Johann Adam (Bauer) Bower UE (1724 - 1801)

Born 13 Nov 1724 in Hottenbach, Birkenfeld, Kurfürstentum Pfalz, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Husband of Maria Catherina (Michels) Bower — married 3 Oct 1751 in Evangelisch, Muelheim Bernkastel, Kurfürstentum Pfalz, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Descendants

Died Dec 1801 at age 77 in Shelburne, Nova Scotia

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Biography

Adam (Bauer) Bower UE served with United Empire Loyalists during the American Revolution.

Adam Bower was a United Empire Loyalist.
UEL Status:Proven
Date: Undated

Adam (Bauer) Bower UE was a prisoner of war during the American Revolution.

Johann Adam Bauer (later Adam Bower) was born 13 November 1724 in Hottenbach, Rheinland, Germany. His parents were Johann Heinrich Bauer and Maria Elizabeth. He married Maria Catharina Michels, daughter of Johann Conrad Michels, 3 October 1751 in Muelheim Bernkastel, Rheinland, Prussia.

He was a persecuted Protestant and he and his family migrated to England in 1762.

Palatine Land Plats South Carolina.

Plat of Bauer's land.

They emigrated in 1764 and settled in South Carolina. Adam Bauer was granted 300 acres of land. Taken from a copy of his land grant "...do give and grant unto John Adam Bauer, his heirs and assuages, a plantation or tract of land containing: three hundred acres situated in Londonborough township bounded to the North part on land laid out to Balker Merk and part on vacant land, to the East part of land laid out to Christian Zang and part laid out to Abraham Frick, to the south and west on vacant land." In return for his land grant, dated 19 April 1765, Adam was required to three pounds stirling, or four shillings proclamation money for every hundred acres. This money was due on each 25th day of March for ten years.

Adam, his sons Charles and Philip, joined the British Army in Augusta during the American Revolution, serving in Captain Maxwell's Company. In the "National Geographic" of April, 1975 under "The Loyalists; Americans with a Difference," page 510, it tells this about Adam (Bauer) Bower, our Loyalist ancestor;" When the so-called Patriots went to Adam's South Carolina plantation, they didn't just confiscate all his slaves, horses and cattle; they also poked out one of his eyes.

Imprisoned at the Battle of Kettle Creek by the Patriots: about 14 FEB 1779, Kettle Creek, near present day Washington, Georgia, USA; this was Adam's 2nd emprisonment of the Revolutionary War. Of the Loyalist prisoners, only about 20 survived their wounds. Pickens first took them to Augusta, and then Ninety Six, where they were held along with a large number of other Loyalists. Seeking to make an example of them, South Carolina authorities put a number of these Loyalists on trial for treason. About 50 of them were convicted, and five men, including some of the men captured at Kettle Creek, were hanged. British military leaders were outraged over this treatment of what they considered prisoners of war, even before the trial was held. General Prevost threatened retaliation against Patriot prisoners he was holding, but did not act out of fear that other American-held British prisoners might be mistreated. His invasion of coastal South Carolina in April 1779, a counter-thrust against movements by General Lincoln to recover Georgia, prompted South Carolina officials to vacate most of the convictions.

Today, Ninety Six, South Carolina is a small, quiet town; an average picture of the American deep south. However, in 1781, Ninety Six was the most prominent settlement in the backcountry of South Carolina; a frontier outpost that was the center of military activity in the region. Garrisons were left at Charleston, Camden, Augusta and Savannah as well as Ninety Six to hold South Carolina. The area was left under the overall command of the capable Lieutenant Colonel Francis, Lord Rawdon.

The Crown forces soon came under attack by revolutionary forces under General Nathanael Greene who took a position on Hobkirk's Hill near Camden. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Lord Rawdon attacked Greene and defeated him in a hard fought battle. Although he had been victorious, Rawdon had taken heavy losses which could not replace. He therefore decided to pull back and conserve his forces around Charleston. Soon, in the face of unrelenting rebel pressure, every Crown post in South Carolina had fallen to the enemy with the sole exception of the small loyalist garrison at Ninety Six.

