Meet William Augustus Bowles
He is one awesome dude.
I found out about him from a really good book called...
"The Lost States: True stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania and Other States That Never Made It"
by Michael J. Trinklein
You see, Mr. Bowles tried to establish the state of Muskogee
(hence, earning him a place in the lost states book)
(By the way, it is a really awesome book that is very educational, fun to read and tends to lead to many other rabbit trails of learning. Such as William Augustus Bowles and other little known facts(like the fact that Alaska was bought for 1.9 cents an acre) )
Back to William.
The reason I am posting about him is because his life, much like Robert Boyle's (whom I should post about sometime in the near future), was filled with things that interest me.
Examples:
1) He was a pirate.
2) He was a comic actor.
3) He was a portrait painter.
(I do not know if he painted the above portrait of himself)
4) He was married to the daughter of an Indian Chief
5) He fought for the Creeks and Seminoles to get the Spanish out of Florida
6) His Wikipedia page calls him an "adventurer" which he really had nothing to do with, but I thought it was pretty awesome.
7) The Spanish offered 6,000 dollars and 1,500 kegs of rum for his capture, so he had to have done some epic stuff.
This link has a good synopsis of his life.
(I really would love to read that book)
Obviously, he wasn't perfect.
He had short-comings.
Like marrying two wives and starving himself to death in a jail in Havana.
(That last part may sound heroic, and, I don't know, it kinda is. For the most part it just sounds like pouting to me.)
But, you have to admit...
There really should be a movie made about this guy.
(Please read the "Muskogee" page of the lost states book)
If you would like to know more about William Augustus Bowles, start here.
(Just so you know, Robert Boyle still trumps William by a long shot.)
So, what do you think?
This is the end of the eighth post of Me.
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