USA > Pennsylvania > Lycoming County > Genealogical and personal history of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 10
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"As one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him And lies down to pleasant dreams."
Mr. Bowman married on January 8, 1840, Eliza Ann Buck, a noble christian woman, who was born in Great Bend, Pennsylvania, October 2, 1818, and died October 31, 1897. Four children were born of this mar- riage : Francis Carlton, further mentioned on a following page; Carrie, born in 1851, died in infancy; Harvey Rowland, born February 5, 1861, died April 20, 1882; James Walton, further written of in this work.
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Eliza Ann (Buck) Bowman, the mother of the children above named, came of the following line of ancestry reaching to the earliest colonial period :
[. Thomas Munson, born about 1612, was known in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1637, as a resident who performed military service in the Pequot war. Forty-two of the ninety men of Mason's renowned little army were at Hartford, and he among them. He was one of the twenty-five who settled at New Haven and founded that colony, and was captain commanding the force there in King Philip's war, 1675. He was a man of marked character and genuine courage, yet peaceable and kindly disposed toward all. He was a carpenter by trade. He held civil as well as military offices, and was a Congregationalist in religion. He died in 1685, aged about seventy-three years. About 1640 he mar- ried Joanna - , who died in 1678, aged sixty-eight years. Their children were: Elizabeth; Samuel, baptized August, 1643; Hannah, baptized June, 1648.
II. Samuel, son of Thomas Munson, was born about 1643. Like his father he resided at New Haven and Wallingford, and adhered to the same religion. He was a shoemaker and tanner. He died in the winter of 1692-3. In October, 1665, he married Martha, daughter of William and Alice (Pritchard) Bradley, and their children were : Martha, Samuel, Thomas, John Theophilus, Joseph, Stephen, Caleb, Joshua and Israel.
III. Ensign Joseph Munson, son of Samuel (2) was born No- vember 6, 1677, and died October 30, 1725. In March, 1700, he mar- ried Margery Hitchcock. Their children were: I, Abel, born January 10, 1701; 2, Abigail, April 2, 1704; 3, Joseph, December 25, 1705; 4, Desire, February, 1707; 5, Thankful, January 17, 1710; 6, Ephraim),
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November 5, 1714; 7, Margery, October 10, 1717; 8, Jemima, March 27, 1720; 9, Agur, born April 7, 1725, died 1726.
IV. Abel, son of Ensign Joseph Munson (3), resided at Walling- ford, Connecticut, a farmer, a member of the Congregational church. November 7, 1728, he married Sarah Peck; he died February 13, 1779. His children were: I, Mehitable (Mabel), born June 2, 1730; 2, Mary, May 2, 1732; 3, Titus, July 5, 1734; 4, Lud, May 5, 1736; 5, Levi, Au- gust 29, 1748; 6, Sarah, born September 6, 1740, married, October II, 1759; 7, Nathaniel, October 20, 1742; 8, Abigail, September 2, 1744; 9, Margery, November 3, 1746; 10, Lydia, October 1, 1748; 1I, Abel, January 3, 1749; 12, Joseph, November 16, 1751; 13, Lydia, October 12, 1752; 14, Adah, November 19, 1738.
V. Levi, son of Abel Munson (4) resided at Wallingford, and was an Episcopalian. The "History of Harwinton" mentions Lieuten- ant Levi as one of five "prominent individuals" in an Episcopal society formed about 1784. According to "Connecticut Men in the Revolu- tion" Sergeant Levi was among those who surrendered with Colonel Ethan Allen near Montreal, September 25, 1775, was sent to England, returned to Halifax June 21, 1776, and was later exchanged. Levi was commissioned lieutenant January 1, 1777, of the Sixth Regiment Con- necticut Line, commanded by Colonel Douglass, and afterward by Colonel Meigs. He died in 1815. November 27, 1760, he married Mary Cooley. Their children were: I, Almond, born October 3, 1761 ; 2, Orange, November 19, 1763; 3, Mary, February 14, 1766; 4, Lent, March 3, 1768 ; 5, Ephraim, September 22, 1770; 6, Levi, August 23, 1772; 7, Abel, July 22, 1774; 8, Elisha ; 9, Lud Augustus, born August 21, 1781.
