- Person
- 19th - 20th centuries
Lewis Bowlby (1817-1872) and Mary Ann (née Douglass) Bowlby (1822-1877) were married in 1842 in Windham, Norfolk County, in the British colony of Canada West. One or both were reportedly descended from United Empire Loyalists. They lived their married life as a farming family in rural Norfolk County, raising nine children: Sarah Ellen Louisa (known as Louisa) (1845-1872), Axford, Hellen Veldora (1849-1939), Morton, Mary A., Ellen, Harriet D., Andrew Douglas (sometimes known as Douglas) (1860-1934), and William L. At some point (ca. 1850s?) the family lived on Prospect Hill near Port Dover, where Mary Ann’s sister Harriet A. Douglass ran the Prospect Hill Seminary (a private school for young ladies) from the family home. Hellen Bowlby is known to have studied music (and likely art, elocution, and other subjects) in her aunt’s seminary. Her sisters may have done likewise.
Louisa Bowlby married Jonathan Hotrum Carpenter (1844-1872) in 1868, and in 1871 the couple had a son, Johnathon Axford Bowlby Carpenter. When both Louisa and Jonathan died the following year, Johnathon was taken in by Louisa’s aunt Harriet (née Douglass), now married to merchant James Lambie. By the 1890s, Hellen, Andrew, and the Lambies had all relocated to the Windsor-Detroit region.
In 1876 Hellen Bowlby came to Windsor, and pursued further studies at a school in Detroit, and at different points taught art, music, and/or elocution in Windsor, Detroit, and Battle Creek, Michigan. Describing herself as a “free spirit,” Hellen never married, but had an extensive career as a teacher of art, music, and elocution in Michigan and in Windsor. From at least 1901 onward, she lived with her brother Andrew’s family in Windsor, where she was an active member of Central United Church and took an interest in women’s, missionary, and musical/artistic societies. Hellen died at age 90, in 1939.
Census data indicates that Andrew Douglas Bowlby worked as a clerk in 1881, and by 1901 had become a merchant with his own store. He had an interest in environmental conservation. He married Edith Ellen Adams in 1891, in Burlington, Ontario, and the couple settled in Windsor, living there until Edith’s death. They raised two daughters: Ellen Marion Valentine (known as Marion) (1895-1910), and Edith Margaret (known as Margaret) (1897-1988).
After her mother’s death in 1931 Margaret Bowlby cared for her father (age 70) and her Aunt Hellen (age 82), in their elegant family home at 806 Victoria Avenue, in Windsor. She was a talented amateur pianist, an active member of Central United Church and the Mary Gooderham Chapter of the IODE, and a patron of the Windsor Symphony. In 1982 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Windsor in recognition of her efforts to support and promote music in Windsor, including founding the Friends of Music (a division of the Women’s Auxiliary of the University of Windsor) which awarded an annual prize to an outstanding music graduate, and for her role in the establishment of the University’s School of Music. She was also a past member of the University’s Board of Governors.
During the 1960s the Mary Gooderham Chapter of the IODE presented an annual Edith Bowlby scholarship. In 2024 there were several named scholarships (from funds donated by Margaret Bowlby) at the University of Windsor, honouring members of the Bowlby family and their respective interests: the Andrew Douglas Bowlby Scholarship in Geography, the Edith Ellen Bowlby Scholarship in Canadian Literature, the Edith Ellen Bowlby Scholarship in Creative Writing, the Hellen Veldora Bowlby Scholarship in Music, and the Hellen Veldora Bowlby Scholarship in Fine Arts.
Sources: Contents of fonds; Census of Canada, 1861-1931; “Piano Recital Well Accepted,” Windsor Star (11 May 1961), p. 35; “IODE Chapter Fifty Years Old,” Windsor Star (11 February 1965), p. 35; “For university graduates, the learning’s only begun,” Windsor Star (7 June 1982), pp. A3-A4; “U of W Auxiliary Establishes Award,” Windsor Star (28 April 1965), p. 52; “Windsor natives among group receiving U. of W. honors,” Windsor Star, (12 May 1982), p. A3; “Deaths – BOWLBY – Doctor E. Margaret,” Windsor Star (7 March 1988), p. D7; Hellen Veldora Bowlby biographical sketch from Windsor’s Community Archives (the Archives branch of the Windsor Public Library); Lewis Bowlby and Mary Ann Douglass family genealogy, FamilySearch, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KV2P-KNJ/lewis-bowlby-1817-1872 ; Art Windsor Essex, “Early Essex,” https://artwindsoressex.ca/exhibitions/early-essex/ ; University of Windsor Department of English, Scholarships and Awards, https://www.uwindsor.ca/english/342/scholarships-and-awards ; University of Windsor Faculty of Science, Scholarships and Awards, https://www.uwindsor.ca/science/environment/587/undergraduate-scholarships ; “Female seminary,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_seminary (all accessed 26 June 2024).