Did the legendary Jim Bowie once live in Monroe County, Alabama?

Col. James 'Jim' Bowie.

If you’re even slightly interested in Alabama history, I highly recommend that you check out an older book called “Reminiscences of Men and Things in Alabama” by Benjamin Faneuil Porter. 

Originally published in 1853, this book describes life in Alabama during the early 19th Century as well as various places and important Alabama residents of that time. The edition of the book I read was published in 1983 by Portal Press in Tuscaloosa and was researched and edited by Sara Walls.

Porter was no run-of-the-mill writer or historian. Born in 1808 in South Carolina, he moved to Monroe County, Ala. in 1829, and he lived in Claiborne for about six years. During his life, he would bear many titles, including that of physician, lawyer, Circuit Judge for Mobile and Butler counties, State Representative for Monroe and Tuscaloosa counties, railroad developer, prison reformer, journalist, women’s rights activist and advocate for public education. He’d eventually become mayor of Greenville, and he died there in 1868.

Being a native of Monroe County and fascinated by the history of Claiborne, I was especially drawn to a couple of items that I encountered in Porter’s book. The first item was about the proprietors of an early Claiborne newspaper, and the second item was about the legendary Jim Bowie.

While talking about his days as a young man in Claiborne, Porter wrote that he spent his “time singularly enough. I wrote essays and poems, under the name of Will Honeycombe, for a paper published in Claiborne under the title of The Index by Kean & Neuffville. I do not know what became of these poor fellows. Kean was a jovial soul, full of anecdote and joke, fond of the bottle, and a most kind-hearted, agreeable companion. Neuffville was from Charleston – very talented, but, like Kean, pleased with sack, and full of wit and repartee.”

A few pages later, Porter mentions that Col. Jim Bowie, who died at the Alamo in Texas in 1836, once lived in Monroe County. During a discussion of Alamo hero and former Claiborne resident William B. Travis, Porter wrote that "I am reminded that Col. (Jim) Bowie, who fell with Travis, and from whom the term 'Bowie knife' was derived, also lived in Monroe (County). On the road from Claiborne to Burnt Corn, near the present site of Monroeville, was a double log house where Col. Bowie resided."

Many dismiss the idea that Bowie lived in Monroe County as a mistake on Porter’s part, but his remarks give me reason to pause. Porter was no backwoods scribbler, he was a prominent doctor and lawyer and one of the leading legal scholars of his day. He personally knew Travis, and if he wrote that Bowie lived in Monroe County, my thinking is that he at least had a good reason for believing that was the case. While it’s very possible that Porter made a mistake, I’m convinced that he had good reason to believe Bowie lived in Monroe County at some point prior to 1836.

In the end, how many of you have read “Reminiscences of Men and Things in Alabama”? What did you think about it? What was your favorite part? Let us know in the comments section below.