the party began to disband, but David Bowman led
his family on to his destination near present day Dayton.(1) David Bowman's wife, Barbara,
was one of the six children of Daniel Bauser/Bowser and Anna Mary Wagoner. Daniel and Anna
Maria Bauser/Bowser lived in Frankstown Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. When
Daniel learned his son-in-law, David Bowman, was going west he decided to relocate his his
entire family, and he was one of the first to join David's group. Some of David's family
also joined the group; we will call it the Bowman/Bowser party.(2) Jacob Bowser, a cousin,
also came with the Bowman/Bowser party; he lived and died in nearby Turtle Creek Township,
Warren County.(3) The Kuhlman/Coleman family and the Prouds also lived in Warren County.
The Coleman tribe were plentiful in Pennsylvania and early Ohio and some of them may have
come with the Bowman/Bowser party. The Prouds arrived from New Jersey in 1805.(4) These
families were all Brethren and they intermarried - more on this later.
Another Jacob Bowser and his wife Mary and their
son John were also with this first contingent of Bowsers as they rafted down the Ohio
River in 1798. Jacob and Mary's origins are not clear. Mary may have been a Twigg; that
family lived near Flintstone, Allegheny County, Maryland. Jacob and Mary had one child, a
son, John. He was born in Pennsylvania about 1784. As will be told below, Jacob chose to
live with the Brethren of Jonathan Creek and without exception, his Brethren neighbors in
Hopewell Township seem to have come from the Cumberland Gap/Hagerstown, Maryland area.
Believing in the fundamental law, "Like Attracts Like," we imagine that Jacob
and perhaps Mary are also somehow connected to this area. We even go so far as to
speculate that Jacob was descended from a Henry Bowser, who lived in Salisbury Hundred,
Washington County, Maryland ( we identify this Henry Bowser, as he who died in 1806) or
else that John Bausser, who also lived in Salisbury Hundred, was his father.(5) Jacob
needed cash to buy land and the river port of Marietta offered several opportunities.
Attracted by the hustle and bustle of the first, permanent Ohio settlement, he left the
Bowman/Bowser party and joined those who were clear-cutting for 50 cents a day.
Jacob and his family lived and worked in
Salem/Union Township, Washington County, Ohio for more than fifteen years.. In about 1805,
John married Mary (Someone.) Mary (Someone) was born in Pennsylvania. Their first five
children were born in Salem Township. By 1814 John had accumulated enough cash to buy a
piece of Jonathan Creek property from George Nye. In 1817 Jacob purchased the balance of
George Nye's property along Jonathan Creek. The Jacob and John Bowser families joined the
other Brethren who had settled around George and Lewis Nye along Jonathan Creek.(6) Who
were George and Lewis Nye?
In his 1806 will, Henry Bowser of Salisbury
Hundred, Washington County, Maryland referred to George Nigh, as "...his most beloved
friend," and he named George