Harkless Bowley (1856-c.1942), a descendent in the Ross family tree of Harriet Tubman, lived on Pine Street in Cambridge.
Harkless was one of eight known children of John Bowley and Kessiah Jolley who was a descendent of Ben and Harriet Ross. (Source: Kate Clifford Larson, Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman — Portrait of an American Hero, 2004)
A J. Bowley is identified on the 1877 Atlas, south of Church Creek.
In a deed of December 23, 1890, Harkless L. Bowley, along with Jacob J. Green and his wife Mary, conveyed property, "all that House and Lot of ground" located "on the South East corner of Pine and Cedar Streets in the Town of Cambridge" to "Rachel Bowley her heirs or assigns (his Harkless L. Bowley wife)."
In a deed dated May 4, 1907, Harkless L. Bowley and his wife Mary J. Bowley conveyed the same property to tennants William B. Yates and Carlton M. Yates. This 1901 Sanborn fire insurance map of the area is annotated to show the Bowley property.
In an April 1899 edition of The Ledger, a Baltimore African American newspaper, a column of local items identified H. Bowley as one of several black merchants of Cambrige.
