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Post by Jim Boylston on Apr 12, 2011 12:38:14 GMT -5
This might be of interest. Published in the Times-Picayune, September 8, 1838, a letter from Rezin Bowie concerning the Bowie knife and his late brother, James. Jim Attachments:
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Post by TRK on Apr 12, 2011 13:10:07 GMT -5
That letter reads like it could have been written yesterday ;D
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Post by Allen Wiener on Apr 12, 2011 17:24:49 GMT -5
Very interesting letter. I'd seen something like this in one of the Bowie bios (possibly Hopewell?) and had the idea that Bowie did not necessarily even carry a knife, except on occasion when it was warranted. It is possible that Bowie's name and that of the knife became linked after his death. I think the knife Rezin Bowie is describing is the one known as the Searles knife, a rather simple knife that looks more like the large chopping knives found in your granny's kitchen than the later "Bowie" knives that date from the mid 19th century onward, including the even more familiar movie prop knives ("The Iron Mistress"). There is a Searles knife on display in the Alamo and I believe Rezin had several of these made to give away to friends as gifts.
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Post by Hiram on Apr 12, 2011 20:23:59 GMT -5
IIRC, this letter was also published in the Niles' Weekly Register, an early 19th century version of the news magazine. I firmly believe that the notoriety of the Bowie knife can be attributed more to the self-promotion of Rezin Bowie than the fact that his brother James used a large knife to permanently dispatch Norris Wright to the choir invisible.
Sidebar - Since the War Between the States seems to be in the minds of many Americans these days, it should be noted that publisher Hezekiah Niles attempted to use his influence as a publisher to end the sectionalism which eventually led to the great conflagration. June 2011 will mark the 200th anniversary of the Register. Niles' efforts were significant due in great part to the influence of his newspaper, and his geographic locale (residing in a Northern slave state.)
{I know this has nothing to do with the death of Bowie, hence the sidebar notation.}
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Post by Hiram on Apr 12, 2011 21:01:57 GMT -5
Allen,
As you correctly stated, the Searles' knife was one of the many knives given by R.P. Bowie to friends, this one in particular presented to Rezin's friend, Captain Henry Fowler, U.S. Army Dragoons, I believe in 1839.
As for the knife that Rezin describes in the article posted by Jim, I think it is closer in shape and size to the Bowie knife on display in the Long Barrack exhibit, a knife given by R.P. Bowie to family friend Caiaphas Kennard Ham. The knife is absent a cross-guard, minus a clip point, with no Spanish notch, but does have a simple wood handle or haft, and was carried in a crude leather sheath. In the layman's definition, it exhibits none of the "characteristics" of the Bowie knife, but most likely a knife similar to this one was carried by James until he traveled to Philadelphia in 1828 and apparently had a fancier version of the knife made by Henry Schively.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Apr 12, 2011 21:14:07 GMT -5
I firmly believe that the notoriety of the Bowie knife can be attributed more to the self-promotion of Rezin Bowie than the fact that his brother James used a large knife to permanently dispatch Norris Wright to the choir invisible. That's basically my opinion also from my previous post, but I expanded the promotion to actual blacksmiths and cutlers. JIm Bowie possibly used a rough cutacha-type weapon, but at that moment in time few people knew how to describe the blade and simply called Bowie's cutacha a big butcher or hunting knife. Rezin Bowie and early makers of the newly-named Bowie Knife certainly had vested interests in promoting their particular versions of the original Sand Bar Knife. I doubt Jim Bowie really cared who claimed credit for his namesake knife because the later Bowies diverged so greatly from his tough, guardless, utilitarian blade.
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Post by Hiram on Apr 12, 2011 21:27:13 GMT -5
Schively, Black, Searles, Rose, Chevalier, Sheffield, ad nauseum; I agree with your observation, RangerRod. Perhaps there is some irony that the individual least involved in the promotion and notoriety of the knife is the man who's name is permanently attached to it.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Apr 12, 2011 22:06:27 GMT -5
Or pirate Jean Lafitte's Spanish former blacksmith near Stephen Bowie's sugar cane plantation on the Lafourche/ Assumption Parish line.