VI. Almond, son of Levi Munson (5) served in the Revolutionary war five years. It is recorded of him that he was "one of the Spartan
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band who spent the winter with Washington at Valley Forge," and is described as having the rank of musician. His thigh was fractured by a musket ball which left him a cripple. October 3, 1761, he married Esther Peck, who died in 1812, and he died in 1831. Their children were: I, Ashbel; 2, Almond, born in Cinnecticut in 1790; 3, Phila, born in Plymouth, Connecticut, May 8, 1792; 4, Lent; 5, Samuel Shel- don, born August 31, 1799; 6, Levi, March 18, 1801 ; 7, Benajah, June 10, 1805; 8, Amanda.
VII. Phila, daughter of Almond Munson (6) married, November 27, 1814, Silas, son of Rev. Daniel Buck, who was the first pastor of the Presbyterian church in Great Bend, Pennsylvania. She was remark- able for her strength of character. She was Episcopally christened at an early age at Plymouth, Connecticut. She often spoke to her children of her father having service every Sunday in their home, and teaching his children the catechism. She died February 24, 1881. Her children were: I, Julius, born November 20, 1816, in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania; 2, Eliza Ann, who became the wife of Benjamin C. Bow- man, and who is heretofore further referred to; 3, Emeline, married M. H. Griggs, of Great Bend, Pennsylvania, and died in 1897; 4, Lucien, married Mary Wilmot, of Windsor, New York; 5, Sandoval, unmarried, of Great Bend, Pennsylvania; 6, Georgianna, married S. S. Carpenter, and resided in Great Bend, Pennsylvania.
FRANCIS CARLETON BOWMAN.
The Bowman family, worthily represented in the present genera- tion by Francis C. Bowman, who is actively and prominently identified with various business enterprises in Williamsport, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, is a lineal descendant of Ebenezer and Sylvia P. (Barn-
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aby) Bowman, and the eldest son of Benjamin Carlton and Eliza Ann (Buck) Bowman.
Francis C. Bowman was born in Centre county, Pennsylvania, February 5, 1844. His early life was spent in attendance at the public schools and assisting his father in the work on the farm. Upon the removal of his father to Williamsport, Francis C., then twenty-one years of age, was left to conduct the farm, which he did in a highly satisfactory manner for a period of one year. He then engaged in the lumber busi- ness with H. Woodward, who operated a general store and lumber yard, remaining with him about ten years. He then took up his residence in Williamsport and at once entered the employ of the firm of Bowman, Foresman & Company, this connection continuing until 1881. The fol- lowing three years he resided in the west in order to recuperate his health, and upon his return east took a position in the Lycoming Rubber Company, of which his father was president from its organization until his death, which he held for twelve years. On the death of his father, in July, 1896, Mr. Bowman retired from active work and became inter- ested as a stockholder in many of the industries of the city. In 1898 he established a gents' furnishing business, taking an old stand with the name of The H. K. Smith Hat Company. During his many years' resi- dence in Williamsport he has been recognized as an industrious and hon- orable citizen, contributing in every way to the interest of the city and its people, a man whose character is above reproach, and whose success has been attained by a conscientious performance of duty. He is an active member of the board of trade, also of the Democratic Club, of which he has been treasurer for several years and is still serving; the Ross Club, and the Athletic Club, serving as president of the latter named. He is a member of all the Masonic bodies, and of Irem Temple, Wilkes- barre.
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and treasurer. Mr. Bowman is an honored member of all the Masonic bodies, and of Irem Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at. Wilkes- barre; of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Knights of Pythias, uniform rank; Board of Trade; the Democratic Club; the Wil- liamsport Wheel Club and the Temple Club. His political affiliations are with the Democratic party.
