Story cited from "A Dowling Family of The South" by RA Dowling

"Nancy was 13 when America's Declaration of Independence was signed. After the revolutionist whom she married had "died of old age" in the Jeffries Creek area, this 63-year-old mother moved to Dale County, Alabama, to be near most of their children. She was living with her daughter, Jemima, in 1830. However, by 1840 she was alone, living by son, Dempsey. When she died nine years later, her grieving sons buried her in a Methodist Cemetery next to Zion Church, not far from Haw Ridge. Zacheus had carved it out of the wilderness a few years after Alabama's creation. The tombstone covering her grave marks the closest kin of our family's founder that can be found

Children of JOHN DOWLING and NANCY BOUTWELL are:

i.  RHODA DOWLING

ii.  REV. DEMPSEY DOWLING, b. December 14, 1783, Jeffries Creek, Darlington District, South Carolina; d. April 26, 1865, Dale County, Alabama

iii.  ELIAS DOWLING, b. 1787

iv.  LYDIA ANN DOWLING, b. 1789

v.  ZACHEUS DOWLING, b. July 29, 1792; m. PERMELIA CATHERINE HEAD

Notes for ZACHEUS DOWLING:

Methodism entered the Pea River area in 1826 with the establishment of the Pea River Mission by the Tallahassee, Florida District of the South Carolina Conference. The Mission became a Circuit in 1830. Rev. Zacheus Dowling, one of the earliest preachers, rode the territory in the 1830's on his horse "Dickey." He was assigned to the Elba Circuit in 1856 and was the fourth pastor of the Elba Methodist Church. His permanent address for many years was Daleville, Alabama, and it is here that he lived with his wife, Permelia Catherine Head. Rev. Dowling lived to be 92 years of age and is buried near his wife in Liberty Cemetery at Greenville, Alabama.

Source: "Pea River Reflections" by Marion Bailey Brunson
Chapter 20 - You Can't Go Home Again (pp. 101-102)

vi.  ALLEN DOWLING, b. February 10, 1794

vii.  LEVI DOWLING, b. 1800

viii  SIMEON DOWLING, b. 1800

ix.  JEMIMA DOWLING, b. March 01, 1807; d. February 08, 1891; m. BENJAMIN HILDRETH, 1823, Darlington District, South Carolina; b. March 15, 1802; d. November 26, 1868."