Obituary of the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge

The death of Elizabeth Jane Bellamy.

by Dale Cox

Bellamy Bridge spans the Chipola River several miles north
of Marianna, Florida. It can be reached by the Bellamy Bridge
Heritage Trail, which leaves a parking area on CR 162 just
west of the river.

The legend of the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge is one of Florida's best-known tales of the supernatural. 

For more than 120 years, the people of Jackson County have told the story of Bellamy Bridge and its haunting by the restless ghost of a young woman named Elizabeth Jane Bellamy. The story is colorful, sad, and chilling. 

There are, of course, multiple versions of the legend. The most popular is that Elizabeth died in a tragic wedding night accident after her extravagant gown somehow touched an open flame. Some say that she danced too close to a fireplace while celebrating her marriage to Dr. Samuel C. Bellamy. Others claim that the young woman accidentally toppled a candle onto her gown while resting in an upstairs room at the couple's beautiful Marianna mansion.

Caroline Lee Hentz (1800-1856) is buried at
St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Marianna.

The legend is beautiful but bears little resemblance to the truth. It actually originated from a famous 19th-century novel, Marcus Warland or the Long Moss Spring, by author Caroline Lee Hentz. This is the same book that some historians have incorrectly used to assert that Jackson Blue Spring was the model for the romantic "long moss spring." Hentz noted in the introductory material that the book is based on real events, and it is true that she spent the last years of her life in Marianna and at St. Andrew Bay. 

Unfortunately for both legends, she wrote the book while living in Columbus, Georgia, before taking up residence in Marianna. The author notes as much in the book itself. The terrible incident of the "burning bride" took place near Columbus, and the real "long moss spring" is in that vicinity as well.

This, of course, neither proves nor disproves that there is a ghost at Bellamy Bridge. The legend is older than the first claims that Elizabeth Bellamy died in a tragic fire. The earliest incarnations of the story hold simply that the area around Bellamy Bridge is haunted by the restless spirit of Elizabeth as she searches for her long-lost husband.

Family papers prove that Elizabeth actually died of fever at Rock Cave Plantation several miles northwest of Marianna. She was buried in the little family cemetery at her sister's home on Terre Bonne Plantation, near which Bellamy Bridge stands today. She had married Dr. Bellamy several years before and even had a young son, Alexander, by the time of her death.

Notices of her death appeared in numerous newspapers of the time, but the most touching was printed by the New Bern Spectator in her home state of North Carolina:

Learn more about the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge and hear the haunting song written about her in this mini-documentary from Two Egg TV:

Editor's Note: Learn the real stories behind ten great Jackson County ghost and monster legends in Dale Cox's book, The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge. It is available at Bespoken Gifts and Antiques, 4430 Lafayette Street, Marianna, Florida, and on Amazon.com.

Can you dress like a pirate?? Prove it at Pirate & Heritage Days!

Public invited to "Dress like a Pirate" for Pirate and Heritage Days!

Ready to let your inner pirate out?! Your chance is coming on May 1-2 when Three Rivers State Park hosts Pirate and Heritage Days!

The event will commemorate the life and times of the adventurer and pirate William Augustus Bowles, who once frequented the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers. His ships raided commerce on the Gulf of Mexico in 1799-1804, sailing under the flag of the "State of Muskogee."

Jackson County is rich in stories of this unique individual. Legend even holds that he left behind a vast treasure that still remains to be found somewhere along the Chattahoochee River arm of Lake Seminole. 

You might not find the lost treasure, but you can definitely get in on the fun and collect a reward of your own by participating in the "Dress Like a Pirate" contest!

Members of the public are encouraged to bring their boats out for the William Bowles Pirate Regatta up Lake Seminole from Sneads Park on Friday, May 1. Launching begins at 4 p.m., and the Regatta will set sail at 6 p.m., led by the authentic 19th-century keelboat Aux Arc (pronounced "Ozark"). Fly your pirate flags and wear your pirate best to compete for cash and prizes as the Aux Arc leads the way with her cannon thundering! Registration information is coming later this week!

