The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1929-07-26

purpose Of blazing trees and of hunt.
ing knife. The colonel carried this
weapon for five or six years, when the
dreadful conflict, yet fresh in the recol-
lections of many. took place in the
state of Mississippi. circumstance
reputation. All the steel in the country
was Immediately converted into bowie
knives.
Several years ago in centennial
Edition" of the Arkansas Gazette there
appeared an article called 1.-THE True
History of the Bowie Knife, with a
biographical sketch of its inventor,
James Black" written by Dan w
Jones, governor of Arkansas from 1897
to 1901, who knew Black intimately for
80 years. This, in brief. is his story:
Black was born in New Jersey in
1900, ran away from home at the age
of eight to Philadelphia where he was
apprenticed to a manufactures of sill
yer plate. After serving his appren-
ticeship and becoming expert at the
trade he emigrated to the West in 1918.
eventually coming to the town of Wash
ington, Ark. where he found employ.
ment with blacksmith. Washington
was a frontier town, where all men
went armed, the favorite weapon being
knife. Black began manufacturing
knives which soon became famous for
the temper Of their steel. He was &C
customed to make them to order from
a pattern of the exact size and shape
desired by the essste He Fiisast(aa-
them with gold or silver and his price
ranged from SIS to So, depending upon
/ how they were plated. But the quality
Of the tempered steel was always the
same, according to Jones. who con-
tinues:
About 1881 James Bowie came to
Washington, and gave Black an order
for a knife. furnishing a pattern, and
desiring it to be made within the fol-
lowing go or 80 days, when he would
call for 1t. Black made the knife ac-
cording to Bowie's pattern. He knew
Bowie we'll and had high estimation
of him as a man of good taste as well
as of unfiinching courage. He had
never made a knife which suited his
own taste in point of shape and con-
cluded this would be a good opportun-
ity to do so. rt
Consequently. after completing the
knife ordered by Bowie, he made an.
other, an1 when Bowie returned Black
showed both Of them to him and ex-
planned the difference, at the same time
giving him his choice at the same
price. Bowie promptly selected Blacks
pattern.
Shortly after this Bowie became in
volved in difficulty with three des-
peradoes who assaulted him with
knives. He killed them all with the
knife Black had made. After this,
when anyone ordered a knife from
Black, he would order it to be made
like Bowie's, which finally was Short
ened INTO make me a Bowie-knife."
Thus this famous weapon acquired it's
name. Bowie himself was not a me-
chanic of any kind He was killed in
the Alamo with Davy Crockett, and the
legend runs that his body was sur
rounded by dead Mexicans whom he
had killed with that same knife.
Other men made knives in those days
and they are still being made, but no
one has ever made the "Bowie-knife"
except James Black. Its chiefest value
was in it's temper. Black undoubtedly
possessed the Damascus secret. 1t
came to him mysteriously and it died
with him in the same way.
Such is enc story of the invention of
the Bowie knife, which sounds au-
thentic. But, says another story, the
real inventor of the knife was Jesse
Cliffs. blacksmith employed by the
elder Resin Bowie Gather of the three
Bowie boys). Some time after the
invention of the knife James engaged
in an alteration with Maj. Norris
Wright which resulted in,Wright shoot
ing at James. The latter was saved
when silver dollar in his pocket de-
fiected the bullet. Drawing his own
pistol, James aimed at Wright but the
trigger snapped. His father then gave
James the knife, saying, "This will
never snap" 1t was this circumstance
that led James Bowie always to carry