158 years ago today [28 Oct 1856], my 2nd great-grandfather Frederic Lowell Bowen was born in Perry, Maine, the eighth and last son born to William and Mary (Boynton/Boyington) Bowen.
I imagine Fred had a pretty rough childhood. By the time he was 8, four of his older brothers and his father were dead. Leaving his mother with six children under 14 years old and the family farm.
Fred ended up keeping the farm and in 1880 married Adelaide Robinson, the 20-year-old daughter of James and Sarah (Stanhope) Robinson. Over the next 25 years, they had 12 children: William, Sadie, Robert, Justin, Walter, Mattie, George [my great-grandfather], Dora, Amy, Myron, Edna and Augusta. Unfortunately, both Addy and Augusta died in childbirth on 4 Feb 1905. They are both buried in the Ross family cemetery on the farm (see the map for the approximate location). The Ross family lived on the farm after the Bowen family and a number of both families buried there. See “At Rest in Perry, Maine” compiled by cousins Jeanne O’Shea Wagner and Colon Morrison for more information about rural cemeteries in Washington county Maine.
While I have heard some stories of Fred’s cruelty to his children, my grandmother remembered him as a kind man who took her into town (probably Calais or Eastport) on his horse and wagon and bought her a dress.
Fred died in Perry on 19 August, 1922 of angina and is buried with his wife in the Ross Cemetery.
This post is 38th in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge series.
The eLuceydator 
2 replies on “52 Ancestors #38: Frederic Lowell Bowen”
Mother and daughter died on the same day? How awful.
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yeah very tragic. You can almost see how devastating is was by looking at the monument he had made for her grave. Most of the other stones in the cemetery (which is in the middle of the woods) are small and flat. Addy’s is a real “memorial”, and probably quite expensive for a poor farmer.
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