John Bowser--------Eve Bowser

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago my wife and I drove to Bedford 
County with the intention of finding the gravesite of John "Hopewell" 
BOWSER d.1813. This is an account of that trip. It is rather long 
but I have had a few request from direct descendents of John's 
asking what we found.

First, my wife, Sandy is the direct descendent of John BOWSER, 
I'm just her husband!

We first stopped at the Bedford Pioneer Historical Society. We told 
them we wanted to locate the grave of John BOWSER. They had a 
listing of the Revolutionary War veterans buried in Bedford County. 
John was a Rev. War vet. We quickly found John BOWSER in the 
listing and the historical society gave us a map to the Oppenheimer
Farm cemetery where John was buried. The Oppenheimer Cem. 
was on the west side of Tussey Mountain. Hopewell Twp. where 
John BOWSERs farm was is on the east side. I questioned why he 
would be buried on the other side of a vary large mountain from his 
homestead. Then I noticed that the John BOWSER buried in
the Oppenheimer Farm cemetery wife's name was Eve. Our John 
BOWSERs wife's name was Mary. I then remembered John and 
Eve BOWSER a probable distant cousin of John "Hopewell" 
BOWSER. Apparently, this is why John "Hopewell" BOWSER is 
referred to as "Hopewell". The John married to Eve died in 1809,
four years before John "Hopewell" BOWSER. Either John (md. Eve) 
BOWSER was a veteran of the Rev. War or he has been confused 
with John "Hopewell" BOWSER who was in the Rev. War. John 
"Hopewell" BOWSER was in the Rev. War and is not listed in 
Bedford Counties Rev. War veterans gravesite file. 

I told the volunteer at the historical society that John BOWSER 
was buried in Hopewell Twp. in 1813 on his homestead and that in 
1921 the grave was unmarked according to the BOWSER Family 
History. A. B. BOWSER, the author of the BFH visited the 
gravesite in 1921. The historical society gave me the names of a 
few BOWSERs in Hopewell Twp. that may be able to help. We 
decided to drive to Hopewell Twp. and talk to these and some 
farmers in the area.

We talked to many farmers asking about the old BOWSER 
homestead and if there knew of an unmarked graveyard on their 
farm. No one did. I did locate an unmarked graveyard on the 
Clapper farm but this was too far from where I suspected the 
BOWSER homestead was. Plus the Clappers had the original land 
grant.

Driving the back roads we came upon a BOWSER Farm Road. 
There was a farmer standing near the road of the next farm we 
came to. I asked him the question I asked a hundred times that 
day. He suggested I go to there farm house and talk to his 
grandmother. She was interested in genealogy. She was married to 
a BOWSER although her husband had passed away a few years 
ago. She told us that 3 years ago a Grant BOWSER from Ohio had 
stopped and was also trying to locate John BOWSERs burial site. 
They did not find it but they had decided that part of the BOWSER 
homestead is on what is now the Hall Farm. We left and drove to 
the Hall Farm. Did not see anyone and we were not certain
if the farm was the Hall Farm. It was getting late and we decided to
stay in Bedford for the night and go to the courthouse the next 
morning.

The next morning we went to the courthouse and told them we were
trying to locate the John BOWSER property that he purchased in 
1797. They had the deed and John's will. The deed does not give 
the location of the property. They have no way of searching the 
owners of property from 1800 to today. One would have to search 
the Hall property back through every owner. Plus the gravesite may 
not be on the current Hall property as the BOWSER homestead 
was 1100 acres and had been subdivided many times through the 
years. I decided to go back and talk to more farmers. On the
way we stopped at a business named BOWSER Trailer Sales. We 
talked to the owner about the John BOWSER property. There was 
another fellow there and from what I told him about the BOWSER 
property being 3 miles towards Loysburg from Hopewell he said 
that sounded like his property. But he said as far as he knew there 
were no graves on his farm. He gave me the name of an adjoining 
farm and suggested I talk to the owner of that farm. So off we went 
again. No luck again. I'll say, the farmers were more than will to 
take the time to talk to us.

It was late afternoon and I wanted to drive around Tussey Mountain 
and take some photos of the "other" John BOWSERs grave since 
the historical society had given direction to the area of the 
Oppenheimer Farm Cem. Clare Medgley, the listowner of the 
Allegheny County mailing list is a direct descendent of John and 
Eve BOWSER. I wanted photos for her and other descendents. We 
also want to stop at the BOWSER covered bridge that is located 
near Osterburg and was mentioned on the BOWSER list. 
Coincidentally, there is a covered bridge on Yellow Creek very 
close to the Hall farm. The bridge is named the Hall covered
bridge. I'm guessing the location of this covered bridge is on what 
was John "Hopewell" BOWSER original 1100 acres, although the 
bridge was built 90 years after John died.

