Bowling, greens, and Bowling Greens

Written By Heather Rogers, America's Preeminent Presidential Doodler

Bowling Green: the place

The first time I remember encountering Bowling Green was while reading about the King George III statue that taunted George Washington from his New York City office.

It didn’t occur to me that Bowling Green was a person. Or that this particular Bowling Green was named for a person.

The statue of King George III may or may not have looked like this. Probably not.

Washington’s troops may have pushed King George III’s heavy head around in a wheelbarrow.

Or perhaps not.

Even so, they melted down all two-tons of the king and turned him into 42,088 musket-balls for Washington’s army.

The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington, by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch 

Rachel Green

I didn’t know (and neither did George Washington) that around the same time they were melting down King George, the Continental Congress decided to completely separate from England and holy cow I thought they’d done that already.

For some reason, this made me think of Ross and Rachel, with the Colonies (Rachel) saying “we should take a break” and England (Ross) suggesting we cool off with some fro-yo and the Colonies answering “no, a break from us.”

Bowling Green: the man

While reading Lincoln by David Herbert Donald, I encountered Mr. Bowling Green! Lincoln “regularly attended the sessions of the local court, over which the corpulent Bowling Green, the justice of the peace, presided.”

Green, “always looking for amusement”, took a liking to Lincoln.

I couldn’t wait to draw Bowling Green, but can’t find a reference image. Searching “Justice Bowling Green” serves up opportunities to earn a criminal justice degree at Bowling Green State University. No, the university isn’t named after Justice Bowling Green:

Bowling Green: the myth

I have yet to find anything about Mr. Bowling Green anywhere besides this book. I’m going to go ahead and say Mr. Bowling Green was given that name because he was conceived in Bowling Green, Illinois. Which itself was “probably named after Bowling Green, Virginia” (according to Wikipedia).

Bowling Green: the legend

Since I’m making things up, I’m going to embellish further. Bowling Green was given that name because his parents weren’t sure if he was conceived in Bowling Green, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, NYC, Illinois, or Virginia.

Prove me wrong.

To be honest, I kind of got bored with all of this until I read that Abe Lincoln went bowling.

Friends, bowling was a thing when Lincoln was president!

This absolutely floored me. Not only that:

  • Bowling alleys were a thing then!

  • Bowling dates all the way back to ancient Egypt! ANCIENT EGYPT!!! All the exclamation points and then some!!!

  • I recently learned (not in this book!) that the modern bowling ball was invented by Joseph Gentiluomo of Schenectady — a WWII vet who turned 103 years old eleven days before I doodled this. It was his idea to put the heavy part inside the ball, instead of on the outside. How are all bowlers from Schenectady not talking about this nonstop!? Added him to my list of 100 Centenarians.

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

A failed “Bowling Abe Lincoln” image search lead me to learning that Bowling Green, NYC got its name because of improvements made in the 1700s — notably, the addition of a bowling green.

Bowling Green: the lawn

A bowling green is a “turfed, circular space” used for games, in particular the game of bowls. Bowls is more closely related to bocce ball than bowling, from what I understand. Then there’s also skittles, a precursor to nine-pin bowling.

Thomas Jefferson and George Washington both had private bowling greens. (Check out these incredible Mount Vernon insurance policy drawings showing the green or read more about the history of bowling greens (AKA Boleing green, bolling green, Boulingrin).

 

But seriously…

I am still curious about Bowling Green, the man. If you can point me to a depiction of him or additional information, please comment below.

 
Heather Rogers, America's Preeminent Presidential Doodler

Heather isn’t a historian, an academic, or an impartial storyteller… but she has read more than one book about every U.S. president. Out of spite. She was dubbed America’s Preeminent Presidential Doodler by one of her favorite authors and she’s been repeating it ever since. When she’s not reading or doodling history books, she’s a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.

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