After the Pirate Regatta, the fun continues at Three Rivers State Park on River Road just north of Sneads, Florida. The evening will feature live music, entertainment, food, exhibits, and living history portrayals of life in Florida during Spanish colonial times. The "Dress Like a Pirate" contest will continue as team members from Two Egg TV will identify great costumes in the crowd and award cash on the spot!

More fun is set for Saturday, May 2, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Central/10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern, as Pirate and Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park continues. Fun planned for Saturday includes living history demonstrations, entertainment, historical lectures, exhibits, vendors, food, and more. Plus, "Dress Like a Pirate" competition will continue with Two Egg TV passing out more instant cash and prizes to best dressed members of the public!

Pirate and Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park is supported by Florida State Parks, the Jackson County Tourist Development Council, Jackson County Public Works, Two Egg TV, the Town of Sneads, and more! Additional sponsors will be announced soon.

The Boy in the Barrel: A Future Pirate's First Ship

"A branch of a tree his mast, a blanket his sail."

by Dale Cox

Editor's note: To provide readers with more information about William Augustus Bowles, the real person behind the pirate treasure stories still heard in eastern Jackson County, Florida, historian and author Dale Cox is writing a series of new articles. The life and adventures of Bowles and his crews will be commemorated on May 1-2 during Pirate & Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park.

The signing of a declaration of war against Spain at Estiffanulga Bluff in 1800 (please see GOD SAVE MUSKOGEE: Pirate War on the Apalachicola) brought the enigmatic adventurer William Augustus Bowles into direct conflict with that country. But who was Bowles? And how did his story begin?

The future adventurer and pirate was born in Maryland in ca. 1763 and was thirteen when war erupted between Great Britain and its American colonies. "An artless school-boy, perfectly unacquainted with any mode of life beyond what he had learnt at his father's farm," according to the interviewer who wrote his autobiography, Bowles joined a Loyalist regiment and entered the service of King George III. 

The Battle of Monmouth, where Bowles claimed to fight in a
"flank company." From a painting by Emanuel Leutze.
Berkley Library

He claimed to serve in a "flank company" at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, before sailing with his regiment from New York to Jamaica. This is possible as his regiment was part of the British army at that time. From Jamaica, he sailed with his fellow soldiers to Pensacola where he arrived late in 1778. Bowles was selected as a cadet at Pensacola, a position that allowed him to train to become an officer, but he blew his chances after he failed to return to camp from a brief leave in town. He either deserted or was dismissed from the service.

Destitute and only around 15 years old, the young man was, to paraphrase his biographer, too proud to beg and unwilling to work:

A party of the Creek nation were on their return home from Pensacola, whither they had come to receive their annual presents; and young Bowles, delighted with the novelty of situation now opened to him, joined the party, having thrown his regimental coat, in contempt of his oppressors, into the sea. [1]

Pensacola Bay at Floridatown.

The Native Americans were Seminoles from the Perryman towns on the lower Chattahoochee River. The most important of these communities was Tocktoethla, the village of Thomas Perryman which stood in today's Seminole County, Georgia. The other was Tellmochesses, the town of his son, William Perryman. It stood near Parramore Landing in modern Jackson County, Florida.

Bowles was accepted by the Perryman chiefs and their followers. Both Thomas and William spoke English, as did many of their followers, so it was easy for the young man to talk with them. Thomas Perryman, in particular, liked Bowles. The teenager was restless, though, and remained with his new friends only a few months before he decided to return to Pensacola:

William Augustus Bowles.

When he arrived on the opposite shore of the bay, he found a hogshead [i.e. barrel], which some British ships had left behind them; and Bowles, impatient of delay, without waiting for any other conveyance, like an Eskimaux [i.e. Eskimo], with the difference of a hogshead for a boat, the branch of a tree his mast, a blanket his sail, and a few stones his ballast, navigated the extensive shores of the harbour, in the day procuring the food of life, and beguiling the tediousness of time by fowling and fishing, and at night regaling on his prey; the sky his canopy, and the earth his bed. [2]

The sight of the future pirate bobbing around Pensacola Bay in a barrel with a blanket for a sail must have been entirely novel. His return to Pensacola likely was via the Pensacola-St. Augustine Road, a horse path that connected the capitals of the colonies of East and West Florida. Branch trails from it led to the Perryman towns, while its western terminus was at today's Floridatown in Santa Rosa County.

