Samuel W. Bowen Records
Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: Mss-0107
The records consist of 14 account books, ledgers received and paid out, and reveal a diversified and successful agricultural operation using one tenant and a number of sharecroppers, mainly on "Hamilton place." Cotton was the principal cash crop, but he and his tenants grew and sold hay, oats, corn, and garden-truck crops. His principal tenants/share croppers were W.A. Miller and the Belton, Benton and Brown families. Personal expenses for members of his family and cash advances to his tenants are also in these records. There is also a folder of biographical material.
Samuel Wakefield Bowen was born in Abbeville County, South Carolina on November 12, 1868 and died June 21, 1933. Wakefield is his mother's family name. He had a grammar school education, and after his father's death he worked the family farm. He married Sallie Anderson of Broadway Lake Road and they had two daughters, Mildred (Mrs. James Beatty) and Gertrude (Mrs. Frank Thompson). The family were Presbyterians who donated the church site for Varennes Presbyterian Church in Iva, South Carolina.
1 Cubic Feet (14 volumes)
English
Chronological.
Sam Bowen gave these records to Dr. W.H. Mills for the Clemson College Archives, accession 36-1. Jack Temple Kirby supplied the biographical information on August 4, 1981.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository