by Gustavus Scott and
Nicholas Lingan in 1800. In 1805 Edgar
Patterson was the owner. In 1821, Edgar
put his mill up for sale. The mill was
described as a three storied structure, one hundred twenty feet long. The first story of the mill was constructed
using stones and the other two stories were made of wood. In 1829, Andrew Way leased the paper mill. In 1820 the mill had two vats and two engines
in operation. Patterson employed six
men, twelve women and two boys. Each
received around three dollars a week for their hard labor. A wooden covered bridge was constructed near
the water with a steep and precipitous roadway leading down to the stream. The bridge was near the present “P” Street
Bridge and was called the Paper Mill Bridge.”
After reading the above we now know a little bit more about
where William Southerland Bowman worked before running away from Washington
City. It also makes me wonder if
Catherine could have been one of the women working at the mill too, since she
and William were married.
I don’t believe that William and Catherine ever
told their children that they were mulattos or that they were runaway
slaves. I think they probably did this
so that they did not have to worry about something slipping out, it would have
been too dangerous for all of them.
William and Catherine didn’t change their names either which seems rather
strange, but we don’t find them again until the 1840 census when Catherine is
listed as the head of the house. She apparently
ran a boarding house from at least 1840 to 1870, first in Boston and then in
Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts and then back in Boston. We have yet to find her on the 1850 or 1880
census, so we are not sure where she was at or what she was doing during that
time.
The following map I found at this website: http://www.common-place-archives.org/vol-03/no-04/washington/
and says the following about it: H.C. Carey & I. Lea, "Geographical,
statistical, and historical map of the District of Columbia," engraved by
Young & Delleker. (Philadelphia:
H.C. Carey & I. Lea, 1822). Library
of Congress. I have circled in red where
Georgetown and Rock Creek were located.
In February 1801 the Federal Territory was designated the
District of Columbia. The district grew
steadily, as follows:
Year Total Pop. Free Blacks Slaves
1800 14,093 783 3,244
1820 33,039 4,048 6,277
1860 75,000 11,000 3,000
We still haven’t found a death date for William Southerland
Bowman, but it must have been before 1840, since Catherine is listed as the
head of household on the 1840 census of Ward 3 in Boston, Suffolk County,
Massachusetts. Darlene was able to find
the record of Catherine’s death which occurred on June 17, 1883 on Deer Island
in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. This
record was found in the Massachusetts Town Records 1620 to 1988 located at
www.Ancestry.com and it said the following:
“Catharine Bowman, born in Washington DC, maiden name Minnavee, age 70, female,
widow of William, daughter of Charles Minnavee born in England and Catharine
born in Washington DC, cause of death was given as senile, gangrene and exhaustion
of 3 days duration”.
Since Catherine died on Deer Island she must
have been in the Almshouse there.
Wikipedia says the following about the Almshouse: "In 1850, an
almshouse was built to house paupers.
Opened in 1853, it was administered by the City of Boston”. The
following is from the 1883 death register for Catherine in Boston,
Massachusetts.
I believe she is the same Catherine Minifee who is buried at
Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts even though
www.findagrave.com has her listed as dying
in October of 1883 instead of June. The
age on findagrave and the age in the death records on Deer Island are the same,
aged 70 years. We also know that two of
her sons Edward R. Bowman and William W. Bowman are buried at Pine Grove Cemetery
as well.
The Bowman’s lived in Massachusetts for many, many years and
descendants still live there to this day.
All that is except for Joseph Henry Bowman, Darlene’s great-grandfather,
who left we believe sometime after 1846 and fought in the Mexican War and was
married in Nashville, Tennessee in 1851.
He stayed mainly in the south and his children never lived in
Massachusetts, though he did go back to Massachusetts at least a couple of
different times before his death and he did keep in contact with his brothers
there as well.
