Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File R. 1,065, Joel Bowen, Ga.
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Service: GA
Bowen, Joel
Number: R. 1,065
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(Text crossed out): Acts of July 14, 1862, and March 3, 1873.

1065
'Rejected' vertical stamp

P.O. Joel Bowen
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38976
Joel Bowen, 
Scribbled-out text
Heorida

Let. John Chain May of illegible 

1065
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Joel Bowen

Private, Captain Alexander Aertery's company, Georgia militia Colonel Elijah Clark

Claim for a pension

War of Independence 

Presented by John Chain, of Miltton, Ha at request of unintelligible
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Service
GA. Bowen, Joel R. 1065
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I, Willis Jones, of Concord County, in the State of Alabama, upon my oath, declare that the foregoing declaration was given and acknowledge by Joel Bowen in my providence, and that I do believe, from the appearance and statements of the applicant, that he is identical person he represents himself to be; and I further declare upon my oath, that I have known the same Joel Bowen, personally for the last least thirty-five years, and that he has a claimed to have been a Revolutionary soldier, and when ever speaking of his services, always made the same statement, in substance of effect, that he has [illegible] in his foregoing declaration, adding thereto other circumstances which occurred, acted as the member [illegible] in Battles, also act as Surgeon [illegible] going into [illegible] and that he has ever been regarded and acknowledged, by all who have known him, since my acquaintance with him, as a Revolutionary soldier, and that I fully believe him to have been such.

Willis Jones

I, Erasmus S. Amos, resident of Santa Rosa County, in the State of Florida, upon my oath, declare that the foregoing declaration was given and acknowledged by Joel Bowman in my presence, and that I have known the applicant personally for at least about the last twenty years, and believe, from the appearance and statement of the said applicant, that he is the identical person he represents himself to be.

E. S. Amos
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The foregoing declaration and affidavits were sworn to and described before me on the day and year above written, and I certify that I know the affiant to be credible persons; that the claimant is the Joel Bowen he represents himself to be, and that I have the best reason to believe and do believe, that he was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and that he has the character of bravery been such generally ever by person who know him in [illegible] County, [illegible] and who now resides in this (Santa Rosa) County, and by others who have know him for 20 to 35 years last past. 

In testimony where of I have hereto [illegible] my hand and officed the Seal of the Judge of Probate for the County of [illegible] the day and year first above written,
John Chain
Judge of Probate
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Hon. L.P. Waldo
Commipeoner of Personal 
Department of the Internal
Washington City  D.C.
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Milton, Fla. 25th April 1855
Sir;
In presenting you the claim of Joel Bowen,
a Revolutionary Soldier, for a pension, I must
be permitted to remark, in view of the great strugle
in which the claimant was engaged, the trials and
hardships our revolutionary fathers had to undergo, the triumphant result, the important results
from their success, and happy consiquences resulting to us, their children and desendants, and the
probable happy effects upon and for mankind
in the future, and the few that still linger on
the shore of time, and rembering too, that my own
father served for five years, for the American cause
in that strugle which tried mens souls, I say, in
view of these things, I do feel the deepest soliciterde for the will for and happiness of the
survieng, and in meeting with one, I feel like he
is my father, and treating him as such, in deed
and in truth
This is a case of Claims with which I have
here before had any thing to do, therefore, I may
not have adopted a correct form, or presented the
necessary evidence, or in the right form. Father
Bowen says, that he has frequently conversed
with first one and their another, of the legal profession, on the subject of his right to a pension, since
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the right accrued to him by the Act or Acts of Congress but that he has been uniformly met with the answer that before he could get put on the pension Roll he would have to Prove the service. Now if this be true, it would amount to a denial of his right for perhaps, there is no one now living by whom he could prove it. I am just as well convinced in my own mind, as I ever was of any thing that I did know of my own Knowledge, that he served precisely as he has stated. His character his age and his uniform story, all proclaim it to be true.

The only way he can prove it is by his acknowledged character and age. There are several citizens of this county, of great respecitiblity [sic], who have known him for the last forty years, and who knew him in Walker County, Georgia, where he came from, and where they came from, before settling here, who will swear that he has always been acknowledged and passed as a revolutionary Soldier, and they have never heard it doubted - The old man, as I learn, has ever sustained a good character and does now, and although so very old, yet, it seems to me, his memory is as good, and seems to be more clear, than even some of the Soldiers who served in the Florida War. Elijah Clark, who he says was his Colonel, was the father of the Ex-Governer John Clark, of Georgia.

Should you require other proof in differant [sic] forms, you will let me know, and give directions
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how the matter will be required to be attended to, and I will do anything that is within my power to help this worthy old veteran get the gratitude offered by his and our happy and prosperous government, for his service of the strength for independence, so that the same many cheering to his heart, in his declining days excuse this ill unintelligible a letter, as it was ... unintelligible

Your off. servant
And fellow citizen
John C Cain