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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lee County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Francis M. Bowdon is a native of Tennessee, and a son of Thomas and Parmelia (Jenkins) Bowdon, natives of South Carolina. The father was engaged in farming in Western Tennessee for a number of years, and moved from there to Lauderdale County, Ala., when our subject was a small boy, there acting as deputy sheriff. In 1841 he went to De Soto County, Miss., and remained eight years, then coming to Arkansas and locating in Lee County, where he bought timbered land and cleared up a good farm. He was a prominent politician of his community, holding the office of justice of the peace in Mississippi and also in this county. He died in Evanston, Ind., while on a trip to Lexington, Ky. He and wife were members of the Baptist Church, and were the parents of eleven children, three of whom are still living: Benjamin F. (a farmer of Randolph County, Ark.), Columbia (wife of John J. Felton, a farmer of this county) and Francis M. The latter, the principal of this sketch, and the eldest of those now living, was born in Bedford County, Tenn., on May 23, 1827. He was married in 1855 to Miss Caroline Elders, a native of Mississippi, who died in 1862, leaving four children, one son, H. J., being the only one living, and who now has charge of his father’s farm. Mariah Gilbert became his next wife, but died three years after without issue. Mr. Bowdon was married again to Miss Mollie Arnold, in 1867, who was the mother of three children: Ethel B., Francis M. and James L. He married Melvina Bertran, a native of this county, in 1869. Mr. Bowdon owns 580 acres in the county, 300 acres in the farm on which he lives, 150 acres in a good state of cultivation and well improved. All this he has made himself, by hard work and close economy.

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This family biography is one of 104 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lee County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Lee County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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