Mr. Bowman was united in marriage to Katie L. Miller, a daughter of William Beaty and Catherine (Goldy) Miller, and granddaughter of Peter Miller and John Budd. William Beaty and Catherine (Goldy) Miller were the parents of eleven children, namely: Mary Jane, who died at the age of twelve years. John Budd, who married Jennie Gra- ham, issue, one child, Marion, deceased. William G., who married Annie Elizabeth Carpenter, issue, three children; J. Howard, who married Bertha May Houghton, one child, William G. Miller; Pearl Salada; Eva Catherine. James Bennett, who married Rhoda Bastion, and they were the parents of six children. Edward Homer, who married Emma Metz- ger, one child, Walter Miller. Phoebe, who became the wife of Charles Gerner, two children. Elizabeth, who became the wife of John Searle, three children: Boyd, John, Arvilla Searle. Anna, who died in infancy. Charles, who also died in infancy. Franklin Long, who married Minnie Mahoney, one child: Nellie Miller. Katie, aforementioned as the wife of Benjamin C. Bowman, and they are the parents of three chil- dren : Benjamin Clifford, Archie Vernon and Francis Carleton Bow- man, deceased.
JAMES WALTON BOWMAN.
James Walton Bowman, vice-president of the Bowman-Foresman Company of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and also prominently identified with the ownership and management of various other important indus-
17 1
J. W. Bowman. can.
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trial and financial interests in that vicinity, is the youngest son of the late Benjamin Carleton and Eliza Ann (Buck) Bowman, and was born in Clearfield county, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1864.
He began his education in the private schools and became a student in Dickinson Seminary, finishing with a business course in Commercial College. Young Bowman was now well advanced in his studies, and capable of entering upon an active career, and he began work in the mill and shops of B. C. Bowman & Company, of which his father was the head and active manager. The other member of the firm, J. H. Row- land, of Port Deposit, Maryland, was associated with Mr. Bowman from the early fifties to the time of his (Mr. Bowman's) death. In 1898 the firm name was changed to that of the Bowman-Foresman Company, in which corporation James W. Bowman was appointed to the position of vice-president. He came to his duties with excellent preparation, being entirely familiar with every detail of the great business in which he had grown up, and with which his family name had been associated from the inception of the enterprise. In addition, Mr. Bowman has long been actively identified with various other manufacturing and financial insti- tutions, some of which owed their founding in large part to the effort of his father. He is a director in the Bowman Lumber Company of St. Albans, West Virginia; secretary and treasurer of the Rowland Land Company of West Virginia; a stockholder in the Saluda River (South Carolina) Lumber Company ; the Rishel Furniture Company of Williams- port, Pennsylvania ; the Mckean Chemical Company and the Lycoming Calcining Company ; and is a director in the Susquehanna Trust and Safe Deposit Company. He takes an intelligent and active interest in the affairs of the community, and is particularly interested in educational concerns. At the present time ( 1905) he is serving his second term as a member of the board of school directors of the city of Williamsport. He is a
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warm advocate of the principles of the Democratic party. He has at- tained high rank in the Masonic fraternity.
Mr. Bowman was united in marriage on the 14th of October, 1886, with Miss Harriet Elizabeth Geiger, a native of Williamsport, Pennsyl- vania, daughter of Andrew and Mary Eva (Mott) Geiger.
Mr. and Mrs. James Walton Bowman are the parents of one child, Helen Eliza Bowman, born December 27, 1889, in Williamsport, Penn- sylvania.
ALBERT DU BOIS HERMANCE.
Albert Du Bois Hermance, a prominent manufacturer of Williams- port, Pennsylvania, is a representative in both paternal and maternal lines of ancestors who date from the earliest colonial epoch. Both par- ents were of Dutch descent, the paternal ancestor coming to America when New York was under the Dutch rule, and the maternal ancestor coming shortly after it had passed into the hands of the English. The family name shows various changes, and appears in differing forms at different times.
