Fayette County PA Archives Biographies.....Bowman, Nelson Blair July 8, 1807 - ????
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marta Burns marta43@juno.com August 29, 2024, 1:53 pm

Source: Gresham and Wiley, 1889: Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia, Fayette Co, PA, pg 251
Author: John H. Gresham & Samuel T. Wiley

    Nelson Blair Bowman is of a stock that represents three 
nations of people: United States, England, and 
Germany-requiring the bull-dog courage of English character, 
to conquer and hold the soil; the persistent frugality and 
industry of the German to develop the resources of the same; 
and the combination of the two races to establish the 
country which is rapidly developing in the strongest and 
greatest nation of the world.
    The Bowman family settled in County Cumberland, England, 
where they remained for many generations.  When Robert 
Seymore Bowman, third son of Stephen Bowman of Kirkoswald, 
was at the age of fifteen years, he was placed as a page in 
the household of Elizabeth, daughter of King James the 
First.  In 1613 Elizabeth married Frederick the Fifth, 
Elector Palatine of Germany.  Young Bowman continued in her 
service, going with her to Germany, where in 1616 he married 
and founded the German branch of the Bowman family.
    From this branch Nelson B Bowman is descended.  Simon 
Bowman, a descendant of Robert (or Rupert as the Germans 
have it) came to the United States the middle of the last 
century, and settled on a farm known as Big Spring, six 
miles from Hagerstown, Maryland.  He married Mary Easter, 
and after the birth of his son Jacob Bowman, removed to 
Hagerstown in 1764 and built the first stone house 
constructed in that town.  His death occurred in 1802.
    The second of this line, Jacob Bowman father of Nelson B 
Bowman, was born in Big Spring in 1763.  At the age of 
sixteen years he entered the store of Col Robert Elliott of 
Hagerstown, where he continued as a clerk till in the twenty 
fourth year of his age when he became partner with Col 
Elliott, and in 1786 came to Brownsville where he was one of 
the earliest merchants of that place.  He acted as assistant 
commissary to the western army during Wayne's campaign 
against the Indians.
    During Washington's administration he was appointed 
postmaster at Brownsville, holding the office for thirty 
years or until Jackson became president, when he was removed 
for being an offensive partisan-a Washington Federalist.  He 
was one of the founders of the Episcopal church at 
Brownsville, as well as one of its earliest, most useful and 
prominent members.  He was a man of great mind, enterprise 
and industry, and died in 1847, leaving a large estate.
    His wife was Isabella Lowry, native of County Donegal, 
Ireland.  In 1845 she passed away at the age of seventy 
eight years.  She was the daughter of Major James Lowry of 
Castle Finn, Ireland.  The wife of the latter was Susan 
Blair, daughter of Rev Arthur Blair, rector of Carnone.  
Major Lowry was descended from James Lowry of Ballynagorry, 
who came to Ireland from Maxwelton, Dumfries, Scotland, in 
1619 and died in Ireland in 1665.  After the death of her 
parents, Isabella Lowry came to this country in 1784, with 
her guardian Robert Nelson, a merchant of Baltimore, and a 
relative of her mother.
    The present head of the Lowry family in Ireland is 
Somerset Richard Lowry, Earl of Belmore of Castle Coole, 
County Fermanagh, with whom Mr Bowman is in regular 
correspondence.  The Countess of Belmore is a neice to the 
right Honorable William E Gladstone, the late Premier of 
Great Britain.
    Nelson Blair Bowman was born at Brownsville, July 8, 
1807, and is the youngest son in a family of nine children, 
and of whom he is the only survivor.  At twelve years of age 
he entered Washington (now Washington and Jefferson) 
College, taking a four years' course.  Leaving college he 
engaged in the mercantile business and continued in the same 
with remarkable success up till 1855 when he retired from 
active business.  He is now vice president of the 
Monongahela Bank of Brownsville, one of the strongest and 
most reliable banks in the whole country, and one of the 
very few banks that did not suspend specie payment prior to 
the breaking out of the late Civil War.
    Nelson B Bowman's father was the first president of this 
bank in 1812, remaining as such until he handed in his 
resignation just previous to his death.  He was succeeded in 
the presidency of the same by his son James Lowry Bowman, 
who continued as president until his death in 1857.  He was 
succeeded by his brother Goodloe Harper Bowman, who acted in 
the same capacity until his death in 1874.
    Nelson B Bowman was married in 1856 to Miss Elizabeth L 
Dunn, of Reading, Pennsylvania.  To their union were born 
six children, two of whom are now living: Sarah Bowman and 
Charles William Bowman.  Mr Bowman has never held any office 
nor aspired to political honors of any kind.  He is senior 
warden of Christ Episcopal church at Brownsville.  He owns 
two beautiful farms near Brownsville, besides large tracts 
of land in the West, and is otherwise well fixed in life.  
He is a man of pleasant manners and is well versed in 
literature, a good conversationalist, and takes special 
pride in entertaining his friends at his beautiful home, 
Nemacolin Towers, where he was born and where his father 
lived for sixty years from his marriage to his death.  The 
house is very extensive, castle shape, commands a 
magnificent view of the Monongahela, of the extensive 
suburbs of Bridgeport and West Brownsville.  With its ample 
grounds finely improved, it is considered by many to be the 
finest residence in Fayette county.
    June 16, 1889, he mourned the loss of his excellent 
wife.  The following concerning the same appeared in the 
GENIUS OF LIBERTY, June 20, 1889: Mrs Elizabeth L Bowman, 
wife of Nelson B Bowman, died at their home in Brownsville, 
Sunday, June 16, 1889, in her sixty second year.  Mrs Bowman 
was a woman possessed of many Christian graces and had many 
friends.  With her husband, two children, a son and a 
daughter,  mourn her death.  She was a devoted member of 
Christ church in which her funeral rites were performed and 
in the churchyard nearby her remains were interred on 
Tuesday the 18th.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2000.

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