Benjamin Lee Bowman
6th Missouri Infantry, CSA

b. 31 Jan 1837, Franklin Co., VA
d. 3 Mar 1920, Sikeston, Scott Co., MO

Bowman's Missouri Light Artillery, Capt. Benjamin L. Bowman (Merged into 6th Missouri Infantry Regiment)
6th Missouri Infantry CSA
Company I:
Bowman Benjamin Lee - MO - 6th Inf. - Co. I - Capt.
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The Rev. Benjamin Lee Bowman was the sixth child of Benjamin and Sophia Ferguson. He was born January 31, 1837, in Franklin County, Virginia, where he grew to youth. He tried various occupations, such as blacksmith and machinist, but did not like any of them, so he decided to run away and become a sailor. But after reaching a port and enlisting, he became sick and did not go to sea.

He returned home after visiting some relatives in eastern Virginia and then slipped off again and came to Missouri by following some neighbors who came west. Here he met Miss Eliza Ford, and they were married on October 6, 1856, and settled down. The next year he induced the family to follow him to Missouri.

He possessed the faculty of being able to do almost anything he set out to do. He was a good entertainer and was an expert banjo player.

When the Civil War came on, he organized a Company and went to the Confederate service. Captain Bowman was very popular and was given Command of a Battery of Light Artillery and saw some exciting service. Captain Bowman was very popular with his men because of his social qualities and had circumstances permitted, he would have risen to more honorable positions.

But his health could not stand the strenuous service, so he resigned his Commission and came home. He soon found that he could not stay unmolested and was finally induced to take clerical service in the Quarter Master's department of the Federal Army.

After the war, he turned shoemaker, at which he was a success. Then later on, he took up carpentry and contracting. Then he turned his attention to architecture, in each of which he excelled. One of his best works and accomplishments was the building of the high school and grammar school buildings at Dexter, Missouri, back in the early 1900s.

When he was about thirty years of age, he was converted and was baptized by the Elder Reed and soon went to preaching, to the great delight of all the family. In 1877, he moved to Marble Hill, Missouri, and preached for churches and did District and State Mission work for the Baptist denomination. He was induced to serve as Justice of the Peace, which he did successfully for years, until he became too feeble to work. For years he suffered from palsy, which necessitated his early retirement from all public life.

His last years were spent in Sikeston, Missouri, where he and his wife Eliza Jane had every convenience and comfort, furnished largely by his oldest son William Chesley who was known around Sikeston as Judge Bowman.

He was for many years an active Mason and, until feebleness prevented, attended the meetings of the Grand Lodge each year.

To him and Eliza Jane were born thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy.

Information by Rev. Thomas A. Bowman and Carol J. Bowman