(I) Jan Heermans and his sister Jannetje came from Ruyner, in the Province of Drenthe, Holland, with Captain Cornelius Maertens, in the ship "Brownfish," in June, 1658. He settled in New Amsterdam (New York), and married Engeltje (baptized November 29, 1654), daughter of Jan Jansen Brestede and Marretje Andries, in the old Dutch church, August 23, 1676. He had ten children, three of whom married Van Wagenen. About 1682 he removed to Kingston, New York, and' was supervisor of the town in 1689, and trustee 1692-4, and again in 1698. His will is in the office of the surrogate in New York, dated October 28, 1724, liber x, p. 39 (new paging).
(II) Andrie, son of Jan and Engletje (Brestede) Heermans, was
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baptized at Kingston, New York, April 12, 1685. He married Neeltje Van Wagenen, baptized April 17, 1692, daughter of Garret Aartsen and Clara, daughter of Evert Pels. The Aartsen family took the name of Van Wagenen because their father came from a village called Wagenings, near Gilderland. Andrie had fourteen children, all of whom were bap- tized in the Dutch church at Kingston, New York, except the two last, which would go to show that he must have removed about 1734 to Rhine- beck, Dutchess county, New York, where he purchased a large tract of land which he owned at the time of his death, about 1769. He was a man of considerable prominence, being trustee of Kingston, 1716-24, and serving in the Ulster county militia in 1717. His will is with the clerk of the court of appeals at Albany, dated Rhinebeck, March 4, 1766, proven April 27, 1769.
(III) Garrett, son of Andrie and Neeltje (Van Wagenen) Heer- mans, was baptized at Kingston, New York, November 18, 1722. He married, at Rhinebeck, New York, November 4, 1748, Garretje, daugh- ter of Ryer Schermerhorn and Marretje Ten Eyck. She was born in Livingston Manor in 1727, and was the great-granddaughter of Jacob Jans Schermerhorn, who came to America in 1636, and was a prosperous Indian trader in Beverwick, New York, in 1648. Garrett was a charter member of the Dutch church in Upper Red Hook, Dutchess county, New York, in 1766, and in 1791 served as deacon. His will has not been found, and there is no account of his death, or of any children but one.
(IV) Ryer, son of Garrett and Garretje (Schermerhorn) Heer- mans, was baptized August 21, 1749. He married Marretje (baptized September 16, 1753), daughter of Milli Beekman and Cornelis Swart. She was the granddaughter of Johannes Swart (or Swartout), who was the first settler of the village of Johnsville, Dutchess county, New York, and also the great-granddaughter of Wilhelmus Beekman and Catherine
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De Borg; Wilhelmus Beekman was pastor at Zutphen, in Gilderland, Holland, and came to America in 1647 as clerk for the West India Com- pany, and in 1658-63 was vice-director on the Delaware river. Beek- man street in New York city is named for this noted family. Ryer Heermans and his wife joined the Upper Red Hook church in Dutchess county, New York, in 1780. He died in 1805 on his farm in the town of North East, in Dutchess county, New York, leaving a wife, three sons and two daughters. His will is in possession of a grandson, Walter Hermans, of Paterson, New York.
(V) Cornelius, son of Ryer and Marretje (Swart) Heermans, was born in 1783. He married Gettyann Westfall, and they were the parents of ten children. He resided in Dutchess and Saratoga counties, New York, and died at the home of his daughter, Jane Palmer, at Gal- way, Saratoga county, in 1851.
