David Bower ^{1 2}

   Cause of his death was Pneumonia.

  General Notes:

BIO:DAVID BOWER: David was the fourth child and fourth son of Mary (Glock) Bauer and Stephen Gottlieb Bauer. David's father, applied in court and received permission to change the two letters au in his name to ow, changing from Bauer to Bower, the better to Americanize it. This was done, about 1855, at Freeport, County seat of Stephenson County, Illinois. David's parents had emigrated to America from Germany in 1838. David always signed his name Bower while his brother John L. added an "s" to his name,
as was the custom in the old country, to show he was the son of Bower. so, in this one family, two generations you have three spellings of the last name, Bauer, Bower, and Bowers.
David was born April 15, 1842, in Hungingdon County, Pennsylvania. In 1849 David's parents moved to Stephenson County, Illinois, near Lena and Waddams Grove. They traveled by boat and crossed the Allegheny Mountains, from Holldaysburg to Johnstown, in a canal boat made in sections. These sections were put on trucks and pulled up inclines by stationary engines at the top. There were double tracks, one truck going up while another was going down. At Pittsburg they transferred to a steamboat, went down the Ohio River to Cairo, Illinois, then up the Mississippi River to Galena, Illinois. Then by wagon 60 or 70 miles across prairies and sloughs, over muddy roads, some of which were corduroy, to Lena, Illinois.
One day David happened around to Robert Badger's place, two miles west of Lena. There he found the daughter, Susannah, out at the kettle place. She had a turkey in the big iron kettle and was broiling it in fine shape. The next day, Sunday, July 7, 1867, after Sunday School and church services, they were married at her home by Daniel Fry, Elder of the Yellow Creek Brethren Church.
For a while after their marriage, David and Susannah lived with David's parents on the old Barrens farm east of the Louisa School house, which was the old Chicago-Galena Trail two miles northwest of Lena, Illinois. They lived in a "gravel house" that was built as an addition to the old log house first lived in. One winter evening, when the snow had drifted the ditches and gullies
full, Pelegee McIntyre, a Yankee, came along and stayed all night. The next day it snowed and blowed some more; the Yankee took a liking to the way the barn was fixed to protect the stock during a storm; and bought the farm - he couldn't see the gullies and ditches for the snow. Some timber land was reserved in the sale.
Just previous to that, Davids parents had bought a 160-acre prairie farm five miles west of Lena where Davids brother John L. Bowers and family lived. Davids parents also bought another 160-acre farm one mile futher west, just across the county line in Jodaviess County, for David and Susannah to move into. The foundation needed fixing, the cellar was merely a mud hole, and the fields needed ditching. David says, "We moved into that place and fixed it up in good shape." David and Susannah's first child was born there, January 22, 1869, Rachel Ann.
In February of 1870 Susannah's parents took a notion of moving to Iowa; and because all of her mothers's brothers and sisters were going, she wanted to go too. So David and Susannah packed their belongings into a covered wagon and went along. It had been a cold winter, and the ice got pretty thick. For a week or so, the weather got warm enough to melt the snow and ice on small streams. By the time they got to the Mississippi River at Savannah, where they aimed to cross, they heard that the ice had cracked, and several teams had gone under, and they could not cross. They were told, that if they
went south about 20 miles to Fulton, the ice was good and they could cross there.
They drove there, arrived a little after noon, and were told that with the help of men equipped with axes, ropes, and other tools they could easliy get across. Four or five men said they would pilot the party across for $5.00. Since these men were thought to be acquainted with the conditions, the offer was accepted. The horses were put one ahead of the other in single file and hitched to the wagon tongues with long chains and ropes. This was done to
prevent too much weight from being in one place; and if one horse went through the ice, they could pull him out. With sixteen horses and colts the caravan strung out for half a mile. Davids place in this caravan was at the rear. By the time he came along, the ice had broken up into large cakes and had been jarred loose from each other in some places. When a horse stepped from one cake of ice to another, one would raise and the other would go down letting some water come up over the ice. David said "You may be sure I felt uneasy and did some praying." The caravan angled down stream
about three miles and came off the river at Clinton, Iowa. They were the last to cross, for the city ruled that any party piloting another across would be fined Five Hundred Dollars.
David and Susannah settled near Adel, Iowa as did Susannah's parents and others. David and Susannah's second child was born there, Susannah Catherine, April 7, 1870. Within two years David and his family moved back to the farm in Illinois; and in the same house where they first lived, four children were born there, Annie Elizabeth, April 02, 1872; Alice Mabel, June 26, 1874; Mildred Ruth, May 03, 1877; and the only boy David Earl, November 3, 1881.
When Earl was a year and a half old David decided it was time to move his family west again. This would have been about May of 1883. David sold his sixty acres for $8,000.00 and loaded the family belongings on the railroad for the trip to Iowa. There was a family named Keefer, who had four boys and a girl, that made the trip with the Bower family. They settled on a farm in the Adel area again where so many of their relatives lived. Susannah's
parents and brothers and sisters.
The house in Adel, Iowa was small - two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs. David built on in the spring. He made three rooms more upstairs and two down. There was a nice big porch and a large lawn or yard for the children to play in. He then built a milk house close to the pump, so they could cool the milk, and water the horses, by pumping by hand. The farm land was swampy, water would stand. David put in tile to drain the land. He put in quite a bit; had to dig the ditches by hand. He had a hired man to help. After two years the family moved again, this time to the Great Bend, Kansas area. This would be around spring of 1885.
The exact location is not known, but it is believed to be 6 to 10 miles northwest of Great Bend, David planted Mulberry trees on what was called his timber claim. They sold milk to the Heiser Creamery Company. There was a family who lived a couple miles south of them that had a son, named Mell Zimmerman, who hauled milk for the creamery. There was a Dave Martin who lived five miles west of Bowers. He hauled milk for the creamery also. Dave Martin had eight boys, John, Ira, Cyrus, Dave, Howard, Perry, Newton, and Emery. The last two boys were by his second wife.
In the fall of 1888 the McPherson College started. This is the Brethren Church related college. David's two oldest daughters went to McPherson to attend the new College. Then in the fall of 1891 David decided to move into McPherson so his children would be closer to the College. He built a nice big square house at McPherson. David's wife Susannah passed away November 20, 1893. From then till his finial days February 17, 1932, little is
documented about David Bower. David and Susannah were the parents of six children, five girls and one boy. David and Susannah are buried in the McPherson Cemetery, which is just south of the College in the southeast edge of town.

(Most of this information was taken from the book "AS I REMEMBER"
by David Bower's daughter Susannah Catherine (Bower) Boyd.) Assembled
here by Phillip H. Pitzer, 11/1991.

@REMEMBER Entire booklet
@BOWER Page 2

  Noted events in his life were:

• Findagrave.com: recorded by Phillip H. Pitzer at < phillip.pitzer@gmail.com >, 11 January 2005, McPherson Cemetery, McPherson, McPherson Co., KS, USA. can be seen at < Find A Grave >

David married Susannah Badger, daughter of III Robert Badger III and Susannah Shively, on 7 July 1867 in Lena, Stephenson Co., Illinois, USA.¹ (Susannah Badger was born on 9 December 1846,¹ died on 20 November 1893 in McPherson, McPherson Co., Kansas, USA ¹ and was buried in McPherson Cemetery, McPherson, McPherson Co., KS, USA.)

David next married Sarah Flora in 1898.¹ (Sarah Flora was born on 6 February 1845 ¹ and died on 4 July 1921 in Flora, Carroll, Indiana, USA.)