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Description

Exceedingly rare signed document from Sherrif ( Major) Daniel Beasley of Jefferson County,Mississippi concerning a legal transaction involving John J..Bowie,Alexander  Calvit & Frances Colley dated September 17th 1810.  Sizable some of money is being tranfered from Bowie & Calvit to Beasley for $ 570.00 while Frances Colley reaches for a plea of dept in the amount of $285.00 dollars. Signatures of Bowie and Calvit are on the verso of this fascinating document.

8' x 8 1/2 inches





Daniel Beasley: Major Daniel Beasley who was a lawyer and sheriff of Jefferson County Mississippi in ca 1812 and was killed during the Indian massacre of Ft. Mims in Baldwin County Alabama on Aug. 30, 1813.

"The commandant at the fort, Major Daniel Beasley, formerly a lawyer and sheriff of Jefferson County, Mississippi, brave, though not vigilant as he should have been, had neglected early warnings. The result was the death about 350 of the inhabitants – men, women and children – volunteers and settlers – making this the biggest Indian massacre in the history of the United States."

Alexander Calvit (1784–1836) was an early settler in colonial Texas and a sugarplanter. His Evergreen Plantation lay where the town of Clute, Texas, was later built.

Early life

Calvit was born on June 17, 1784, in what is now Mississippi, which was then part of Spanish West Florida and in 1798 became the Mississippi Territory of the United States. He served as a First Lieutenant and aide-de-camp in the Creek War of 1813–1814.

Career

He was one of the earliest settlers in Mexican Texas, going on Stephen F. Austin's mission. As a member of the Old Three Hundred, in 1824 he received some land in what are now Brazoria and Waller Counties. This included what is now known as Clute, Texas.

He established the Evergreen Plantation, a sugar plantation in what later became known as Clute, Texas

John J. Bowie was the eldest son of Rezin and Elvira Jones Bowie and was born in Burke County, Georgia about 1787. The family moved to Tennessee where Rezin P. Bowie was born and then to Kentucky which was the birthplace of the famous Jim. There were ten children in all. In 1800 the elder Rezin Bowie moved the family to Missouri. They stayed there two years then moved again to Rapides Parish in Louisiana. John lived on a large piece of ground (640 acres +) in what was Pisgah, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.

John Jones Bowie was a land speculator, among other things, who left a plethora of legal documents in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. At the end of the Source section (below) are a number of conveyance records for John in Catahoula, Louisiana.

In 1819 John, Rezin and Jim Bowie, the three brothers, engaged in a slave smuggling business to Texas with Jean LaFitte. In De Bow's Review of the Southern and Western states. Vol 13, 1852-Jul-Dec. John explained it like this:

"First we purchased forty Negroes from LaFitte at the rate of one dollar per pound, or an average of $140 for each Negro; we then brought them into the limits of the United States, delivered them to the customs house officer, and ourselves became the informers. The law gave the informer half the value of the Negroes, which were put up and sold in the United States.
"We continued to follow this business until we had made $65,000, then we quit and soon spent all our earnings. James then went into land speculation and soon made $15,000. This business necessarily caused him to spend much of his time in the woods, where natural inclination gave the employment a peculiar charm to him."

In 1825 John J. Bowie of Catahoula Parish, State of Louisiana is selling to James Bowie of Rapides Parish in Louisiana, three Negro slaves, designated as to name, age and sex for a consideration of two thousand arpens of land. No description or location is given for this land except “to be conveyed to me this day.” This bill of sale was notarized in the Parish of Catahoula by Jos. J. Williams, not. pub. on Dec. 8th, 1825.

The 1830 census records list John J. Bowie as a resident of Chicot County Arkansas (across from Greenville Mississippi on the River).

A map of Helena drawn in 1836 shows the house of John J. Bowie to be situated at the foot of Phillips Street and at the river’s edge. 

In 1840, John J Bowie, is in St Francis Township, Phillips, Arkansas, United States; citing p. 88, and a couple doors down from a Reason Bowie and Moses Burnett 

Later John moved to Issaquena Co., Mississippi, across the Mississippi River from Carroll Parish Louisiana. They are shown on the 1850 Issaquena Co. Census. He was 63, America Bowie was 51.

Sometime in the later 1850's John Bowie moved back to Chicot County. On June 21st, 1857, John J. Bowie purchased from Ransom H. Byrne of the State of Mississippi (Holly Springs) a considerable amount of land which included the present site of the town of Halley and extending eastward across both Crooked Bayou and Bayou Mason, a distance of approximately two miles. 

He made a partial payment on this land and the bill of sale was first recorded in Phillips County by a Justice of the Peace. John J. Bowie died on June 22nd, 1859 and on July 7th, 1859 his widow, America A. Bowie, paid Ransom H. Byrne the remaining balance and received a deed as Executrix of the estate of John J. Bowie.

He is buried there.