Realizing that the position would be nearly impossible to hold under the circumstances, Lord Rawdon sent orders to Lieutenant Colonel Cruger to evacuate his forces to Charleston. However, rebel troops intercepted all of his messages and without any other orders, Cruger grimly determined to defend Ninety Six to the last in the middle of a sea of revolutionaries. With only 550 men, consisting of loyalist provincial troops from New Jersey, New York, South Carolina loyalist militia and black pioneers, Cruger constructed an earthen star fort on the opposite side of the village of Ninety Six as the stockade fort with his soldiers and slaves borrowed from farms in the vicinity. The fighting between the rebels and loyalists had always been fierce, and everyone in Ninety Six knew they could expect little mercy at the hands of the rebels if they should be taken alive.

In spite of inflicting such a costly defeat on General Greene, Lord Rawdon still had no intention of trying to hold Ninety Six indefinitely and by the next month the Crown forces had abandoned the post and taken up a more compact position on the coast. Loyalist families followed the troops, on their march to Orangeburg, knowing from first-hand experience the persecution they would endure at the hands of the rebels without Crown protection.

In September 1782, when the British were forced to evacuate Charlestown, Adam moved his family to Nova Scotia. They wintered that year in Halifax with several other Loyalist families, and in July 1783 arrived in Port Roseway, and at Shelbourne, Nova Scotia, May 17, 1783 where the Loyalist Monument now stands.

He submitted two claims to the Commission in London because, "he forgot to mention his eye in the first one."He figured he ought to get a little something extra for that. Adam was recompensed and apparently invested his money wisely. John O. Bower of Shelbourne, a retired oil company executive and one time member of Canada's Parliment gave this information. "My great-great-grandfather Adam (Bauer) Bower came to Shelbourne with the second fleet of 1783".

The son Charles had his family and slaves with him. One daughter and husband known as Mr. and Mrs. John Dorris.There were others in the family.

It was here that over time, the German spelling Bauer, became changed to the English spelling, Bower. He built a house and barn, started a small farm and opened a tavern.

Parents: Johann Henrich Bauer 1704–Deceased • 9QLZ-2QV and Mariae Elizabethae Knop - 1702–Deceased • M8TY-9G5 ​

Marriage: 03 Oct 1751 Evangelisch, Muelheim Bernkastel, Rheinland, Prussia. Johann Adam Bauer Deceased • MYSH-C19 and Maria Catherina Michels 1724–1805 • LKYQ-QWY ​

Children:

1. Angelica Bower 1754–1841 • LLMS-DWK ​
2. Charles William Bower 1757–1842 • L9CN-28H ​
3. Margaret Bower 1760–Deceased • K2QN-GFK ​
4. Maria Bower 1763–Deceased • K2QN-L11 ​
5. Phillip Edward Bower 1767–1816 • K2QJ-361 ​
6. Maria Elizabeth Bower 1768–1841 • LCPP-RQY ​
7. Catherine Bower 1771–Deceased • K2QN-GK4 ​

Occupation: MAY 1800, Shelburne, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, Canada; Tavern Keeper

• John Adam Bauer's Will Probate Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Sources

• John Adam Bower and his descendants

• The Quilter/Mills Home Page:Information about John Adam Bower (Bauer)

• Genealogy Rootsweb Ancestry

• Ancestry.ca Entry

• UEL Entry

• Wikipedia Battle of Kettle Creek

• Palatines.PDF

• Wikipedia German Palatines

• Wikipedia Siege of Ninety-Six

• Lant Grant Part 1 Part 2

• "Deutschland Heiraten, 1558-1929," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J4PJ-XSR : 26 December 2014), Johann Adam Bauer and Maria Catharina Michelss, 03 Oct 1751; citing Evangelisch, Muelheim Bernkastel, Rheinland, Prussia; FHL microfilm 493,298.

• "Kith and Kin of Adam Bower, Loyalist" by Joan Harris Crise. 2002 Shelburne, N.S. : Shelburne County Genealogical Society

• Find A Grave: Memorial #177204064