By Beverly Belcher Woody
If you want to travel from below the mountain to Meadows of Dan today, your primary routes are Highway 58, Route 8, or a few secondary roads that are not for the faint-hearted — Belcher Mountain and Squirrel Spur, among them. Over the years, several lower places in the Blue Ridge have served as natural passageways: Wood’s Gap, Tuggle’s Gap, Orchard Gap, Willis Gap, Ward’s Gap, and the lesser-known Raney’s Gap. Located within what is now Primland, Raney’s Gap was once the main road leading from Claudville up the mountain near Vesta.
Raney’s Gap was named for Luraniah “Raney” Cockram Bowman, the daughter of William Nathaniel Cockram (also found as Cochran or Cockerham) and Ruth Brammer. Like many Patrick County families, the Cockrams appear in records under several spellings, making their story challenging to trace.
In the 1860 census, nine-year-old Raney was living at home with her siblings: Adaline, 17; Spencer, 15; Jane, 14; Milly, 7; Louisa; and baby James J., age one.
By the 1870 census, Raney was a 19-year-old young mother, married to 32-year-old Levi “Jefferson” Bowman of the Kibler area. Their household included their two-year-old son, William.
Ten years later, the family had grown. The 1880 census lists their children as:
William, 12
Hanah, 10
Drucilla, 8
Franklin, 4
Lucinda, 2
Delia, one month old
By 1900, their son Frank J. Bowman, age 24, was still living at home, along with these additional children born between the 1880 and 1900 census:
Lila, 19
Ruth F., 17
Jethina, 12
Simon Jackson, 9
Minnie, 6
Lillie Maud, 3
Life changed for Raney when her husband, Levi Jefferson Bowman, died in October 1901 from ulcers of the stomach. In January 1908, she applied for a Confederate widow’s pension, leaving us a detailed and poignant snapshot of her life at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In her application, Raney stated that she was a lifelong resident of Patrick County, living at Claudville, and the widow of Jefferson Bowman, who had served faithfully in the War Between the States as a member of Company B, 50th Virginia Infantry under Captain J. T. Lawson in Wharton’s Brigade. She affirmed that her husband had been loyal to his duty and had never deserted his command, and that she had remained his “true, faithful, and lawful wife” until his death.
At the time of the application, Raney was 67 years old, born and raised in Patrick County, and had lived there all her life. She and Jefferson got married on December 31, 1867. Jefferson died in 1901 in Kibler Valley, Virginia.
Her answers reveal the quiet hardships of widowhood. She had not remarried and was living with her children. Her property consisted of “one cow and one mule.” When asked about income, she answered simply: “No income, children assist me.” For this, she was granted a pension of twenty-five dollars annually.
Raney also provided the names of her husband’s comrades, J. H. Rangeley and S. H. Dunkley of Stuart, and two men familiar with the circumstances of his death, J. W. Barnard and N. B. Epperson of Kibler.
She signed the application with her mark on April 18, 1908. Witnesses were R. E. Woolwine and R. L. Branch, and the application was approved by J. S. Taylor, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Patrick County.
Today, the name Raney’s Gap stands as a quiet memorial to a woman who spent her entire life in Patrick County — raising a large family, weathering loss, and relying on the strength of her children and community. Through census records and a simple pension application, we glimpse the resilience and endurance of a Patrick County mother whose name still marks a pathway across the mountain.
Thank you to Katherine Bowman for sharing information and photographs of her great-grandmother Raney’s family. If you have questions, comments, or ideas for future stories, contact Woody at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or 276-692-9626