I asked a farmer in the area of the Oppenheimer Farm Cem. if he 
knew of the cemetery. He directed me to a farm lane and told me 
the current owner's husband was buried in the Oppenheimer farm 
cemetery. There were many no trespassing signs at the entrance 
to the lane. I drove in cautiously and when we got to the house I 
told my wife that she better come with me. At first the women was 
reluctant to direct us to the cemetery but then she told us she 
would get her car and to follow her. We drove out to the main
road and turned in the next lane. Nothing but two tracks of dirt with 
the grass high enough in the middle to touch the underbody of my 
car. We even drove through a little stream. We came to a place 
where a car could turn around and stopped. The road continued but 
entered a pasture that was encircled with an electric fence. The 
power was off. The women told us to follow the road on
foot up to the top of the rise and the cemetery was there. It was 
one of those 90 degree plus days we've been having in 
Pennsylvania. She left and I got my camera and an extra roll and 
film and my wife and I started up the path to the Oppenheimer 
Cemetery. The women told us her husband was buried
there but she hadn't been to the cemetery in a long time. From the 
looks of the path no one had. From where she left us there was 
nothing between us and the top of Tussey Mountain. Bedford 
County has not changed much since our ancestors settled there. It 
is still farm county and this area was never strip mined. We walked 
about 3/4 of a mile and there, as the women told us, in
a grove of pine was the Oppenheimer Farm Cemetery. It was about 
30 feet square. Her husband had died in 1986. There were three 
newer headstones for some CAMPS. One died in 1949 the other 
two in the 1960's. Then there were the very old BOWSER
headstones. I had the cemetery listing from the historical society 
that was done in 1939. It did not include the 4 "new' graves. 

There were three very old headstones standing all alike. One for 
Eve BOWSER died 1803, one for John BOWSER died 1909 and 
one for there granddaughter that died in 1819. There were three 
more headstones exactly like the BOWSERs but they were broken 
and had fallen over. I did not see any writing on them and I did not 
turn them over. There was also a rock stuck in the ground with
some writing scratched on it but it was illegible. I saw a depression 
that was probably another grave. I'm guessing there were a total of 
16 or 18 graves. There was a nice stone bench that must have 
been place by the women whose husband was buried there. It was 
nice to have a place to sit, rest and think about our BOWSER 
forefathers. I though about what life must have been like for John 
and Eve BOWSER, having both died before 1810, they lived their
lives in the time of the American Revolution. They were both in there
70's when they died. 

I photographed everything but all of the photos are still in the 
camera except two that were on another roll of film. I had that roll 
developed. They are the photos of John and Eve's headstones.

Left the cemetery and hiked to the car and stopped at the 
BOWSER covered bridge just outside of Osterburg. Took a couple 
fast photos and drove home.

I know this is a long account and I hope it is interesting to you 
especially the "out of staters".

The day before we left for Bedford I placed a message on the 
BOWSER list asking anyone for any information on the location of 
John "Hopewell" BOWSER gravesite. The only replies I got were 
that when I return home to place what we had found on the 
BOWSER list. 

When I returned from Bedford I check my email and waiting for me 
was a message from a new BOWSER list subscriber. She told me 
her mother and her had driven past the site of the old BOWSER 
homestead on Memorial Day. They did not stop. She told me it 
was the Hall Farm. Her grandmother had been the last BOWSER
to live on this part of the farm. Her grandmothers name was 
Rebecca BOWSER. Rebecca was married to a Cogan. The farm 
was then called the Cogan farm. Rebecca BOWSER and the 
COGANs are in the BOWSER family history book. I emailed 
Rebecca's granddaughter. She lives in Washington. We made
arrangements to meet the following Wednesday in Hopewell Twp. 
She said she would call the HALLS and inquire about the 
unmarked BOWSER graves. She did but the older women she 
talked to knew nothing about the BOWSERs. She did tell her that 
just up the road was an old cemetery. 

On Wednesday we met and drove past the HALL farm looking for 
the cemetery that the women mentioned on the phone. We found 
the cemetery on the top of a hill surrounded by vacant farm land. 
There were lots of old headstones so before we could walk to the 
cemetery we knew this wasn't the BOWSER burial sites as there 
were no headstone where John BOWSER was buried according to 
A. B. BOWSER in 1921. Of the 30 or so headstone not one was a 
BOWSER.

We then went to the HALL farm. One of the HALLs was in the farm 
yard and we stopped and talked to him. We asked about graves on 
his farm. He told us he knew of none. He did the plowing so he 
knew the farm well.

Between 1921 and today the site of John BOWSER grave has 
probably been lost. John's son Nicholas BOWSER was also buried 
there in the 1860's or 70's.

I may make one more trip to Bedford to search for his grave. In the 
BOWSER Family History book there is a photo of A. B. BOWSER 
standing on the grave site with Henry P. BOWSER and Henry's 
son-in-law, a FLUKE. The photos in the reprints of the BOWSER 
book are not very clear. I know of two libraries that have original 
copies of the BOWSER Family History book. I suspected the 
original books would have a clearer photo. Last week I photocopied 
the photo from one of the original books. It shows more detail of the 
distant mountains. Some time this fall I want to take that clear 
photo to Hopewell Twp. and try and locate the graves by matching
the scenery in the background.

When I get the photos developed I'll post a message and email 
scans to anyone that would like to see them. I have scans of John 
and Eve BOWSER's headstones now. 

This is probably the longest email I have ever written. Hope it has 
been of interest to some of you.

Sincerely,
Tom Nagy
BOWSER listowner