Bowles continued his adventures around the bay into the winter of 1779-1780, a time during which his biographer admitted that the young man first developed his dreams of glory.

Note: Learn more about the life of William Augustus Bowles in future articles and mark your calendar now to attend Pirate and Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park in Sneads, Florida, on May 1-2, 2020. Please click here for more information.

GOD SAVE MUSKOGEE: Pirate War on the Apalachicola

William Augustus Bowles, pirate and
adventurer, as painted by Thomas Hardy.

William Augustus Bowles declares war on Spain!

by Dale Cox

The story of William Augustus Bowles and his "State of Muskogee" is remarkable and violent. The young adventurer waged war on Spain with furious intent in 1800-1804, seizing ships, capturing a fort, and wreaking havoc.

His life was brief but complicated. He was born in Maryland in 1763, the same year that Great Britain gained control of Florida from Spain at the end of the Seven Years (French and Indian) War. He joined the British army as a teenager and came to Pensacola only to be cast from the ranks after a conflict with an officer. Rescued by a Native American trading party as he tried to make his way across the wilderness of Northwest Florida, the charismatic young man lived for a time in the Perryman towns of Tocktoethla and Telmochesses. These important Seminole communities were near today's Parramore Landing north of Sneads, Florida.

Bowles was ambitious and soon married the daughter of Chief Thomas Perryman. He came to envision a trade empire for himself among the Creeks and Seminoles, but Spanish authorities seized and imprisoned him in 1792. He escaped and returned to Florida in 1799, however, only to suffer the loss of his supply ship when it ran aground on St. George Island.

The Apalachicola River as seen from Prospect Bluff, the site
where Bowles started building a port facility in 1799.

That is when things got very interesting. Spanish troops tried to capture Bowles, but he slipped away onto the mainland and started building a port facility at Achackweithle (Prospect Bluff) on the Apalachicola River. Spain destroyed the unfinished settlement and captured some of his followers, but Bowles slipped away and soon reestablished himself at Estiffanulga Bluff in what is now Liberty County, Florida.

The furious adventurer convened a council of his followers at Estiffanulga, producing one of the most remarkable documents in Florida history: a declaration of war against Spain:

Estifanulga, April 5, 1800

Whereas His Catholic Majesty has for many years part entertained evil intentions against this Nation and pursued measures in every way injurious and hostile against us, Wantonly violating the Rights that belong to us as a free & Independent People, Has disregarded all remonstrance made by us to obtain redress, and induce him to abandon his unfriendly intentions against us, Has treated our representative with dissimulation and falsehood, Has suffered all good faith to be violated with impunity by his Governors in our vicinity. Has formed a treaty with the United States that clearly manifest the the wickedness of his heart; that his intentions were to usurp the sovereignty of our Country and totally to distroy our name as a People: To this end he has by his emisaries endeavoured to disseminate discord amongst our people and by the force of bribary and corruption to make a party in order to support and effect his diabolical designs. Ultimately in the month of February 1800 did with an armed force attack our town of Achackwheethle laid our houses in ashes, made prisoners of our people, and otherwise distressed us, by blocking up our Ports, thus terminating all pacific negotiation by an open attack, which reduces us to the necessity of either taking up our arms to defend our sacred Rights; our Country; our every thing that is dear to us, or tamely surrender then (and ourselves) up forever to the dispotic will of his Catholic Majesty.

  

Estiffanulga Bluff, the headquarters of William Augustus
Bowles in 1800, overlooks the Apalachicola River just
south of Bristol, Florida.

We being now in special council met in order to consider of the present state of our Country, do declare that we have not given his Catholic Majesty any cause whatever to commence hostilities against us; That we view with abhorrence and detestation the wicked designs of his Catholic Majesty; That we will defend our Country and our Rights while Blood remains in our veins. That we now consider all pacific remonstrance as ineffectual.

Therefore we do determine, and are determined to take such measures as may be effectually necessary to defend our Country, to defend our most sacred Rights; to defend the Honor of this Nation, and procure reparation and satisfaction for our injured Citizens.

Historical Marker noting the presence of Bowles on
St. George Island near Apalachicola, Florida.

