Charles Bowker - Civil War Soldier Buried in Farmer Cemetery

Lurana Butler Bowker

 Born in 1812 in New York, he married Lurana Butler about 1837, and they set up housekeeping in Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York.

The census enumerator found them there in 1850 when Charles, at 38, was a successful farmer with $2000 in real estate.  He and Lurana had children - Marian, 11, Sherman, 9, and Homer, 1, at that time.  Again in 1860, they were there with the addition of Charles C., their last child.

In 1860, they were still in New York farming when their son, Sherman, turned 20.  He enlisted in the Union Army just a few years later and came to an early death as described in the previous post.


At some point, Charles also served for the Union, but it has been difficult to zone in on the unit in which he served.  Researchers at the Farmer Cemetery where he is buried have him on their list of veterans as a member of the National Guard.  He would have been over 50 years old, so that could be a good assumption.

The family moved to Center Township, Williams County, before the 1870 census with their remaining son, Charles Jr., 13, and Etta, 26, perhaps a boarder, who taught music.  Charles, at 58, had been denied voting due to insanity.  He had real estate worth $550 and person effects worth $200.  He died just about six months after the census taker's August visit, on February 3, 1871.  

By the 1880 census, Charles C. Jr. was now head of the household at 23, with his wife, Mary Ann, also 23.  Lurana, 65, lived with them in Center Township, Williams County.   Lurana married again to John Stackhouse on January 7, 1883, but he died in 1890.

Lurana Bowker Stackhouse lived in Farmer in 1900, 85 and a widow and a landlord.  Born December, 1814, she had had four children, but only one was living.  Charles C. had died, and Lurana lived next to his widow, Mary Ann Bowker, a capitalist, now 45.  Two of Mary Ann's children lived there also: Louis, 25, a teacher, and Neal, 15, a grocery salesman.  

Thirty-seven years after her first husband's death, Lurana died in March, 1908.  Her obituary appeared in the Defiance Crescent-News on March 19, 1908, in local news.  Her son-in-law (husband to deceased daughter, Marian) had come to assist.

"Mr. Hiram Weldon, formerly of this city but of late years a resident of Elyria, was called to this place Saturday of last week on account of the death of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Stackhouse of Farmer, who departed this life at the ripe old age of ninety three years.

Mrs. Stackhouse had resided in Farmer for a number of years prior to her death and during her sojourn in life, had made a host of friends.  She was a christian lady and devoted to her church.

The body was brought to this place by undertaker Charles W. Miller of this city Monday of this week and laid in state until Tuesday last.  Funeral services conducted by Rev. Miller of this place; interment in the Farmer Cemetery Tuesday last."

Sherman O. Bowker - Civil War Soldier Buried in Farmer Cemetery

92nd Regiment, Company A - Read more about the 92nd HERE.

Sherman Bowker's early life was spent near Potsdam in Saint Lawrence County, New York.  Born to Charles and Lurana Bowker about 1840, Sherman grew up on a farm and called himself a farmer, too.









In June, 1863, the Civil War draft was instituted, and Sherman Bowker registered and went to serve.  He was a single farmer, just 23 years old, when he enlisted on June 30, 1863, into Company C, 92nd New York Infantry.  By July, the company was at Fort Anderson, North Carolina in battle.  They eventually made their way back into Virginia where they suffered heavy losses at Cold Harbor in June, 1864.  He remained in Virginia until mustering out in January, 1865.

At some point, Sherman married Henrietta Fuller and the Bowkers relocated to Defiance County.  Soon after, Sherman became ill and died, leaving no children.  He died on New Year's Day, 1867 in Hicksville.  Only one obituary could be located for Sherman and that was in the Courier and Freeman newspaper in Potsdam, New York, on January 10, 1867.

"In Farmer, Ohio, on the 1st Inst. of hemorrhage of the Liver, Sherman O. Bowker, aged 25 years and 4 months."

Farmer Cemetery

 His wife, Henrietta, apparently returned to New York where she was listed on the 1890 Veterans' Census as Sherman's widow.  Pension records show that she received her widows pension until her death on March 24, 1928.