Martha WHEELER

Father: Samuel WHEELER
Mother: Lucretia JOHNSON

Family 1: Hiram BOWEN
  1. Mary Evelyn BOWEN
  2. Samuel Wheeler BOWEN
  3. Ellen Frances BOWEN
  4. Martha Wheeler BOWEN
  5. William Perley BOWEN
  6. Marvin Knapp BOWEN 
                                                                    _Samuel WHEELER _____
                                           _Samuel WHEELER ________|_Abigail LACY _______
                     _Aaron WHEELER Judge_|
                    |                     |                         _Ephraim KIDDER _____
                    |                     |_Chloe KIDDER __________|_Freedom BARNARD ____
 _Samuel WHEELER ___|
|                   |                                               _John HARPER ________
|                   |                      _Alexander HARPER ______|_Abigail MONTGOMERY _
|                   |_Margaret HARPER ____|
|                                         |                         _Johan BARTHOLOMEW __
|                                         |_Elizabeth BARTHOLOMEW _|_Dorothy ENDT _______
|
|--Martha WHEELER 
|
|                                                                   _____________________
|                                          ________________________|_____________________
|                    _Samuel JOHNSON Sr.__|
|                   |                     |                         _____________________
|                   |                     |________________________|_____________________
|_Lucretia JOHNSON _|
                    |                                               _____________________
                    |                      ________________________|_____________________
                    |_Lidia or Mercy _____|
                                          |                         _____________________
                                          |________________________|_____________________
INDEX

Notes

GREENHILL CEMETERY, WAYNE TOWNSHIP ALEXANDRIA SOUTH DAKOTA 58-102-10 Bowen, Hiram Hiram Bowen/Apr. 20, 1815-Mar 20, 1886 Martha Martha Wheeler/His Wife/November 21, 1820-August 13, 1886 ____________________________________________________________________________ 1880 Federal Census Household: Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mothe r's Birthplace Hiram BOWEIR Self M Male W 65 MA Farmer CT MA Martha BOWEIR Wife M Female W 59 OH Keeping House OH OH Ella BOWEIR Dau S Female W 30 WI At Home MA OH Marvin K. BOWEIR Son S Male W 20 WI Works The Farm MA OH Bessie STREETER Niece S Female W 18 WI Assists Her Aunt NY OH Soloman BRINK Other S Male W 21 WI Farm Laborer --- --- Source Information: Census Place Township 100, Hutchinson, Dakota Territory Family History Library Film 1254112 NA Film Number T9-0112 Page Number 114B ___________________ This obit was written by her son, W. S. Bowen. Source: Microfilm copy of newspaper obituary from Press & Dakotan, Yankton, Dakota Territory Issue date: August 17, 1886. Received from the South Dakota State Historical Society and transcribed at Simi Valley, Calif ornia May 5, 2003 by Donna Cuillard. DIED BOWEN - At Martella, Hutchinson County, Dakota, August 16, 1886, of BrightŁus disease, Mrs. Ma rtha Bowen, aged 65 years, 8 months, and 23 days. ~ The subject of the foregoing notice was the mother of W. S. Bowen, of the Press and Dakotaian . Her other surviving children are Mrs. Eva M. Bell, of Beloit, Wisconsin; Mrs. Ella F. Colb orne, of Alexandria, Dakota; Mrs. Mattie Kershaw, of Seattle, Washington Territory; William P . Bowen, of Los Angeles, California; Marvin K. Bowen, of Martella, Dakota. The deceased was born at Unionville, Ohio, November 21st, 1820, and was left an orphan at a n early age. Most of her girlhood was spent at Akron, Ohio, in the family of her aunt, Mrs . Margaret Hand, now a resident of Yankton, upon whom devoted the early training of the orpha ned child. In 1839 she was married to Hiram Bowen, then editor of the Akron Beacon. In 184 9 they migrated to Wisconsin with their two eldest children, where they remained until 1876 , when they followed their eldest son to Dakota and settled upon a Jim river farm fifty-thre e miles north of Yankton, to which they gave the name of Martella, after two of their daughte rs, Martha and Ella. Last fall failing health compelled her husband to seek a milder clime and Mrs. Bowen went wi th him to Los Angeles, California, where he died in March last. She returned with the remain s to Dakota and had since divided her time among her children at Alexandria, Yankton and Mart ella. Her last visit before going back to the homestead was in Yankton, and while here ther e were no perceptible indications of the speedy dissolution which has so soon again plunged t he family in mourning and bereft them of the dearest life between them and eternity. Perhap s her quiet, patient, uncomplaining nature and habitual cheerfulness deceived those whose dev oted hopes were centered about the life of their grey haired mother, but they failed to reali ze that death was near until the soul was trembling upon eternityŁus verge and the angels wer e beckoning from the other shore. Last Monday she began to fail and Wednesday night the children were suddenly summoned by tel egraph to Martella. Only two, Mrs. Colborne and W. S. Bowen, the latter accompanied by his w ife, arrived in time to see her alive, and to them it was then a death of the living, for dis ease had robbed her of consciousness and in her eyes there was no gleam of recognition. Thei r compensation is that her capacity for physical suffering departed with consciousness and sh e was exempted from the pains of dissolution. Shortly before four oŁuclock on the morning o f the 13th, as the grey of coming dawn was stealing over the eastern hills, in the quiet of n atureŁus great hush before the quickening of another day, her soul went out into the mysteriou s beyond without a movement to indicate that it had cast off its burden of clay. Sweetly sle eping, with the heaven light of perfect peace upon her face, the breath which was to have fol lowed her last did not come - she had gone beyond earthly recall. Her death was the fulfillm ent of a life of calm, sweet Christian love for all mankind and all of GodŁus creatures and al l of His works; and in the death there is no sting except the recollection of so much that wa s good and lovely and the pang of an irreparable loss. A son whose heart is bowed in anguis h is writing of a cherished life-of one who watched with heroic affection his career from inf ancy to middle age and shed upon his life the good of a true motherŁus example. It is his las t tribute - his last earthly offering to one whose existence has been a continuous exemplific ation of divine requirements and of true motherly instincts. The funeral took place at Alexandria last Saturday afternoon from the Episcopal Church, of w hich the deceased had been a member from girlhood. The last services were administered by th e rector, Rev. Mr. Jones, and there were many sorrowing friends about the group of mourners a nd their dead. Mrs. Bell, eldest daughter of the deceased, and her husband, arrived from Wis consin two hours before the funeral. Two of the children, W. P. Bowen, in California and Mrs . Kershaw, in Washington Territory, were unable to attend the funeral on account of the grea t distance. The remains of the deceased were placed beside those of her husband in the Alexa ndria cemetery. After a brief separation, they are united in death and for all eternity.



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