Therefore be known to all Men, that WE THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF MUSKOGEE In special Council met, for the reasons aforesaid do, by virtue of our authority and High office, as in duty bound declare war against his Catholic Majesty and his subjects and order that general reprisal be made both by Land and sea of the goods ships and subjects of his Catholic Majesty.

We order that this proclamation be duly proclaimed that all our beloved people may have due notice hereof, And we pray God the great disposer of all things who knows the wickedness of our enemies who knows the justice of our Cause to favor our exertions.

Given under our hand in council

at Estifanulga this 5^th day of april

1800

WM. A. BOWLES

GOD SAVE MUSKOGEE

The declaration was no mere threat. Bowles soon laid siege to the Spanish fort of San Marcos de Apalache at St. Marks and unleashed "privateers" (pirates) on Spain's shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. His piratical war continued for three years. Legends it produced of battles and treasures continue to reverberate today.

Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of articles from historian Dale Cox on the pirate career of William Augustus Bowles. The adventurer and his crews will be commemorated at Pirate and Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park on May 1-2, 2020. The park is located on River Road (FL-271) just north of Sneads, Florida. Please click here to learn more.

Pirate & Heritage Days coming to Three Rivers State Park!

May event will commemorate the legacy of William Augustus Bowles!

by Dale Cox

The pirate and adventurer William Augustus Bowles
will be remembered at Pirate & Heritage Days at
Three Rivers State Park in Sneads, Florida.

The Chattahoochee River and Lake Seminole in eastern Jackson County are abundant in the history of the adventurer and pirate William Augustus Bowles. He once lived along the river, and his ships made it as far upstream as the forks of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, where Lake Seminole is located today.

To commemorate this unprecedented era of history, Three Rivers State Park is working with the Jackson County Tourist Development Council, the City of Sneads, Jackson County Parks,  and Two Egg TV to host a brand new festival. Pirate & Heritage Days will take place at the lakefront state park on May 1 & 2, 2020.

Bowles arrived in the area during the American Revolution after he was tossed from the British military at Pensacola for a disciplinary infraction. He wandered lost in the woods of Northwest Florida until a trading party of Native Americans found him and carried him to the Perryman towns. These large Lower Creek Indian villages were near today's Parramore Landing.

Bowles enjoyed his new life there so thoroughly that he married Mary Perryman, the daughter of Chief Thomas Perryman, and was adopted by the tribe. He fought at the Battle of Pensacola, one of the most significant actions of the Revolutionary War, in 1781. America's ally Spain won the battle, however, and regained control of the city and Florida.

Bowles's pirate ships flew the "State of
 Muskogee" flag in 1799-1804.
State Archives of Florida/Memory Collection

The adventurer went briefly to his family home in Maryland and then on to the Bahamas, from where he came back to the area to open a new route for smuggled goods from the islands. Spain captured him, however, and sent him away to Cuba, Spain, and eventually the Philipines. Bowles escaped, and by 1799 was back in North Florida!

He was furious over his treatment and declared war on Spain! By this time, he called himself the Director-General of the "State of Muskogee," a mostly imaginary empire that he founded in the Florida borderlands. His followers included white adventurers from American territory and the Bahamas, Maroons (escaped slaves), and a few hundred Lower Creek, Seminole, and Miccosukee warriors.

Three Rivers State Park is on the shores of beautiful
Lake Seminole in Sneads, Florida.

To carry out his war, Bowles commissioned a flotilla of "privateer" ships that sailed from the Apalachicola River out into the Gulf of Mexico to prey on Spanish merchant ships. These pirate vessels raided dozens of ships, and their crews included Native Americans from the Perryman towns. The raids continued for about five years until he was captured again and sent away to prison in Cuba, where he died.

The story of Bowles and his pirate ships is a big part of the culture and history of Jackson County. Two different buried treasure legends originate from his activities!

Pirate & Heritage Days will feature a boat parade on Lake Seminole, food trucks, vendors, living history encampments, live music, storytelling, and much more! Everything will take place lakefront at beautiful Three Rivers State Park, with the boat parade launching at Sneads Park and passing the festival grounds.

More details are coming soon, but mark your calendars for the afternoon/evening of May 1 and morning/midday of May 2! If you have a boat or even a kayak or canoe, make plans now to join the boat parade on Friday, May 1!