My mom wrote about her life story around 2002.
About My Family
This will be information on the Bowes family.
I am trying to update this page. It was started about a year
ago when I was in MN.
My parents both grew up in Fredericksburg, VA, and had
known each other throughout childhood, They attended school
together and graduated from High School in the same class.
My mother was Louise Southerland Bowes, and my father Paul
Emanuel Bowes. They were both born in 1910. My father in
August, my mother in June. My father’s father was Frederick
Douglas Bowes. He was born in Washington, DC around 1863.
His mother had been a slave on a plantation called Sudley
House in Maryland. The story is that she ran away when she
was 7 months pregnant with grandpoppa so he could be born in
DC, and born free. DC was a free area, Maryland was not. Her
name was Nancy. The Sudley Plantation was owned by the Johns
family. The same ones associated with Johns-Hopkins
University. The place still exists as a Maryland Historical
Landmark. My cousin Maurice Norbrey told me that his mother,
my father’s older sister told him that Grandpoppa’s father
was a Dr. Johns. who was a dentist. His sisters had kept in
touch with the family. He said his mother remembers getting
Christmas presents from them when she was young. My
grandmomma was Margaret Hailstalk. I found their marriage
certificate on the intenet via Ancestry.com. Will try to
find it and include it later on. My mother’s father was
David Southerland. Her mother Leslie Hailstalk. He father
came from North Carolina to the Fredericksburg area. They
lived in an area called Mayfield. I remember my mother’s
father had a farm that seemed to me very huge. My sister and
I picked tomatoes and ate them on the porch. We also took
turns in churning butter and ice cream. My mother’s father
kept hogs! It was a big deal for sister Margaret and I to
ride on the back of the truck when he took large cans of
garbage to feed the hogs. They were monstrous. When my
parents married, they lived for a time with my grandfather
at 1310 Charles Street in Fredericksburg, VA. My father was
a teacher and a school principal. He’d graduated from Howard
University and then had a Masters Degree from Columbia
University. My mother to college at Normal School in
Washington DC. It was a teaching college, and she taught
until she was expecting sister Margaret. In 1936 women were
not allowed to teach if they were pregnant. My fathe told me
that his first job paid $30.00 a month plus room and board.
I have found memories of living at 1310 Charles Street with
my father’s father. I was very sad when we moved to Newport
News where our father had a new job. Our mother later said
she was glad to get out of that house and have her own home.
I understood this after I was an adult. My sister Margaret
and I sometimes talk about the things we remember about
Fredericksburg. I never saw my father’s mother. I think she
died before I was born. I read that she was had been a
teacher, and had died suddenly when she was in her 60s. I
saw a photo of her, and she looked a bit like my sister
Margaret. I don’t remember seeing my mother’s mother, but
remember going over to Mayfield with my sister Margaret and
our mother when her mother was ill. I remember being on the
back porch of the house in Mayfield, and someone chipping
ice from a large block to put in an ice bag for grandmomma’s
forehead. My sister Margaret remembers her. She said she
remembers she had a long braid that came all the way down
her back. I do remember later on walking with my mother’s
father in the cemetery. He was holding my hand, and in his
other hand had a bunch of flowers for her grave. I might
have been 4 or 5. I didn’t understand death. I think this
was at the Old Site or New Site Church. At one of the
churches there was a stain glass window that my grandpoppa
gave to the church. Will have to check.
About the family: Now
Sister Margaret is in CA with her 3 children. Her husband
William Pitts died March 24, 2000. They had been married for
33 years. The children are Barbara, William and Charlie.
Barbara married David Bickham and they have one son, Daniel,
who is now 8 years old. Barbara has a degree in Computer
Science and an MS in Software Engineering. William graduated
from Hampton University in Political Science, and had begun
attending Law School. Charlie’s degree is in Psychology from
U of CA San Diego. He also has completed his Masters. Elleni
and I went out to visit her this past August. Shields in
still working in Cleveland in the school system, as is her
husband Edward Harrison. One of her daughters got married
this past June. The others are living in NYC and in Texas.
