From Proud Heritage, Volume II by DCPA. This hardcover book is available online.
Ahab was born in Grainger County, Tennessee on 16 October 1807, the son of John Bowen and grandson of Moses Bowen, who married Rebecca Rees and came from Wales to Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1698. John Bowen married Sarah Bean, and died when Ahab was a small boy. Sarah and Ahab moved to Bolivar, Missouri, where Ahab grew up. He married Mary Lyon Easley (daughter of Warham Easley, Sr.) there in 1835. They had ten children: Sarah Catherine, John Warham, William Woodson, Caroline Elizabeth, Henry Booker, Mary Jane, Rachel Adeline, Martha Lavina, Frances Virginia, and Arabella Ambrose Bowen.
Ahab’s sons, John Warham, William Woodson, and Henry Booker Bowen, enlisted in the Confederate army. While they were away Ahab and his family were forced to flee from troubled Missouri. They went by covered wagon to Arkansas, accompanied by the oldest daughter, Sarah, and her husband, W. C. C. Akard, a prosperous merchant. Yankee raiders took their most treasured possessions, so the family moved from Arkansas into Indian Territory, then to Dallas County, Texas. In 1863, they stopped at a place called Jay Bird, between Plano and Richardson. Here they lived in a house and planted a garden. After the Emancipation Proclamation the slaves wanted to return to Missouri, so Ahab Bowen gave them wagons, teams, and provisions for the journey.
In 1865, John, Billy, and “Book” arrived home from the war. They did not recognize their father nor did he recognize them. Soon the family moved into Dallas, where Ahab ran a grocery store on the court house square. Later, he purchased 16 acres and built a home on McKinney Road (2700 McKinney Avenue). Bowen Street was named for Ahab Bowen. Sarah and W. C. C. Akard lived at the Young and Akard corner, where the Federal Reserve Bank later stood (Akard Street was named for this William C. C. Akard.) Ahab died at age 93, and both he and his wife are buried at Greenwood Cemetery.
Ahab’s son, William “Billy” Bowen, was born in 1840 at Bolivar, Missouri, and served during the Civil War with his two brothers. He married Mary Goss in Dallas. They had seven children: Walter (Laredo, Texas), Sterling Price (Dallas), Ida Austin (Dallas), Mrs. R. E. Adams (Dallas), Mrs. E. T. Overand (Arlington), W. B. Bowen (Wildorado, Texas), and M. E. Bowen (Los Angeles, California). After Mary died, William married Mrs. Jennie Wilkins and had two more children: Rev. W. A. Bowen (Lubbock) and Rev. E. B. Bowen (Chillicothe, Texas). William was a farmer and later worked at the Dallas County courthouse. He died in 1925.
William’s son, Sterling Price Bowen, was born at Bolivar, Missouri, on Christmas Day 1861, and made the wartime trip with Ahab Bowen to Arkansas, Indian Territory and Dallas County. In 1894, he married Mary, daughter of Benjamin Long, mayor of Dallas. Their children were: Lucy May (1895-1972), Eugenia Sterling (1897-1918), Nora Lee (1900-1983), Price Hudson (1902-1984), Walter Charles (born 1904), and William Benjamin (born 1906).
Sterling bought three lots in 1894 and built a house there (2708 Routh Street) adjoining the other two lots now occupied by the “Baby Routh” Cafe. In1895, Sterling went to work for the U.S. Post Office at Dallas. He delivered mail on horseback, by cart and then wagon, on foot, and in an early Model T Ford. He retired in 1931 at age 69 with 46 years at the postal service, and died in 1946.
By Walter Charles Bowen, Sr., Dallas, TX
