Alamo Fame Jim Bowie's Accounts with Jewish Merchants in New Orleans

These two accounts record Jim Bowie's debt to a New Orleans merchant firm on January 1, 1831, of $6,375.74, and another debt dated April 22, 1831, of $1,195.96. The second debt was for merchandise delivered to Bowie's older brother Rezin P. Bowie (1793-1841) in 1828 and 1829. The merchandise consisted mostly of cloth (gingham, calico, linen, flannel, hose, towels, table drapes) but also included one dozen hose and four "mosquito bars," netting to keep the disease-bearing insects away while one slept. The merchandise totaled $125.90 and drafts that they accepted from Rezin P. Bowie in March and April 1829 on Jim Bowie's order totaled $975.52. Their commissions and the interest that had accrued to January 1, 1831, totaled $1,195.96.

Rezin Bowie speculated on land in Louisiana with his brother Jim Bowie and searched with him for an old Spanish mine near San Antonio in 1831, but he was not present with his brother at the Alamo in 1836.

[JAMES BOWIE], Manuscript Documents, Accounts from Soher, Goodman, & Company, January 1, 1831, New Orleans, 1 p., 8" x 7"; and April 22, 1831, New Orleans, 2 pp., 8" x 9.75". Expected folds; some edge tears and tears on folds; general toning.

Historical Background
Soher, Goodman & Company was a partnership formed by Jewish merchants Solomon Soher (ca. 1786-ca. 1858) and Daniel Goodman (1801-1858) that operated in the 1820s and 1830s. Goodman was born in Amsterdam and Soher in Austria before immigrating to the United States. Soher arrived in New Orleans from Richmond, Virginia, in 1822. After suffering financial difficulties, Soher left New Orleans for London by 1837 but later returned to Mississippi.

James Bowie (1796-1836) was born in Kentucky as the ninth of ten children born to a Revolutionary War veteran and slaveholder and his wife. His family moved to Missouri and then to Spanish Louisiana. Raised on the frontier, he worked hard from a young age but also learned to read and write. He enlisted in the Louisiana militia late in 1814 but arrived in New Orleans too late to participate in the Battle of New Orleans. In 1819, he participated in the Long Expedition, designed to liberate Texas from Spanish rule. His father gave him slaves before he died around 1820, and Bowie and his brother developed several large estates in Louisiana. He entered a partnership with the pirate Jean Lafitte in 1818 through which he smuggled slaves from Galveston Island into Louisiana. Using the profits from their smuggling, he and his brothers speculated on land in Louisiana and Arkansas. In 1827, Bowie attended a duel near Natchez, Mississippi, with the duelists missing each other and resolving the dispute. However, a general brawl broke out among bystanders in which Bowie was shot and stabbed, but Bowie killed one of his attackers with a large knife. When newspapers reported the story, Bowie instantly became a superb knife fighter. The origins of the "Bowie knife" are disputed, but it may have been designed by his brother Rezin. Regardless of its origin, it quickly became very popular, and Bowie's name spread with it. Bowie moved to Texas in 1828, joined the Roman Catholic Church in San Antonio, and permanently settled in Texas in 1830. He settled in San Antonio and became a colonel in the Texas Rangers. He renounced his American citizenship and began speculation in 700,000 acres of land. In 1831, he married nineteen-year-old Maria Ursula de Veramendi, the daughter of his business partner, and had two children with her over the next two years. His wife, children, and her parents all died in a cholera epidemic in September 1833. After again speculating on land, he joined Anglo-Texas leader William B. Travis in calling for war against President Antonio López de Santa Anna. In November 1835, Texas declared itself an independent state, and Bowie supported the new government. Learning that Santa Anna was leading a large force to reclaim San Antonio, Bowie offered to lead volunteers to defend the Alamo from the expected attack. He arrived with thirty men on January 19 and found a small force there with few weapons, little gunpowder, and insufficient supplies. In early February, Davy Crockett reached the Alamo with thirty men from Tennessee. When the Mexican forces attacked on March 6, they killed Bowie and all of the other defenders of the Alamo.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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