Biographical Sketch (1997):1753 "The earliest ancestors recognized for this Bowman line are Jacob Bowman (ca. 1718-1803) and his wife, Varena, who were living in Washington County, Maryland, from around 1750 to 1778. Jacob Bowman is believed to have immigrated in 1737, first settling perhaps near the town of Lebanon, moving then to York County, then to Maryland. Around 1770, it appears that this couple may have been preparing to move to Virginia, for they began that year to sell much of their land. Because Varena's name no longer appears (giving consent and releasing her dower) on any deeds aftger 1770, it is believed she she likely died around that time. Jacob still continued to dispose of his land in 1771 and for several years thereafter. It appears that some of these sales of land became ineffective, and they were sold after the Revolutionary War to a non-Anabaptist for a token amount.

After Varena's death ca. 1770-71, Jacob, Sr., married Barbara who died within the next twelve or fourteen years in Virginia. Jacob's third wife was Catharine (Wine) steele, widow of Christopher Steele of Frederick County, Maryland, who had died in 1782. Sometime around 1778, Jacob Bowman and second wife Barbara moved to Linville Creek at present-day Broadway, Rockingham County, Virginia, where he purchased land from John Miller and wife Hannah in 1779. This location near Broadway is within a couple of miles or so of the present-day Linville Creek Church of the Brethren (at that time, a part of the Flat Rock Congregation). The area was to become a strong Brethren center with close neighbors being the Brethren Younts, Ziglers, and Shanks; George Kline, Jr. (grandfather of Elder John Kline); and John Kline, Sr., father of Elder John Kline.

In this strong Brethren center, the family of Jacob Bowman, Sr., established itself and spread to neightboring areas of Rockingham County and to Tennessee where in each instance they were deeply involved in establishing new German Baptist Brethren, or Dunker (now Church of the Brethren) congregations. Jacob Bowman, Sr., died at Linville Creek in 1803. . . .

Unfortunately, nothing is known about the circumstances of the conversion of Jacob Bowman to the German Baptist Brethren, today known as the Church of the Brethren. It undoubtedly occurred in Maryland prior to his marriage to Barbara and before his marriage to his third wife, Catharine, who was daughter of a well-known Brethren couple, George and Margaret (Horn) Wine, who lived eastward in a Brethren community in Frederick County."

1737 Immigration:1753 "The writer (i.e. Emmert Bittinger) believes that Jacob and Varena arrived at the port of Philadelphia on October 8, 1737, on the Ship The Charming Nancy."