One of my direct lines is the Bowman family. My paternal grandmother was a Bowman and my dad was named for her father, Frank Bowman.
Frank was one of six children in this family: Isabella, John, Joseph, Edwin, Frank and Clifton. Clifton has long given me the slip. This time the culprit is Joseph.
Joseph and his siblings named above were the children of John Parker Bowman and Mary Elizabeth Chinn. The eldest son, John C. Bowman died in 1858. John Parker Bowman died in 1862 on retreat from Elkhorn Tavern (Pea Ridge) in Arkansas. Mary Elizabeth was left to raise the rest of the children on her own.
Mary appears on the 1880 census with the following children: Joseph, Edwin, Frank and Clifton. Joseph is 30. There is a Susan Foster on the 1880 census in Lafayette county, Missouri who is the right age with a son Robert and a daughter, Daisy, ages 3 and 1. Those dates coincide perfectly with the known children. Susan Foster is listed as a widow.
Let's fast forward to 1900. Joseph is in Wyandotte county, Kansas with wife Susan and sons Robert and Leroy. The census says that they've been married 25 years. But wait, Joseph is with his mother and younger brothers in 1880. No marriage record to be found anywhere. And certainly not before 1880. The 1910 Census shows Joseph and Susan, married, one marriage for each of them and now they've been married 33 years. It's definitely not adding up.
When Susan dies in 1934, no mention of her late husband, but does mention her children. However, it references Miss Daisy Bowman. I have a marriage record where she marries Allen Root in 1897. In her father's obit, she is Mrs. Daisy Lucas.
Certainly I have more work to do on this family, if I can get them straight in my head.
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