Re: Benjamin Bowley born abt 1806 in Main
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In reply to:
Benjamin Bowley born abt 1806 in Main
WAYNE DEMUNN 4/24/10
147. BENJAMIN BOWLEY (69.Oliver4, 29.Gideon3, 5.Oliver2, 1.John1) was born about 1806 in the Weld/New Sharon area of Maine. He married LOUISA HOWE 31 December 1828 at Temple, Maine.[ ] Alan W. Blachford wrote to Donovan in 1989[ ] enquiring about a Benjamin Bowley born about 1805 in Maine. This is the Benjamin Bowley about whom Alan asked.Foster says that this Benjamin moved with his brothers and father to join the Mormons in Ohio.[ ] In his letter, Alan Blatchford describedBenjamin Bowley as marrying Louisa Howe and living at least for a while in Temple, Maine. In the 1820 US Census, Benjamin appears with Gideon, Isaac, and John in Plantation No. 4. [Carthage], Oxford Co., Maine. In the 1830 US Census he appears next door to his cousin 123. WILLIAM5 BOWLEY in Temple, Maine. At the 1850 US Census he was at Newbury, Orange County, Vermont, near his cousin 121. JACOB5 BOWLEY, William’s brother.[ ] While Jacob remained in Vermont for the rest of his days, Benjamin moved west. We do not at first find him in the 1860 US Census, but at the top of the census page on which his son Sylvester Bowley (and Sylvester’s wife Catherine [Patterson]) appear, we find that the first five entries are Louisa, (54), Mary (18), Martha (16), Ellen (14), and Angeline (9), continuing an entry from the previous page. Turning back one page, at the bottom of the page, we note (in house 1021, as household 1039) that the head of their household is Benjamin “Rowley” (44), born in Maine. Turning back to the original page, we note that Louisa was also born in Maine, and the children in the household were all born in Vermont. The “B” in Sylvester Bowley’s last name is shaped almost like the “R” of Benjamin’s “Rowley” and is unlike the shape of the other capital Bs on the two pages. Considering the names, the ages of Louisa and the children, and the fact that three houses away are Sylvester Bowley and his family, we believe that in this census, Benjamin Bowley was entered as Benjamin “Rowley,”[ ] and that in the process his age was also wrongly entered as “44” rather than 54.This will have to be confirmed in local records, Benjamin unambiguously reappears in the 1870 US Census as a farm tenant in Hale, Jones Co., Iowa, and son Sylvester and family are living with them there. In the 1880 US Census, Benjamin, 74 years old, appears in the household ofPeter J. and Ellen Brant in Douglas, Shelby Co., Iowa., where he is listed as Peter’s son-in-law, and therefore is Ellen’s father.[ ] Ellen, 44 years old in 1880, appears to be Nancy Ellen in the list of Benjamin’s children, below. (This same child appears as Ellen in the 1860 US Census as well.) Benjamin does not appear in the 1900 US Census.
CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN5 BOWLEY AND LOUISAHOWE:
300. i. ELIZA ANN BOWLEY b. 11 Mar 1830
301 ii. SYLVESTER BOWLEY b. 14 Aug 1831
302. iii. ELZANIA BOWLEY b. 1840
303. iv. MARY A. BOWLEY b. 1842
304. v. NANCY ELLEN BOWLEY b.1844
305. vi. MARTHA BOWLEY b. 1848
305A vii ANGELINE BOWLEY b.. 1851
306.. vii. FRANK BOWLEY b. 1862