Bowman is a town in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 968 at the 2010 census, a decline from 1,198 in 2000.
Geography
Bowman is located at .
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.
History
Interest in building a town at the intersection of present-day US 178 (Charleston Highway) and S.C. 210 (Branchville-Providence Roads) was evidenced in the acquisition of substantial properties of the Reddick A. Bowman estate by one Samuel W. Dibble, Sr. of Orangeburg, SC in 1887. The Smoak Tramway, a six-mile logging railroad extending from Branchville toward north Four Holes Swamp which was chartered in 1884, was also targeted for acquisition by Dibble's associate, Thomas M. Raysor, who operated the Raysor Mill near Stokes. These actions, aimed at developing and exploiting the agricultural and lumbering potential of an area that had remained rather dormant since the American Civil War, were taking place in the late 1880s. These represented the prelude to the chartering of the future Town of Bowman and the transportation and land development organizations and operations which preceded its chartering.
The site chosen for Bowman was actually situated in the center of a rice farming country, later transformed into a major cotton-producing area where the land has a clay sub-soil, ideal for this and other crops. it was located on an old road that was traveled in colonial days by people going from Charleston to Orangeburg, and which was once alleged to have been known as Oak Ridge, a plateau about ten miles long and five miles wide.
One of the oldest remaining operating companies located in Bowman, South Carolina, is V.P. Kiser Lumber Company, which now produces pine shingles. Some wood from Kiser Lumber Company was used to build Bowman's UFO Welcome Center.
Tornado
On the afternoon of December 5, 1977 a tornado, approaching from the west parallel to Highway 210, struck the downtown area. Three people were injured, the streets were littered with glass and debris, a few trailers were demolished, buildings were unroofed, and a power failure occurred. No people were killed.
Post office
In the early years immediately prior to the founding of Bowman, mail service amounted to once or twice-a-week deliveries from Orangeburg by horse and buggy to outlying communities, such as Rileys, Connors and Ruples. The first post office in the Town of Bowman was located at Railroad Avenue and Ott Street (later Main Street) in the store of John W. Berry, a pioneer merchant, and he served as the first postmaster. The building also served as a residence, and it had the first telephone between Bowman and Branchville. The postal system of those early years in Bowman's history involved horse and buggy deliveries about twice a week from Orangeburg, and patrons from both town and surrounding areas had to pick up their mail from the post office until rural routes and carriers were organized to deliver mail outside the town limits in the early 1900s. Three rural routes were operational by 1907. The earliest carriers of record were W. H. Dukes, W. L. Bishop, O. P. Evans and Andrew Stroman, Sr. A fourth route was later added to serve the surrounding area, since reduced to three, and finally to the current two routes.
War memorial
In 1987, a monument and eternal flame were constructed for residents who died in war:
World War I
James Edward Easterlin
John Wesley Weathers
John Moorer Livingston
World War II
James Edmund Berry
Thomas Richard Edwards
Leonard Everett Berry
George Arthur Kemmerlin
Benjamin Franklin Knight
Vietnam War
James Allen Johnson
Henry Dennis West, III
Jessie Clarence Felder
UFO Welcome Center
Bowman is home to the UFO Welcome Center roadside attraction, which is "Major Fun" according to Roadside America.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 788 people, 317 households, and 150 families residing in the town.
2000 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,198 people, 463 households, and 321 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 532 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 29.47% Caucasian, 68.86% African American, 0.33% Native American, 0.17% Asian, 0.33% from other races, and 0.83% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 0.67% of the population.