2. Philip Bowman, son of Isaac and Elizabeth "Betsy" Gatewood Bowman was Born 1786, in Shenandoah Co, VA. Philip was their first child to survive infancy and was named for his Philip Gatewood grandfather. This was the first of the third generation Bowmans to grow up on the Fort Bowman plantation of pioneer George Bowman.
{His father Isaac had returned from being of service to George Rogers Clark forces in the Northwest conflict with the British. He is enumerated living by himself on the Fort Bowman Plantation with eight blacks in the 1783 Shenandoah County census. Isaac married Betsy Gatewood in April 1785 but she died in 1790. Subsequently Isaac married Marry Jane Chinn in 1792 who as step-mother raised Philip from the age of seven.}

Philip married Isabella Calmes Richardson "Isa Ann”, the daughter of William C. Richardson and Rebecca Pugh in January 1810, Shenandoah Co, VA. She was Born September 1790, in the same County and carried the illustrious name of her grandmother and the bloodlines of two famous families, the Calmes and the Richardsons. By the 1810 census of Shenandoah County Philip with his new wife were residing in quarters next door to his fathers Stone home, with ten slaves. Next door to Philip were eight of his siblings at his father’s Fort Bowman plantation home with 40 slaves in service.

In June 1815 Isaac and Mary Bowman deeded to their son Philip a tract of land containing 175 acres. Isaac had acquired this in 1800 as a place called "ore bank tract". The tract included buildings, improvements & water rights. Philip & Isabella sold 32 acres of this tract in Dec 1815 and then sold the balance of this tract in 1818 along with another 95 acres. County records note Philip sold eight Negroes to McCord & Hupp in May 1819. Obviously Philip was liquidating his holdings.

In the 1820 census of Strasburg VA Philip and Isabella along with three boys and four girls are living in that town with an elderly lady in the home. Perhaps this was her mother, Rebecca Richardson as her Father William Richardson was noted deceased by 1820 in civil land records. The same census registers Philip with eight slaves. Various Frederick County civil records between 1820 and 1823 indicate William Richardson’s farm land’s were encumbered with certain debts at his death and Phillip provided funds clearing the obligations to the burdened property, as well as he purchase the land Isabella inherited from her father. Phillip and Isabella then made this their new residence.

Philip being the eldest son of Isaac Bowman with his first wife, is cited in his fathers 1824 will as having received a valuable tract of land conveyed to him (before the date of the will) as his full portion of his father’s real estate. For some unknown reason, in another paragraph of Isaac will he leaves what would be Philip's legacy entitlement of slaves and personal estate to Philip’s several children and those yet unborn as they reach majority.

Around 1825 Philip Bowman moved to Switzerland County Indiana with his family and Children. Living conditions in that County in the 1820’s was rather primitive with few roads.


Isabella died in April 1828 having lived in Indiana only a
short time. Isabella is buried in a cemetery carrying the name "Bowman Cemetery" on the gate. It is located on Hwy 56, between Rising Sun and Aberdeen, South-central Ohio County, IN. The inscription on her tombstone reads: In memory of Isabella Bowman - Consort of Philip Bowman who departed this life April 1, 1828 - In the 39th year of her age. There are two other Bowman graves in this cemetery but the stones are illegible. Tradition indicates this Bowman family accumulated numerous friends in the community who helped Philip in raising his family following Isabella’s death. Eventually marriages took place between his children and various children of these friends.

The 1830 census of Dearborn County Indiana enumerates Phillip with four boys and four girls remaining in the home with no adult female. All his children seem to have been married in Switzerland County. There were other non-recognized Bowman persons in the same county with marriages 1820’s/30’s. Philip married again in March 1842 to Dorothy Bowe in Reising Sun, Switzerland Co, IN. She was born circa 1798 in Kentucky.

Philip Bowman is noted as a miller in the 1850 census of York, Switzerland County, Indiana, along with his wife Dorothy in the home and no children. The Indiana Historical Society Archives contain certain correspondence dated 21 January 1852 from Philip Bowman to Isaac {S.} and George {W. S.} Bowman of Strasburg Virginia {his half brothers} - here in Philip indicates that he and his brother Joseph {of Lexington} have purchased a piece of land with a mill on it and they are planning to build a sawmill.

Philip was still in the milling business in the 1860 census of Switzerland County with his wife living in Pleasant township- Bennington post office. At the age of seventy-five Philip Bowman died January 1861, in Switzerland County, IN.

All of Philip and Isabella’s nine children were born in Virginia and lived most of their lives near southeast Indiana, leaving numerous descendants:

1. Rebecca R. Bowman (1812-1882) m. William Dorrel
2. Mary Bowman "Polly" (1813-1832) m. Cyrus Harwood
3. Isaac Bowman (1814-1837) m. Marguerite Murray,
4. Susanna Bowman (c1816-??) Shenandoah Co, VA.
5. William Richardson Bowman (1817-1901) m. Elinor Jane Gillis
6. Eliza Catherine Bowman (1819-1888) m. Alexander Allen
7. Isabella E. Bowman (1821-1897) m. John Sedam,
8. Samuel R. Bowman (1823-??) m. Martha Ann Stewart
9. Joseph Bowman. Born, (1825-1885)