Charlie Bowdre (1848-December 23, 1880) was an American cowboy. He was an associate and member of Billy the Kid's gang.
Bowdre was born in Georgia. When he was three years old, he and his parents moved to Mississippi. Between 1850 and 1863, Charlie was given a total of four brothers and three sisters, including a pair of twins.
By 1854, young Charlie started working in his father's farm, and, as he grew up, he became an adept farmer.
Much of what Bowdre did between the year in which his last sister, Lucy Lee Bowdre , was born (1863) and 1874, remains a mystery. It is believed, however, that he abandoned the family's farm to become a traveller. But records show that by 1874, he had arrived at Lincoln County, New Mexico. There, he did little of note until the Lincoln County War broke in 1878. Bowdre sided with the Tunstall-McSween side, and he met Billy, Jose Chavez y Chavez and the rest of the Kid's gang and assosiates, including Richard Brewer and Jim French.
Bowdre worked as a cowboy in the ranchs of Thomas Yerby and Pete Maxwell as the war went on. But he doubled as a soldier. It is not known with exactitude, however, how many of Billy's gang's activities involved Bowdre.
Bowdre married a twenty five year old Mexican girl, Manuela (born Manuela Herrera), months before his death. The fact that Bowdre was recently married when he died, makes him less of a suspect of being involved in the gang's activities during the few weeks that passed between his marriage and his death.
On December of that year, Bowdre joined the rest of the gang on a mission to meet Pat Garrett in Fort Summer , a gun battle ensued, and Bowdre and most of the Kid's gang members escaped alive. On December 23, however, Bowdre was killed and Billy got arrested, in the New Mexican cityof Stinking Springs .
His remains were given to his wife, and he was laid next to Thomas O' Folley , another member of Billy's gang. When Garrett killed the Kid, he was buried next to Bowdre.
In 1962, someone claiming to have a family relation to Bowdre was found, and a court tried to have Bowdre's remains removed, but the person refused, on the belief that Bowdre would prefer to be interred next to O' Folley and the Kid.
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Last updated: 08-09-2005 19:09:03