The other children of William and Catherine were the
following: Edward R. Bowman, ca. Sep 1825-June 30, 1893 who married Jane
Jackson and then Adeline C. Hall; Charles F. Bowman, Nov 1830-after 1910, who
married Hulda F. Sampson and Mary A. Drake and possible a third who is unknown
at this time; William W. Bowman, April 1832-December 12, 1907 who married Sarah
A. Reed and then Emma (maiden name unknown at this time); Joshua Grafton
Bowman, ca. 1834-1925, who married Alice E. Weymouth; and Benjamin Franklin
Bowman, ca. 1836-November 27, 1919, who married Rosabella Fessenden Holbrook. As far as we know, Edward, Charles and Joshua
are the only ones besides Joseph who had any children and if the other two boys
had children, those children must have died as infants.
The following map of the state of Massachusetts
with its county boundaries shows the different counties that the Bowman’s lived
in at different times throughout the years.
Boston is already shown on this map and the little plus signs I added
show where the towns of Lynn, Cambridge, Fitchburg and Pembroke are
approximately located. These five towns
were where we found the Bowman’s the most frequently in the records we have
looked through.
What must it have been like, wondering every day if someone
might recognize you, or recognize your names from the old runaway notices? How could you ever let your guard down? For 37 years Catherine had to hide her true
identity and even after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation on January 1, 1863 you still weren’t really safe, even though the
proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the
rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free”. What a relief that must have been, but even
the proclamation didn’t stop some people from being cruel to the blacks, free
or otherwise. So for another 20 years
after the proclamation, Catherine Minifee Bowman, probably continued to be
afraid to totally let down her guard. It
wasn’t until she was lying dead and buried that she finally got the rest she so
richly deserved.
Unfortunately though, we know nothing else about
William Southerland Bowman and if it weren’t for the runaway notice, all we
would have ever known is his name. He
was born in approximately 1798, possibly in Baltimore, Maryland and he may have
been dead by 1840 or maybe been captured and sent back to Washington City. We just don’t know and we probably never
will know what happen to him. On some of
his children’s marriage records and some of their death records his name was
given as was Catherine’s, but nothing else. So did he go by William Samuel Bowman after
they ran away and that is why later family thought that was his name, instead
of William Southerland Bowman? Again we
will probably never know the answer to that question either.
Fortunately we know more about Catherine. Catherine Minifee Bowman’s death record gave
her parents’ names as Charles Minnavee born in England and Catherine Minnavee born
in Washington. We have not yet been able
to figure out who Catherine’s mother Catherine was, but we believe she might
have been a slave belonging to Charles Minifee and she may very well have been
a mulatto herself, since Catherine was so ‘bright’ as the runaway notice
stated. Thankfully there were only a
couple of Minifee’s in the DC area and one was Charles Minifee and since then Darlene
has found tons of information about Charles Minifee from his citizenship papers
in Philadelphia in 1798, to correspondence with Thomas Jefferson and others in
high offices in Washington, to filing for bankruptcy and property disputes with
the government. Charles is a story for
another day, but he led a very interesting life to say the least and was in one
business deal or another before and after he arrived in America from Devon,
England.
Just a little tidbit to make you want more of the story
about Charles Minifee. He had a bastard
child in England with a woman who possibly worked for his family. He then married a woman 15 years older than
himself who came from money. However,
her father wrote in his will that Charles was not to inherit or have control
over any of her money. He then left
England because he is running from debtors and that means he leaves his wife too. She stayed in England and died in 1814. He also leaves the daughter he had with the
house maid, who was still living in 1814.
After arriving in America around 1794 he marries again to a widow in
Philadelphia in 1800, but we don’t believe he ever divorced the woman in
England and by 1805 or so, he is pretty much living in Washington City and his
wife in Philadelphia, and she does not die until 1839.
Charles Minifee seems to always be running from
something and getting in over his head, but we believe he must have cared for
this daughter who was born a slave.
Otherwise I don’t believe Catherine would have known his name or where
he was from. This just popped into my
head one day not too long ago and I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before
now. Charles Minifee died September 5,
1825 in Washington City and William and Catherine ran away sometime between
March 6 and March 26, 1826 when the runaway notice was posted. That was within six months of Charles Minifee’s
death. I think they may have run away
because maybe after his death, Catherine could have been sold off for his
debts, if she was indeed his slave.
