Sacramento County
Biographies
JAMES S.
BOWLES
JAMES S. BOWLES, deceased, formerly a farmer of Brighton Township, was born March 20, 1822, in Hanover County, Virginia, and was reared to manhood in Richmond, that State. His parents were William S. and Mary Bowles. In 1849 he went to New York and thence sailed by way of Cape Horn to San Francisco, arriving in September. He spent the ensuing winter in the El Dorado County mines, and in the spring came down to Sacramento. On the last day of February he married Martha A. Winters, who was born June 14, 1825, a native of Perry County, and daughter of John and Elizabeth Winters, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Kentucky. When she was two years old her parents moved to the small town of Elizabeth, near Galena, in Jo Daviess County, Ilinois. In April, 1849, they came to California with horses and oxen across the plains, arriving at Lassen’s on the 13th or 14th of September, and the next month in Sacramento. For a while they resided six miles above Marysville, then worked at Cox’s Bar for a time, and then kept hotel at Forest City in Sierra County. Being a millwright by trade, Mr. Winters built a mill at Forest City and ran it three or four years. In the course of a number of years he became blind, and was taken by one of his sons to San Jose. After a time he went to Stockton, where he died January 15, 1870. His widow afterward died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Bowles, March 14, 1875. In their family were five children, all of whom are living, namely: Theodore, now residing at Washoe, Nevada; John D., in Carson City, Nevada; Joseph, at Los Angeles; Mrs. Harriet Reede, Washoe, Nevada, and Mrs. Bowles. After his marriage Mr. James S. Bowles settled on 160 acres of fine productive land in Brighton Township, where he made his home until he died, January 16, 1865. He had seven children, as follows: Emma, born January 14, 1851; William E., September 30, 1852; Sarah E., September 21, 1854; Arthur W., June 20, 1856, and died July 21, 1878; Hattie E., born December 10, 1860, and died November 10, 1880; and Theodore S., February 8, 1863, and died February 5, 1881. Emma married George Baker, and resides in Brighton Township; William E., lives on the home place, and Sarah E., married T. C. Dolan, and resides in San Francisco. William E., was married May 6, 1880, to Katie McDonald, daughter of Joseph and Mary McDonald, born in New Haven, Connecticut, and they have one son, William E., Jr., who was born January 24, 1881.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Pages 713-714. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.