The age-herald., 1899-06-07
HERO OF A FAMOUS
 SOUTHERN DUEL
Special Correspondence St. Louis Post


 ago at his ancestral home on Jessamine Creek, twenty-one miles from this city, was the hero of the most remarkable duel ever fought in the south.
 Bowman's father, Joseph Bowman, Sr., came to Kentucky, more than one hundred years ago from Maryland and settled on Jessamine Creek. He found there little colony of Germans. and married the daugh- ter of one of them. Miss Elizabeth Earth inghouse. a girl of r. They were very poor. Their oldest son. Joseph, had to work the farm in summer and go to school for few months each winter.
 By hard work he educated himself suf- fciently to teach country schools; many citizens of tho Jessamine Creek neighbor- hood now old men. went to school to him. He tired of the prosaic life of Jessamine Creek, but he continued to remain and teach school in the winter and help on the farm during the summer.
 He lost his father under peculiar circum- stances.
 The old man always went to the spring each morning for water for his wife. One morning he failed to return, and she sent Joseph to look for his father He found the bucket at the spring, but no trace of htiN AA+--2AiAo of the elder Joseph Bowman. He had dis appeared as if the earth had swallowed him up. His wife lived until a few years ago, when she died at the age of 10f-aI- ways expecting that My Joe" as she called her husband, would return.
 Finally young Joseph Bowman decided to go south about the year 1S45. He went to Mississippi and took position as over ,,ia
 he went to Louisiana and accepted a simi- lar position.
 He was six feet one inch high, rawboned and a perfect giant in strength. Having been used to steady manual labor from boyhood, his muscles were as hard as iron, and he inspired fear among the negroes oyer which he had been set. He had deep blue eyes set under a heavy brow, a large nose, heavy lower jaw, firm mouth, high cheek bones, large ears and remarkably long arms. To the latter possession his long life was due
 lie possessed a kindly nature; was hard to provoke to anger, but when once aroused he was fiend incarnate and mercy was for the time plotted from his mlnd The negroes of the Louisiana plantation soon spread the news that Mars Bowman" was the hardest man to beat in a personal dif- hculty in the parish.
 This news spread to other plantations but it did not come to the ears of Bowman for months. Then he learned of his repu- tation in an unusual way.
 lie was out on the plantation one day experimenting the building of some bridges across the drains. Several neighbors were present. A stranger rose up. He was fully Six feet high, had long black hair that fell to his shoulders and a piercing and cruel eye. Before dismounting he asked the crowd if they could tell him where he could find Joe Bowman.
 At the mention of his name, Bowman stepped forward and said: T am Bowman; l suppose you are looking for me- what can l do for you?"
 T understand you are the bully of this parish,' replied the stranger, and 1 have come to settle the matter My name is Ab- ner Smelling, and l have been considered for years the best man in the parish and you and me cannot both live here."
 Bowman thought the man was joking and replied: You have been misinformed MT. Smelling. l am not bully; but this is my home l am under contract here and l don't see how l can leave and do justice to my employer"
 Well, we can't both stay in the parish" said Smelling.
 How do you propose to settle it?" asked Bowman.
 
 in the sandy soil about ten feet in ameter, made mark in the middle and produced two large bowie knives. 'Take your choice, he said to Bowman.
 Each man then stepped into the ring, and Smelling toed the mark through the center Still Bowman supposed the man was mak- ing bluff. He struck at Bowman, when the latter raised his arm to ward off tho blow, when the knife cut deep gash in his forearm. Before he could recover from h's surprise Smelling had struck another blow with his knife, cutting through Bow mans breast bone and severing two ribs
 Then Bowman closed in Smelling be- fore he could strike again. and owing to his abnormally long arm he was able to reach around his opponents body. He brought the knife toward him, and almost cut Smelling in two The latter fell in A heap and Bowman, putting his foot on the prostrate mans head, made a slash at the neck, severing the head from the body. As the head rolled over in the sand, Bowman, weak from the shock and the loss of blood. collapsed and fell across the trunk of his assailant's body.
 He was taken to the home of his employ- CT, where he lay for nearly year before he was able to attend to business, and it was two years before he fully recovered from the awful wound Smelling inflicted.
 They buried Sheling's body in the plan- taton burying ground, and Bowman never heard anything regarding him.
 After remaining in Louisiana several years Bowman tired of plantation life and went to Arkansas where he engaged in the logging business on the Red river He was an expert with the aX, and owing to his great strength he could fell and prepare them for rafting more trees than any other the river. One day large muscular white man came to his camp, where he had been alone for several weeks, and asked to be hired to assist in getting out the timber. Bowman asked him if he could chop The stranger, who gave his name as Cyrianio Domingo, said he could. Bowman gave him the ax, and he began on 0 log.
 One rainy afternoon, while they ware :a the cabin they had falling out and en- gagged in a rough and tumble fight. Bow man could throw Domingo, but the latter was so powerful in his arms and chest that he could not hold him down.
 Finally Bowman got Domingo's thumb in bis month and began biting. Domingo