Maybe that was the reason they ran, but we will never know for certain
unless we run across some other records and knowing Darlene, I know she will
keep looking as long as she can.
Darlene does have a copy of an old letter written in 1908
from Charles F. Bowman to his niece Minnie, daughter of his brother, Joseph
Henry Bowman. In the letter Charles is
saying they are trying to see about getting some money from a Minifee estate in
England and he is telling his niece the following: “Now in relation to our
claim, this Lord Minifee had a son by the name of Charles Minifee Jr. who came
to this country in the year 1780 or there abouts and settled in Washington
bringing a large amount of money which he invested in land on the Eastern Banks
of the Potomac River, he also invested in the Chain Bridge between Georgetown
and Washington to the amount of ten thousand dollars ($10,000), he married a
woman by the name of Johnson, and had only one child, her name being Catherine
Minifee, who married at an early age a man by the name of William Samuel Bowman
in the year 1824. She had by him ten
children of whom there is but four living children, claiming to be the grandchildren
of Charles Minifee, Jr.”
There are just a couple of things off in this letter from
what we have been able to verify. We
know who Charles Minifee’s father was and that his name was William Minifee, so
we know Charles was not a junior, nor have we ever found him listed that way. We
also know that William Minifee was not a Lord, and we also know Charles Minifee
didn’t get to America until about 1794.
This letter also says that Catherine’s mother’s maiden name was Johnson,
but again we don’t have anything to verify that fact yet. If Catherine’s mother was a mulatto and a
slave like we are prone to believe, she may not have had a surname or it could
be the original name of her slave owner. The year 1824 for their marriage is the
correct year. There was indeed four
children still living in 1908, Charles F. Bowman who is writing the letter,
Joseph Henry Bowman, Joshua Grafton Bowman and Benjamin Franklin Bowman. We only know of six children and so if there
were really ten children, we still need to find the names of the other four.
Darlene, since finding all of this information, has done DNA
as has one of her brothers, her son and a cousin and they are all showing
African ancestry. Another cousin who
descends from Joshua Grafton Bowman is still waiting for DNA results to come
back. I feel sure that will show
approximately the same percentage of African genes as all the others. She still needs to find some descendants of Edward
and Charles Bowman and have their DNA checked to see what percentage they might
show as well.
DNA is a marvel to be sure and makes for some interesting
details in a family’s makeup and may change what you might have thought was
your family’s heritage to something completely different from the way you have
always believed.
William and Catherine’s son, Joseph Henry Bowman
moved in with Darlene’s grandparents sometime after 1910 but probably before
1913 and continued to live with them until he died on August 30, 1920. As far as Darlene knows, if he did indeed
know he had African blood, he never told anyone. Darlene sent me the following picture which was
taken around 1913 and includes Joseph with three of his daughters and one of
his granddaughters.
When one of Joshua Grafton Bowman’s descendants, found out
about the heretofore hidden part of their family, they said, “What you have uncovered is wonderful and our
family will be so enriched as we continue to discover the beautiful pattern
that has been woven by our ancestors.
The fantastic story of William and Catharine, filled with struggle,
courage and the desire to be free during one of the most chaotic periods of
American history, should be an inspiration to each of us. Possibly they hid their story for fear it
would bring harm to their descendants, but now it is time that it is told and
celebrated by us, their children's children who carry their brave blood in our
veins.”
Darlene gave me permission to write their story
and I will be forever grateful for this opportunity. She also proof read it for me and made
suggestions along the way. I am sure
there is more to this story than any of us will ever know or be able to
find. The story so far though is more
than enough intrigue and mystery that Darlene keeps looking and so do I. They
seem to call out to both of us to tell their tale and let their voices be
heard. I know that there are many, many
more stories such as these waiting to be found and the spirits of these brave
ancestors too, beg to be set free. May
we all look for the stories of our ancestors, black or white, slave or free and
tell their tales, never to be forgotten ever again.
