The First Ohio Bowsers and a Few of Their Friends
by Arthur H. Laube
In the last decades
of the 18th Century, the Indian tribes were forced further west and the land north and
west of the Ohio River was organized into the Northwest Territory. The land was divided in
neat checker-board squares by surveying teams and sold by the Congress of the United
States at public auction and through territorial land offices.
Barbara Bowser Bowman was the first Bowser to
arrive in the Ohio country. She and her husband David were married in 1795, in Huntington
County, Pennsylvania. David was offered a job as a miller in the wilderness of the Scioto
River Valley, in the Territory of Ohio. Since he was expected and had friends in the
wilderness, he felt secure enough to bring his wife to this wild country. Later David was
an Elder of the Brethren church. He was no doubt the leader of the group of Brethren who
went up the Big (Great) Miami River Valley.
Barely mentioned is another party of Brethren
who were led by the minister, Elijah Schofield, from Allegheny County, Maryland. Elijah's
group either traveled with David Bowman or followed close behind. It was far too dangerous
to travel alone, and we suggest that these two parties of Brethren became one; sent by
their churches to take the Word to the frontier - the Territory of Ohio. Individual family
groups assembled in western Pennsylvania, on the Yohogania River, at the crossing of the
Nemacolin Indian trail (near Fort Redstone). They traveled by raft, floating down the
Yohogania River to the Monongahela River and on to Fort Pitt. They took their last look at
the comforts of Pennsylvania civilization as they embarked upon the Ohio River. Their
rafts and huge canoes were tied together; three wide, in four rows. Women and children in
the center and armed men facing the shoreline and guarding against any approach from
upstream or downstream. They had many Indian friends in Pennsylvania and Maryland and they
expected to establish friendly relationships with any Indian neighbors they might have,
but there were many reports of Indian trouble along the banks of the Ohio River They
arrived at Marietta without incident.
Here, Elijah Schofield and a few other Brethren
left the group. David Bowman led his group on to the mouth of the Big Miami River. As they
were poled up the river,