Henry Marshall Bozeman, a Biographical Sketch

Source: Georgia and Florida Biographies [database on-line].
Original Data from Biographical Souvenir of the States of Georgia and Florida,
Containing Biographical Sketches of the Representative Public, and many
Early Settled Families in These States. F. A. Battey & Company, 1889.
Transcribed by S. Lincecum 2005.

Image by Darwinek via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Marshall Bozeman, of the firm of Bozeman & Regan, Hawkinsville, Ga, was born in Houston County, Ga, November 1, 1837. His parents were Col. John and Rebecca Jewell (Pratt) Bozeman, the former a native of Georgia and the latter of New Hampshire. Col. John Bozeman was born April 27, 1793, and was first married April 23, 1818, to Elizabeth Murphy, who was born December 25, 1798. This union was blessed by the birth of eight children: Cornelius M., the first son, was born April 8, 1819; he married Miss Elizabeth Farmer, became the father of nine children and died in 1881; Eliza Ann, the eldest daughter, was born November 11, 1820, and died May 10, 1848. She was married to Samuel Buffington of Milledgeville, and bore him four children, John, Elizabeth, Sallie and Samuel; the two boys are deceased, but the girls are yet living and married. The colonel's second son and third child, John, was born June 27, 1823, married, had two children, and died in 1856 or 1857, in or about the Everglades of Florida, in the effort to eject Billy Bowlegs. The fourth child, Sarah Frances, was born December 25, 1825; she also married Samuel Buffington, bore him two children, now deceased, while she herself died in Jacksonville, Fla, about 1856. Milton, the third son and fifth child, was born September 18, 1827, was a Confederate soldier, was captured in South Carolina and taken to New York, where he died in prison and was buried on Hart's Island. Amanda M., the third daughter, was born April 18, 1830, and died December 26, 1834. Emily C., the fourth daughter, was born December 17, 1831, and died August 18, 1832. Albert, the fourth son and eighth and youngest child born to this union, was born February 13, 1834, and died March 10, 1853.

Mrs. Elizabeth (Murphy) Bozeman died February 20, 1836, and on the 14th day of February, 1837, Col. Bozeman married Miss Rebecca Jewell Pratt, who was born April 23, 1808, and who was a Yankee lady of high culture and noted for her musical talent. She was teaching music in one of the Institutes of Hancock County when he became acquainted with her. Her father's name was Henry Pratt, of Winchester, NH. His children were Addison, Henry, Marshall, Horace, Julius, Eliza, Charlotte and Rebecca, all noted for musical ability. Marshall Pratt was one of the first musicians of the United States in his day. They were, it is thought, first cousins to Ex-Gov Marshall Jewell of Connecticut. The fruit of this union was Henry Marshall Bozeman only. Mrs. Rebecca J. Bozeman died February 17, 1838, when her son was but three months old, and on July 23, 1838, Col. Bozeman married Miss Sarah B. Pratt, of Vermont, a first cousin of his second wife. To this marriage there were no children born, and of the nine born to the colonel, Henry M. is the only one living.

Col. John Bozeman served in the Florida Indian war, was several times elected to the State legislature from the Milledgeville district, and was justice of the peace at the time of his death, which occurred at or near White Sulphur Springs, Fla, November 10, 1848. His widow, Sarah B., married J. F. Baxter, but died in Memphis, Tenn, in 1884.

Henry Marshall Bozeman began in 1857 by clerking in Hawkinsville. He had come from the farm and continued in the store until he enlisted in September, 1861, in Company F, Thirty-first regiment, Pulaski volunteer infantry. Cold Harbor was the first engagement in which he took part. He received a shot that day, June 27, 1862, in the thigh and will always carry the scar and a deep one. He has the ball, which is flattened out considerably. He was disabled four months, and was at home most of the time on furlough. He was first lieutenant of the company, resigned in June, 1863, came home and enlisted in the siege battery at Thunderbolt. He did no service in the battery but formed the Sixty-third regiment, Col. Gordon, and proceeded to Dalton, to Joe E. Johnson's army in the upper part of Georgia. He was in skirmishes from Dalton to Jonesboro, was wounded and disabled a short time. He was wounded in the first battle of Fredricksburg and disabled for about two weeks. He was in the service until the surrender, and from Jonesboro he followed Gen. Hood to Nashville, Tenn, on foot, and was with Smith's brigade guarding the wagon train at the Tennessee river at the time the battle of Franklin, Tenn, was fought -- the battle which proved what southern soldiers were, marching right up to the Yankee breastworks, through an open field, and making them skedaddle like wild hogs. Though the Confederates suffered severely for their rash act, from Nashville the army took it a foot out to Meridian, Miss, and from there started to join Gen. Lee in Virginia, but while on the way, in North Carolina, heard of Lee's surrender, but went on until it was confirmed, and then turned back every man and went to his home. He was never taken prisoner and in the main had good health. The war closing he went to clerking and continued that until 1883, since when he has been doing for himself under the firm name of Bozeman & Regan. He has succeeded in business very well. He is a member of the city council, serving his second term.

Capt. Thomas L. Willcox, of Irwin County, Ga, father-in-law of our subject, was born February 17, 1812, and Abbie McDuffie, of the same county, was born February 22, 1816; they were married November 20, 1830, and had thirteen children. Mrs. Abbie Willcox died in 1864, and the captain next married a Miss Nan Smith, and six more children were the result. Capt. Tom was a wealthy, prominent man of his county, went to the legislature several times, and was the most popular man throughout all southern Georgia. He is a very old man now and he and his second wife are living at Jacksonville, in Telfair County, Ga. His sixth daughter, Abbie, became Mrs. Abbie Bozeman, March 1, 1868. She was born December 22, 1848, and on January 30, 1869, her first and only child, a son, was born. She died on February 3, 1869. The child, named after her, Abbie Murdoch, is yet living, nineteen years old, and doing well. On November 4, 1869, Mr. Bozeman married Capt. Tom Willcox's seventh daughter, Julia. She was born July 29, 1853. Their oldest son, Frank McCrimmon, was born September 7, 1870, and is still living. Zenobia, a girl, was born October 7, 1874 and died September 4, 1878; Sarah Rebecca was born October 12, 1879 and is yet living; Estelle, the youngest, was born April 8, 1885.

Mr. Bozeman is a Mason and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church, also both sons. Few men in the community stand higher for honesty, integrity, and golden rule dealing than does the subject of this sketch. The subject's father's father was Meady Bozeman, who died January, 1809, and whose wife's maiden name was Chloe Nelson, who died October 11, 1821.