J. E. and Mary Elizabeth (Bowen) Schwab

SCHWAB, BOWEN, HOLMES, CAMPBELL, DANLEY, SHORT, WYNN, HUIT, RHINE, ESPY, WATERS, DEUEL, MCQUILLEN, WOLFE, BROWN, FABER

Posted By: Peggy Elliott Webster (email)
Date: 2/9/2014 at 16:56:10

Mary Elizabeth Bowen, youngest daughter of Andrew Thomas Bowen and Eliza Ann Holmes, was born June 25, 1861, in Morgan County, Illinois. Andrew Thomas and Eliza Ann had ten children. Hannah Jane Married George Washington Campbell, then William Danley. Andrew Thomas, Jr. married Mary Lucinda Short. Sarah Ellen married John R. Wynn. John Wesley married Elizabeth Huit. William Wriley died as an infant. Peninah Francis died as an infant. Joseph Silas never married. Clara Isabelle married George Rhine. George Henry (twin) married Amelia Espy. Mary Elizabeth (twin) married John Frederick Schwab.

When Mary was three, the family moved to Iowa and settled in Jasper County, near Lynnville. This was a Quaker settlement and she received her early religious training in the Friends Church there. Later the family moved to Adair County where Mary lived most of her 95 years of life.

On March 19, 1882, she was united in marriage to John Frederick Schwab. Mary gave birth to six children. Pear Beatrice Bowen married Theodore T. Waters. Lester Amos Schwab married Gertrude Olive Deuel, they divorced and then he married Emma McQuillen. Jesse Earl Schwab Sr. married Edna B. Wolfe. Robert Lee Schwab married Birdie Brown. Anna Elizabeth "Bessie" Schwab never married. Fannie Fay Schwab married Glen Leroy Faber.

For a number of years the family lived in Richland Township in the Penn Avenue vicinity. It was there that the Schwab children were born. In the spring of 1918, J. F. retired from the farm and moved Mary and Bessie to Greenfield, where they spent their remaining days. Mary passed away on August 6, 1956, in Greenfield and J. F. passed away on January 30, 1931, in Greenfield. Both are buried in the Greenfield Cemetery, Greenfield, Iowa.

Source: Adair County Iowa Sesquicentennial Edition 1851-2001, pg.447