(VI) Richard Hermance, son of Cornelius and Gettyann (West- fall) Heermans, was born in Dutchess county, New York, in 1816, and lived for many years on the old homestead, which is now a part of the Round Lake camp meeting grounds in Saratoga county, New York. He settled upon this shortly after his marriage, and for a time cultivated the farm. A man of mechanical and inventive ability, he turned to those lines, and removed to Stillwater, New York, where he erected a large foundry and machine shops, and came to be known as one of the most extensive and successful stove manufacturers in the country .- He was the inventor of various stove attachments which came into universal use, among them the well known low-down reservoir for ranges and cooking stoves. He subsequently removed to Troy, New York, and thence to Half Moon, New York, and finally to Poughkeepsie, where he died Au- gust 20, 1901, at the age of eighty-five years. He was an exemplary member of the Baptist church. He was a Whig until the dissolution of
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that party, when he allied himself with the Republican party at its forma- tion.
Mr. Hermance married Miss Emeline Du Bois, who died in Troy, New York, November 6, 1885, aged sixty-three years, and was buried at Poughkeepsie. She was a daughter of Richard and Rachel (Car- micheal) Du Bois, and was a representative of a French Huguenot family which took refuge in Holland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Her ancestral line is as follows:
(I) Jacques Du Bois, the emigrant ancestor, was born in Holland, where (at Leyden) he married, April 25, 1663, Pierronne Bentyn, from near Lille. They left Holland about April 15, 1675, and on arriving in America settled in Kingston, Ulster county, New York, where he died December 30, 1677, something more than two years after his arrival. His widow married J. L. Pietersy. Jacques and Pierronne (Bentyn) De Bois were the parents of seven children, all of whom were born in
Holland : I. Marie, born April 2, 1664; 2. Jacques, March 29, 1665; 3. Marie, October 3, 1666; 4. Jean, October 30, 1667; 5. Anne, August II, 1669; 6. Jehan, July 25, 1671 ; 7. Pierre, March 17, 1674.
(II) Pierre, youngest child of Jacques and Pierronne ( Bentyn) Du Bois, was thirteen months old when his parents came to Kingston, New York, where he was reared to manhood. He removed to Dutchess county, New York, where yet stand the massive walls of the old stone house which he erected about 1710, but which now bear a new super- structure. The situation is almost three and one-half miles east from the village of Fishkill, on the west side of Sprout creek, which ran cen- trally through his land. The timbers in the wing which supported the upper floor of the old building were of cypress, or whitewood, and were of enormous size. A high stone fireplace originally occupied the north side of the kitchen, and was sufficiently capacious to take in logs of ordi-
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nary cordwood size, and a tall man could stand in it upright. During the long winter evenings Pierre Du Bois' negroes would sit on the ends of the back logs until the blazing fire would force them to retreat. Pierre Du Bois was founder of the Dutch churches in Poughkeepsie and Fish- kill, and for more than twenty years his name appears on the records of both as elder or deacon, and he served in one or other of these capacities in the church in Kingston, New York, before coming to Dutchess county. He died at the age of sixty-three years, and his tombstone is still to be seen in the churchyard of the Dutch Reformed church in Fishkill village, with the following inscription: "Here lies the body of Peter DuBois, who departed this life the 22d day of January, in year 1737-8, aged 63 yrs." Pierre Du Bois married, October 12, 1697, Jannetje Burhans, a maiden of Brabant, and the records of the baptism of their children at Kingston and Poughkeepsie appear as follows: I. Petronella, January 13, 1698; 2. Johannes, October 15, 1699; 3. Jacobus, May 26, 1701; 4. Christiaan, November 15, 1702; 5. Jonathan, September 3, 1706; 6. Peter, January 16, 1708; 7. Elizabeth, October 23, 1718; 8. Petronella, January 21, 1722. Besides these, they had Abraham, John and Helena. (III) Jonathan, son of Pierre and Jannetje (Burhams) Du Bois, received from his father a farm on the east side of Sprout creek. He married Arieantje Oosterhout, and their children were: I. Peter, mar- ried Maria Van Voorhis; 2. Jannetje; 3. Henry; 4. Hillitje, married Benjamin Bloom; 5. Abraham; 6. Jannetje; 7. Cornelius (see forward) ; 8. Sarah.
