John⁶ (Daniel⁵, Peleg⁴, Alexander³, Samuel², Alexander¹) Bowe is the son of Capt. Daniel Bow and his wife Mary (Gaines) Bow.  He was born in Pittsfield, Rutland Co., Vermont circa 1805 and is the last of the eight known children of Daniel and Mary (aka Molly, Polly).

We first see John in Pittsfield’s 1830 census just 3 doors down from his brother Peleg:

There are 3 people in his home:
1 Male aged 20-29, this is John
1 Female 50-59, I don’t know whom this is; his mother would have been 64 in 1830
1 Female 10-14, I don’t know whom this is; perhaps a niece or cousin

Between 1830 and 1840 John moved 950 miles west to Elk Grove in Cook County, Illinois.

In 1841 John returned to Vermont to marry Persis Elmira Allen on September 9th in Stockbridge.

Persis (aka Elmira & Almira) is the daughter of Elijah Allen and his first wife Anna (Hotchkins) Rogers Allen and was born March 26th, 1816 in Stockbridge.

Anna had previously been married to Benjamin Rogers and had two sons: Benjamin & Elisha.  Anna’s father was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War and was possibly one of General Washington’s bodyguards. Elijah was born in Stockbridge, Vermont to John Allen and his wife Persis (Clark) Allen Coolidge.  Anna died on March 31st, 1831 in Stockbridge.  Elijah remarried eight years later on March 12th to Mabel Strong and they made their way to Cook County, Illinois where both Elijah and Mabel died in 1847 and 1872 respectively.

John Bowe returned to Elk Grove with his bride Persis where they had two children.  Mary Genevieve was born one day after Persis’s 28th birthday and Frank Daniel was born in 1847.  Persis died on August 23rd, 1847 and John never remarried.

In the 1850 census John is living with his two children, his step-mother-in-law Mabel (Strong) Allen, and sisters-in-law Mary and Malinda.  John was farming 120 improved acres.  His farm animals included 3 horses, 5 milk cows, 12 other cows, and 3 swine.  In that year his farm produced 150 bushels of wheat, 300 bushels of Indian corn, 200 bushels of oats, 100 bushels of Irish potatoes, 400 pounds of butter, and 30 tons of hay.

John’s household size decreased over the next 10 years.  His sister-in-law Mary married widower Dr. Elijah Smith on December 23, 1850 in Du Page County, Illinois where they remained for the rest of their lives. Step-mother-in-law Mabel was living with Martin & Polly Hurd and we do not know what became of Malinda.  Nephews Gilbert and John Bowe were helping John work the farm while daughter Mary cared for the household and son Frank went to school.

In 1867 Frank was attending Wheaton College as a Junior Prep student.

Frank is last noted in the 1870 census along with John, Mabel, and Mabel’s second husband Joel Skinner.  Frank died in 1872 but we have no additional information on his occupation, possible spouse and/or children, nor what caused his death at the young age of 25.

Mary Genevieve (sometimes called Jennie) married Edgar S Boynton in 1865.  Their first child, William Allen Boynton, was born Sep 19, 1867 in DuPage County, IL. Their second and final child, Ray D. Boynton, was born Nov 20, 1869 also in DuPage County.

1880 finds John living with Edgar and Mary on their farm in DuPage County, Illinois.

John died on 26 Apr 1886 at age 79.

His will, dated May 1885, left bequeaths to his daughter, grandsons, niece Augusta, nephew Gilbert, the three surviving children of Frank & Almira Hussey (she being the daughter of Persis’s half-brother Benjamin Rogers), and the Dunton church (the church John’s family attended and Persis’s brother, Elijah, was an elder there).

Edgar and Mary lived out their lives in DuPage County; both passed in the early 1900s.

Edgar & Mary’s eldest son William married twice.  His first wife, Frances “Fannie” Church Bradley, was a daughter of Henry & Mary (Lathrop) Bradley and was born February 6th, 1866.  William and Fannie were married on February 6, 1894 in DuPage County, Illinois.  Their first child, Neil Lathrop Boynton, was born March 17, 1895.  Four years later on April 18th, twin boys were born: Edgar Bowe Boynton & Henry Bradley Boynton.  Fannie died from childbirth complications on May 7th of the same year.

William raised his sons, with the help of his parents, for four years before he remarried on April 6, 1903 in Kane County, Illinois. William’s second wife was Julia Bradley who is the daughter of Ebenezer & Margaret (Waddell) Bradley and was born March 18, 1868.  William’s wives were first cousins through their fathers.  William and Julia had no children together.

William decided to moved his family to Virginia where he continued farming and also started well drilling.  William died in 1955.

Julia passed away seven years later.

Edgar and Mary’s other child, Ray, also moved to Virginia with his wife, Alice, and three young children.

Alice is the daughter of Dr. Henry & Frances (Goodwin) Daniels. Ray and Alice married in June 1898 in DuPage County, Illinois and had 3 children there: Clarence William, Bernice Genevieve, and Norman Neil.  Shortly after arriving in Amelia County, Alice delivered twins Herbert Eugene and Helen Virginia.  Baby Herbert, the eldest of the twins, died only a few weeks later.

Ray died in 1946 and Alice in 1958.

We want to respect the privacy of living people. As such we will not include detailed information on John and Persis’s great grandchildren.

Surnames of descendants, their spouse(s), and in-laws include:  Bay, Brown, Brunner, Chenault, Hawley, Hernandez, Lamothe, Lecain, Martin, Moore, Phillips, Richmond, Stowe, West, Whitley, and Whitmore

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