Have you gotten your flu and COVID shots yet? If not, let me tell you the story of Harlan Bowen, his father William Bowen, and his son Charles Lindsey “C. L.” Bowen.
Harlan Darius Bowen, our 2nd cousin 5x removed, was born on November 27, 1852 in Randolph, New York, to William & Harriet (Hitchcock) Bowen. Harlan is related to us on the Cross/Torrance branch of our tree; his great-grandparents, Samuel & Anne (Root) Torrance, are our 6th great-grandparents. He married Effie Florence Williams in 1880 and they had four children: Charles Lindsey (1880), Ernest Nelson (1884), Stella R. (1885), and Alice M. (1891).
The Bowens had a dairy and fruit farm—peaches and grapes—on Mud Creek Road southwest of Randolph. They appear to have led quiet, productive lives . . . until the end. Then, from a double-obituary in the Randolph New York Register, April 18, 1913:
A DOUBLE FUNERAL FOR FATHER AND SON
Oldest Man in Randolph Dies After a Short Sickness
PNEUMONIA WAS THE CAUSE
William Bowen and His Son, Harlan Bowen, Died but a Few Hours Apart—Funeral at Late Home
Sudden sickness removed from their sphere of activity two men of one family, when on Sunday last William Bowen and his son, Harlan Bowen, both died of pneumonia. Within a few hours of each other these two men, who had been closely associated through a lifetime, died in the same house and of similar difficulties.
William Bowen, the oldest man in Randolph [91] and who had resided here perhaps longer than any other person, died Sunday morning, while his son, himself a man of middle age [60], survived until sometime during the night. A double funeral was conducted at the home Tuesday afternoon, in charge of Rev. P. D. Westbrook of Buffalo, and the burial was made in the family plot at Sample Hill Cemetery.
The family had been afflicted with a serious epidemic of influenza which in the cases of the two men resulted in pneumonia. Harlan Bowen’s condition was considered somewhat serious about the middle of last week, but he seemed to recover, and on Thursday last William Bowen addressed a letter to his daughter in which he stated he thought the worst was over, referring to his son’s sickness. The older gentleman’s health was so vigorous that his sickness did not cause alarm until the latter part of the week when some symptoms of pneumonia developed.
William Bowen was born at Henrietta, Monroe County, New York, September 8, [1821]. . . . His father’s name was Darius Bowen [who married Almira Torrance, our 5th great-grandaunt], and the parents of William moved into Randolph about 1827. The older generation was among the very first to settle in this township, and since that time this section has been the home of the family. In 1847, on March 16, William Bowen was united in marriage with Miss Harriette Hitchcock, and to them have been born seven children: Elsie J. Hildom of Chicago; Adaline of Bradford; Harlan, who died Sunday; Otis F. of Randolph; Olive E. Woodmancy of Cold Spring; Milan of Bemus Point; and T. E. Bowen of Washington. The family were all present at the funeral except Mrs. Hildom.
The double fatality marks the first death in William Bowen’s family, and that is all the more singular for one so advanced in age when it is known that not one death has occurred in the branch families, composed as they are of several children each. Mr. Bowen had been in very vigorous health, and only last month he walked three miles to visit some friends. He occupied his time with the lighter forms of farm work and kept regular hours for rest and refreshment.
At the time of Mr. Bowen’s 89th birthday anniversary, when a family gathering was held, the Register published the following sketch of his life:
Mr. Bowen has to a remarkable degree lived in harmony with the laws of life and health. He has never drank any intoxicants, not even tea or coffee as a habit. For more than forty years he has not used any tobacco, and has been almost entirely a vegetarian. He has been a steady worker. . . . Even as these lines are being written, he comes with his wheelbarrow and tools from the garden some distance away, where he had been at work. Next, he fills baskets he has made from a pile of shavings surrounding the “shaving horse” where he had lately split the bolts and shaved over a thousand pine shingles for repairs on his house roof. This and other useful work, and attending to his bees, continuing his usual habits of industry from choice and although he makes it of no account, is it not worthy of note, being uncommon?
He delights to tell of the early days when the people were not too much in a hurry to be neighborly nor anyone . . . to feel exalted over another. . . .
When in 1825 his father, Darius Bowen, moved with ox teams from farther east, it was a wilderness of woods here. Soon he had a log house sixteen by twenty feet. Their first dining table was the side of the sled box as it hung on pegs on the side of the log house, and the dishes were large clean chips fresh cut from the trees. This was because the snow suddenly thawed off when they were moving and some of their goods were left for a while miles back.