Elleni graduated from the U of MN. Her degree was in Studio
Arts. She’s been working for the U of MN since her
graduation. She does computer support. Both of Paul’s
children are in college. His wife Betty is a teacher.
I am visiting Elleni in MN. Her father was visiting the
week before, and is about to return to Ethiopia in January
2003.
Growing Up in Virginia
1310 Charles Street
My Uncle Douglas Bowes, Aunt Marion Bowes, Aunt Nanny
Bowes Norbrey, Uncle Bumpsey Norbrey, Eyah (Evelyn) all
lived in the neighborhood of Charles Street. Out of all the
children of my father’s father, only my father and his
sister Aunt Nanny had children. She had 2, Maurice and
Millicent. Mr. Henry lived next door and was the owner of a
funeral home across the street. My sister Margaret and I
were both born in the upstairs bedroom of 1310 Charles
Street. I remember my sister and I mostly playing and
burying “treasure” in the backyard, which we never found. I
think there was a grapevine and some other fruit trees. I’d
sit with my grandpoppa early in the morning in the kitchen
facing the backyard as he had a tiny glass of sherry “for
medicinal purposes”. He would give me one sip. I might
have been 5 years old. Mother let me go next door to Mrs.
Henry’s to get my hair combed, because I made such a fuss
when she did it. Eyah came down on Sundays and played the
piano and sang very lowdly. I think she was a cousin of my
grandpoppa. She was very light-skinned. My mother told me
that she’d been a piano player for the silent movies in PA.
I don’t think the people at the theater knew she was Black.
Her last name was Scott. She lived alone at the house on
the corner of Charles Street. She did washing and her house
always smelled of clorox. I think that’s why I like to use
clorox now. It reminds me of Eyah. I think I went to visit
her everyday. I think when she came to 1310 on Sundays she
bring a big bowl of tapioca pudding which was left to cool
on top of the ice box. My father’s other sister Aunt Mary
lived in New Bern, NC. Aunt Mary taught French. She’d gone
to Paris and studied at the Sorbonne. I remember her as
being very kind. We went to visit her one summer in New
Bern. We went to beaches that had the purest, whitest sand.
He husband was also a teacher. My father’s brother Charlie
lived in Washington, DC, and had been a merchant seaman. I
saw him when I moved to DC to work. It was probably 1960 or
1961 and he was dying. I went to the hospital to see him
and he called me by my sister’s name, and thanked me for
coming to see him. My mother’s father said the same when he
was ill and I visited him. I don’t know why. There was one
brother John who had died in a fire in Philadelphia. He
might have been the oldest son. Someone said he was a
fireman. I never knew him. There is a photograph that was
taken before August 1910. It shows my grandpoppa, his wife,
her sister and his mother and Aunts Mary and Nancy (Nanny)
and all three brothers. I know this was before August 1910,
because I asked my mother why my father was not tin the
photo, and she said it was because he hadn’t been born yet.
I asked her who was the little old dark lady in the photo,
and she said that it was my father’s grandmother and she’d
been a slave. It wasn’t until later that my father told me
his father had showed him a picture of Sudley
Mannor/Home/Plantation, and had said something like this was
the home of his ancestors. Mr. Grant, who was my
grandpoppa’s brother-in-law (they married sisters) wrote the
story in a notebook meant for his children about
Great-Grandmomma Nancy running away from that
plantation.
We moved to Newport News, VA and lived on Madison Avenue
until our parents purchased the house at 1237 28th Street.
We went to John Marshall Elementary School and Huntington
High School. We all went to different colleges, and all
graduated. My major was Graphic Arts, Margaret’s
Architectural Engineering, Shield’s was Education, Paul’s
was Music.
Some Favorite Things
Talking to my CA sister. Shopping ONLINE. E-mailing my
Daughter. Visiting my daughter’s website. Having a good cup
of tea or coffee. Reading my online newsletters. Looking at
SCIFI movies. Listening to audiobooks. Going to the Library.
Planting veggies and flowers in big pots. Helping the indoor
plants survive by putting them outside in the spring.
My Favorite Links
elleni.com (of course)
Some Pictures
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