White County INGenWeb

COUNTIES OF WHITE AND PULASKI, INDIANA, HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, Published by F.A. Battey & Co, Chicago, 1883, pg 215

GEORGE BOWMAN was born February 28, 1819, in Berkeley County, Va., and is one of two surviving children in a family of seven born to George and Elizabeth (Potts) Bowman, both natives of the Old Dominion, and of German and Irish descent respectively. When yet a mere ]ad, the subject of this sketch was left alone by the death of his parents, and his earlier years were passed on a farm and clerking in a store. Having relatives in Indiana, he came to this State in 1840 and located at Delphi, where for about eight years he was engaged in teaching and attending school at Asbury University and Wabash College, graduating from the classical course of the latter in 1853. He married Miss Ruth Angel in 1848, and the same year he removed to White County and engaged exclusively in teaching. In 1850, his wife died, succeeding which he returned to Delphi, where for the following eight years he was employed as Principal of the Delphi Schools; in 1858, he married Miss Mary D. Piper, and the fall of that year returned to White County and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits in southern Union Township. In 1861, he moved to Monticello, to take charge of the public schools, continuing as Principal until the summer of 1862, when he resigned in order to raise a company for the war. In August, the company was mustered in as Company D, Mr. Bowman being elected Captain, and assigned to the Twelfth Indiana Volunteers. At Richmond, Ky., Capt. Bowman, with the majority of his command, and many other Union troops, was captured, and, being. paroled, did not again see active service until in and around. Vicksburg, after which he participated in the capture of Jackson, at which place he was slightly wounded. On the evening of November 25, while leading his company on a charge up Missionary Ridge, Capt. Bowman was wounded severely in the left thigh, and was carried off the field as dead. After being, in the hospital at Nashville about two weeks, he was sufficiently recovered to come home on a furlough. On a surgical examination, he was pronounced unfit for further military d4ty, and accordingly was honorably discharged March 30, 1864. In 1865, he went to Delphi, where he remained until 1871, acting as Principal of the schools of that place, and farming. Since that time he has lived in White County, and is now farming and teaching. Mr. Bowman was formerly a Whig, is now a Republican, and from 1873 to 1881, served White County, as School Superintendent. He and wife are Presbyterians, and the parents of seven children-Phebe M. E., Anna, Rebecca L. (deceased), Georgia E., Caleb M., Margaret (deceased),. and Caroline (deceased). To Mr. Bowman's first marriage was born one daughter, Ruth A., now Mrs. E. Black.

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