THE WIDOW BOWENS GIVES A TEA-PARTY.

There was no period fixed for the engagement, it was indefinite as yet, and the winter, with all its excitements of South and North, passed by at length, and the first of April the Bowens moved out to Ridgefield.

The Bowens also went to Dartford, and the last week in May came back for Josey's wedding.

"Up at Bowens Ridge they took some colored men out one night and if they said they was Republicans they let them go but if they said they was Democrats they whooped them so hard they nearly killed some of them.

One of their daughters was Mrs. Mattie Long, another Mrs. Willie Bowens.

The more profitable land was then leased by the Crown to English colonistsCosbies, Barringtons, Pigotts, Bowens, and others.