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Article about "old put" a.k.a.John Stone a.k.a. Joe Bowers

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By Ben T. Traywick
World Renowned Author

Frank Swift, later to become governor of California, was among the 200-odd Pike County emigrants in the train. Swift often wrote poems—or doggeral—and as he was quite fond of John Stone he wrote one poking gentle fun at the young fellow. He entitled it “Joe Bowers” and while sitting around the campfire one night, his friend ex-Lieutenant Governor of Missouri, R. A. Campbell, read it to the company at large. Soon everyone was convulsed with laughter. In a very short time the entire train had memorized the poem and a musician found suitable music and made it into a song called “Joe Bowers, All The Way From Pike.”##M(READMORE)##
The song was sent back to the Salt River Journal in Pike County, where it was published. It made a tremendous hit wherever it was heard. It was speedily published and republished and soon sung from coast to coast under the title “Joe Bowers, All The Way From Pike,” and here are the verses:
My name is Joe Bowers And I’ve got a brother Ike I Came from Old Missouri And all the way from Pike I’ll tell you why I left there, and why I came to roam, And leave my poor old Mammy, So far away from home.
I used to court a gal there— Her name was Sally Black; I axed her if she’d marry me;
She said it was a whack. Says she to me, “Joe Bowers Before we hitch for life, You ought to get a little home ‘ To keep your wife.”
“0, Sally, dearest Sally 0, Sally, for your sake I’ll go to California And try to make a stake.” Says she to me, “Joe Bowers You are the man to win;
Here’s a kiss to bind the bargain—” And she hove a dozen in.
When I got to that country I hadn’t nary red; I had such wolfish feelings, I wished myself ‘most dead; But the thoughts of my dear Sally Soon made those feelings git, And whispered hopes to Bowers— I wish I had ‘em yit!
At length I went to mining, Put in my biggest licks; Went down upon the boulders
At length I got a letter From my dear brother Ike, It came from old Missouri, And all the way from Pike; It brought to me the darndest news That ever you did hear, — My heart is almost bursting, So pray excuse this tear.
It said that Sal was false to me, Her love for me had fled:
She’d got married to a butcher, — And that butcher’s hair was red;
And more than that, the letter said — It’s enough to make me swear-That Sally has a baby, And that baby has red hair!
That song caused John Stone to lose his name entirely, for he became “Joe Bowers,” and he stayed Joe Bowers.
- He was an easy-going, jovial person, too lazy to work, too honest to steal. He hung around saloons and fandango houses, where he played his guitar and sang the songs he wrote. Eventually he became a strolling singer who wandered through the gold country singing for his food and redeye liquor.
At infrequent periods Joe Bowers would reluctantly go out and mine awhile. Taking pick and shovel, he would half-heartedly dig a bit here and there, never finding much.
However, Dame Fortune smiled upon poor Joe one time. In the summer of 1853, Joe made a rich strike not far from the town of Columbia. Likely by accident, he uncovered a piece of quartz loaded with gold. It weighed 722 pounds and brought him $15,000.
With these newly-found riches, Joe Bowers went north to San Francisco, and there, in 1856, he published Put’s Golden Songster, a small paperback volume that contains the best known col-lection of California songs ever published.
Joe’s wandering took him the length and breadth of the Mother Lode, where all the miners welcomed him and his songs with open arms. He wrote simple ballads that every Missourian traveling to the gold country felt expressed his own feelings of loneliness at being so far from home and loved ones. Bowers’ songs had no literary worth; no composer would have praised his simple words and music. Still, his simple folk songs sink deep into the heart and warm the soul.
Many a gold miner laughed at the misfortunes of poor Joe Bowers for he intended his songs to be humorous. But frequently tears rolled down the leathery cheeks of many a man when he heard the simple song, for they took him back to the green fields and forests of home and to the arms of his loved ones.
Joe Bowers was destined never to make his fortune, never to go back to the beautiful Sally Black, never to see Pike County again.
Romantic legend of the California gold country would have it believed that Sally Black did marry another and that this tragic news caused Joe Bowers to take his own life.
The truth of the matter is that Joe became a drunk and just never did go back to Missouri. On January 23, 1864, Joe Bowers (John A. Stone) (Put), in a whiskey-soaked, despondent mood slashed his throat in his tiny cabin in Greenwood. His mortal remains rest under huge oaks and cedars in the tiny pioneer cemetery at Greenwood.
John A. Stone lived and sang his songs in that mining town where everyone knew him by the name of “Joe Bowers”, never dreaming that he had any other. All his published songs were under the name of “Put”.
In 1946 a new marker was placed over his grave, reading: John A. Stone, Early California Songwriter known as “Joe Bow-ers.’ Author of Puts Golden Songster, and Puts Early California Songster. Crossed the plains from Pike County, Missouri, in 1849. Died Jan. 23, 1864.”
Few people today have ever heard of Joe Bowers much less his last resting place. Still, he left something that will never be forgotten. Something that rates him now with the most renowned of his contemporaries. Those “somethings” are “Hangtown Gals,” “The Horse Thief of San Joaquin,” “Shady Old Camp,” and, of course, “Sweet Betsy From Pike.”