Bowman Family Reunions
of the
1930s and 1940s
The first annual reunion of descendants of Maltiah / Meletiah Bowerman and his wife Rhoba / Rhoda / Reba Arnold (I have seen several spellings of both names) was apparently held August 23, 1936 at the home of Jane (Milroy) Bowman in Stanfordville, Dutchess County, New York. My great grandmother, Elma (Bowman) Simmons, kept two newspaper clippings related to this event. I do not know what newspapers these were clipped from.
Additional clippings and some photos from other Bowman family reunions have been generously submitted by a relative:
Clipping of the 1937 reunion from the August 19, 1937 Pine Plains Register-Herald.
Two photos and a clipping from a Bowman family reunion held on August 27, 1939.
Oldest Bowman cousins on the porch. The newspaper clipping for this reunion (see below) names all of these people, but we haven't yet matched all the names with faces. I feel bad for the poor fellow in the upper left who got his head cut off. The clipping names the following cousins for this photo and implies that there may have been a professional photographer who took a version of this photo (would love to see a copy of that!)."The oldest cousins of the family were photographed together. In this group were: Mrs. Jennie Eckert, Willett Sherow, Mrs. Lina Decker, Mrs. Mary Duncan, Horace Bowman, Charles Hicks, Mrs. John Wright, Mrs. Rose Myers, Otis Bowman, Mrs. Elma Simmons, Miss Minnie Hoag, Mrs. Virgil Fowler, Wilbur Bowman, George Bowman."
The couple seated in front of the center tree have been tentatively identified as Mr. and Mrs. Harold Herrick.- Clipping from the August 31, 1939 Pine Plains Register-Herald. This is a long article and names all the folks in the porch photo above, but is incomplete and is missing the end of the article with part of the list of attendees.
Bowman Family Reunion held on August 9, 1942 from the August 13,1942 Pine Plains Register-Herald. This includes a nice little listing of the birth, deaths and marriages that had occurred so far that year.
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