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Post by Hiram on Apr 12, 2011 22:18:36 GMT -5
Which reminds me of the 10+ page letter we received at The Alamo from an individual who claimed to have in his possession a scrimshaw powder horn when decoded, revealed that Jean Lafitte died within the walls of the Alamo as a 60-year old defender.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Apr 12, 2011 23:25:50 GMT -5
I had never heard of that particular Lafitte tall tale before. The story of Lafitte's former blacksmith creating Jim Bowie's Spanish machete or cutacha comes from a supposed Sand Bar Fight participant, who was one of the Wells Brothers. He stated that the famed knife was made from a worn out file and had a whopping 17 1/2 inch blade and a elk horn handle. It was kept in a pinewood sheath wrapped in alligator skin and supposedly made its way to the Alamo. It's the most detailed description I've found of Jim Bowie's Sand Bar Kinife and it makes other period Bowies sound puny by comparison.
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simon
Full Member
Posts: 16
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Post by simon on Apr 13, 2011 10:29:27 GMT -5
Hi
Were large 'hunting' type knives so rare in 1830's America that you had to make or commission your own?
cheers
Simon
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Post by Jim Boylston on Apr 13, 2011 10:52:16 GMT -5
Thought members might like to read one of the first reports on the "Sand Bar Fight." this particular clipping is from the Rhode Island Republican, November 8, 1827. Interesting that Bowie brought a knife to what was, really, a gun fight. Jim Attachments:
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Post by Kevin Young on Apr 13, 2011 11:07:39 GMT -5
Well, since we are on Bowie Knives, here is the complete reference to that 1846 newspaper article:
From the Peoples Advocate (Montrose, PA) 30 June 1846. That paper credited Colonial Magazine.
The Bowie Knife and its Inventor
This instrument was devised by Col. James Bowie, an American, and a man of desperate valor. He considered and apparently with justice, too, that in close fighting, a much shorter weapon than the sword ordinarialy in use, but still heavy enought to co give it sufficient force, and, at the same time, contrived to cut and thrust, would be far preferable, and more advantageous to the wearer. He accordingly invented the short sword, or knife, which has since gone under his name. It is made of various sizes; but the best, I may say, is about the length of a carving knife,-enst perfectly sraight [sic] in the first instance, but greatly rounded at the end on the edge side: the upper edge at the end for the length of aboout two inches, is grounded into the s,all segment of a circle, and rendered sharp; thus leaving an apparent cirve of the knife, although, in reality, the upturned point is not higher than the line of the back. The back itself gradually increases in weight of metal as it approaches the hit, on which a small guard is placed. The bowie knife, therefore, has a curve, keep point; is double edged for the space of about a couple of inches of its length; and, when in use, falls with the weight of a bill-hook. I have heard it stated, that a blow from one well wielded is sufficient to break a man's arm. Certain it is, that I have myself seen sculls[sic] of Mexicans brought from the battle-ground of San Jacinto, on which Texas gained her independence, that were cleft nearly through the thickest part of the bone behind, evidently at one blow, and with sufficent force to throw out extensive cracks, like those of a stareed flass. This is more to truce to fact than complimentary to Mexican valor. At the same time it proves the old adages may occasionally be mistaken. "He that rights and runs aways" does not always "live to fight another day." Bowie went to Texas during the trouble which prededed the independence of that country, and was lying sick in bed at the Fortress of the Alamo, when on the 6th of March, 1836, it was stormed by Santa Anna and taken. Bowie was murdered there upon his pillow. The hand that formed the dreadful knife could no longer wield it.
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Post by Jim Boylston on Apr 13, 2011 11:11:16 GMT -5
Here's another contemporary account of the Sand Bar fight. This includes a letter from Wells, one of the participants. From the Reservoir and Public Reflector (Maryland), November 13, 1827. Attachments:
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Post by Jim Boylston on Apr 13, 2011 11:17:26 GMT -5
Continuing story of the Sand Bar fight. This from the New Orleans Argus, January 19, 1828. Attachments:
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