A few years after this time pioneer men organized this township. “Esquire” York was the first supervisor and his wife christened the town Randolph after her home place in Vermont.
Mr. Bowen has worked for the good education and training of his own and other’s children, and improvement in many ways. He has all his life acknowledged his Creator, the living God of heaven as supreme, and has read His word from a child until now. To his children and friends recently assembled he earnestly said: “My advice to you and all is take the Bible for your guide.”
Harlan Bowen was born in Randolph November 27, 1852, and had lived in this township all his life. He was notoriously an industrious man and kept everything about his place neat and orderly. He married Miss Effie Williams in April 1880, and to them two sons were born: Charles Lindsey [“C. L.”] Bowen, who after obtaining an advanced education went to Africa, where he is now employed as missionary; and Ernest Nelson Bowen of Randolph. Mr. Bowen was one of the sturdy, upright farmers who has made for himself a competency through constant and untiring labor. He manufactured a high grade of butter upon his farm and twice each month he drove to Jamestown where his products sold at a high price. He was, like his parents and family, an earnest member of the Seventh Day Adventist church, and conscientiously followed the teachings of that doctrine in leading a Christian life.
The surviving members of the family have the satisfaction of realizing that the two men whose lives went out last Sunday had lived upright and honorable and had the respect of the entire community. The funeral, Tuesday afternoon, was attended by a very large number of friends, relatives, and associates.
But William and Harlan weren’t the only Bowen family members to die suddenly that spring. According to the Randolph Register for Friday, June 6, 1913:
MISSIONARY C. L. BOWEN IS DEAD IN AFRICA
Randolph Man Who was Serving in the Jungles is Cut Down.
Ernest Bowen received a cablegram Wednesday from Rhodesia, South Africa, announcing the death of his brother, C. L. Bowen [the Charles Lindsey Bowen mentioned above], from small pox.
C. L. Bowen is a son of Mrs. Harlan Bowen, whose husband died suddenly a few weeks ago. The deceased was about 34 years of age; he was born in Randolph and made his home with his parents until a year ago in April, when he started with his wife [Ida (Nelson) Bowen] and two children for South Africa, where he has been serving as a missionary for the Seventh Day Advent Church Society.
Besides his mother he is survived by his brother Ernest and one daughter who remained in Randolph with her grandmother. His wife, who sent the cablegram, was with her husband in the jungles of Africa.
Mr. Bowen’s address was Kusape, Rhodesia, South Africa, [today Rusape, Zimbabwe] and his mission was known as the Tsungwest Mission. He was a young man of pronounced personality, an earnest Christian, and one who made lasting friends wherever he was known. His untimely end casts a gloom over a large circle in this section who learn of his death with deep sorrow.
But his story doesn’t end there. In 1918 C. L. Bowen’s 59-year-old mother Effie—the recent widow—sailed to Rhodesia to retrieve her son. A “Report of the Death of an American Citizen” issued by the American Consular Service in Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 6, 1918, recorded what she learned:
Cause of Death: Certified by the attending physician to have died of smallpox.
Disposition of Remains: The grave is situated to the south-west of the Mission Houses. It is marked by a stone bearing the name, age, etc.
Local Law as to Disinterring Remains: Before the exhumation or removal of the remains of the body can be made, authorization must be obtained from the Provincial Secretary, for which application must be made.
Disposition of the Effects: Effects were taken charge of by the mother of the deceased, and will be in her possession until the children come of age.
One of the saddest aspects of C. L. Bowen’s death is that a small
pox vaccine was available since the
late 1700s—a person could be inoculated with a live cowpox virus. (The word vaccine is derived from vacca, the Latin word for cow.) The inoculated patient developed
antibodies that would protect him or her from the related smallpox virus. The flu vaccine, on the other hand, was not widely available until the late 1940s, and not an option for any of the Bowens.
There is no record that C. L. Bowen’s body was ever exhumed, much less returned to New York—probably not a great idea given what killed him.
Ida (Nelson) Bowen never remarried, and later worked as a private nurse. She is the only person
in this story whose photo I have. It is a passport photo from 1920, taken in Africa before she returned to the United States, the face of a woman who had lost her husband, son, and father-in-law in the course of a few weeks. She was 44 at the time. Ida Bowen died in Mansfield, Connecticut, in 1950 at the age of 74.
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