(IV) Cornelius, son of Jonathan and Aariaantje (Oosterhout) Du Bois, married Charity Griffin, and their children were: I. Peter, mar- ried Anna Ham, and (second) Mary McBride; 2. Richard (see for- ward) ; 3. Jonathan; 4. Adrietta, married Benjamin Wood; 5. Catherine, married George Hough; 6. Elizabeth, married David Peters; 7. Jane,
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married James Hicks; 8. Charity, married Peter Darby ; 9. Cornelius, married Deborah Payne; 10. Maria, married David Albertson; II. Sarah, married - Dye.
(V) Richard Du Bois, son of Cornelius and Charity (Griffin) Du Bois, married Rachel Carmichael, and their children were: I. Sally, married Koert Du Bois ; 2. John; 3. Betsy, married David Bedell; 4. Cor- nelia, married Miles Traver; 5. Pamelia; 6. Julia, married Harvey Rogers ; 7. Almira, married (first) William R. Carpenter, and (second) Thomas Rogers; 8. Emeline, married Richard Hermance.
To Richard and Emeline (Du Bois) Hermance were born five chil- dren : I. Almira, who married Warren P. Lasher, and resides in Pough- keepsie, New York ; 2. Theodore, married Margeret M. Oakley, of Half Moon, New York; he was a farmer at Heightstown, New Jersey, where he died June 12, 1900; 3. Albert D. (see forward) ; 4. George, who re- sides in Dutchess county, New York ; 5. Emma, married Henry R. Rich- mond and resides in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Albert Du Bois Hermance, third child and second son of Richard and Emeline (Du Bois) Hermance, was born at Maltaville, on the old homestead, August 8, 1847. He was educated in the public schools, the Stillwater Seminary and Fairfield Seminary. In 1860, at the early age of thirteen years, he went to Troy, New York, where he secured employ- ment in a sash, door and blind factory, with a view to learning the busi- ness. In August, 1864, a few days after his seventeenth birthday, he enlisted in Company C, Twenty-first New York Cavalry Regiment. He was at once assigned on detached service, which continued until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged.
In 1865 Mr. Hermance located in Williamsport, and entered the employ of Culver, Barber & Company, manufacturers of sash, doors and blinds, and with whom he remained until 1868. He now had an inti-
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mate practical knowledge of all departments of that business, and he went to Green Island, New York, to take charge of the Crampton & Belden blind factory, the largest establishment of its kind in the United States at that time, and whose operations he directed for four years. In 1872 he returned to Williamsport and for a year had charge of the plan- ing mill of his former employers, Culver, Barber & Company. In the meantime he had originated a wood-working machine (patented in 1873) and entered upon its manufacture, overseeing the mechanical work and introducing it to manufacturers throughout the state by personal visita- tion. His machine won general favor, and his business expanded to such dimensions as to require larger capital and increased manufacturing fa- cilities, and in January, 1874, he associated with himself Mr. E. A. Row- ley in the widely known firm of Rowley & Hermance, for the building of wood-working machinery generally. The business was subsequently in- corporated as the Rowley and Hermance Company, Mr. Rowley being president up to the time of his death, and later Mr. Hermance was presi- dent until he disposed of his interest.
Mr. Hermance is actively identified with a number of important industrial and financial institutions in the Lycoming Valley and else- where. He is president of the Hermance Machine Company, was one of the organizers of the National Furniture Company, is a director of the First National Bank, and is largely interested in other corporations, among them the Citizens' Water Company, all of Williamsport. He is also president of the Mckean Chemical Company, of Mckean county, Pennsylvania, with offices in Williamsport; of the Sergeant Gas Com- pany of the same county; president of the Castle Brook Carbon Black Company, of Smithburg, West Virginia; a stockholder in the Columbia Carbon Black Company of Weston, West Virginia ; is a large stockholder in the Cotton State Lumber Company, which controls several thousand
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acres of timber land in Mississippi, and is interested in a gas and oil company in the Indian Territory. He also has large real estate holdings in Williamsport, in Pennsylvania, Dakota and New York.
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