James Bowie, who lived from 1795 to 1836, was at one time a farmer, a logger, a scout, a guide, a land agent, and a Colonel in the Texas Rangers. He is better known for the knife that bears his name and for his death at the Alamo while fighting for Texas independence, where he was killed on March 6, 1836. Bowie County was named in his honor on December 4, 1840, and the nearby James Bowie School District, organized on May 14, 1935, also bears his name. Bowie County, created on December 17, 1840, is one of 37 of Texas's 254 counties that were established while Texas was a Republic, from 1836 through 1845, a distinction identified as a Gold Star county.