Emma Bowen Taylor & Grandmother Wilkinson
Previous post: Ada Baker
Calling all genealogy mystery solvers! Who can solve the new mystery we have on our hands?
By now, you've read about Fontabelle Baker, Ohio University alumna. Then, you read about her mother, Ada Baker, who left her abusive husband, Lyman. See where this is going? Take a look at the photo below and have a guess:
Four generations of women. FOUR. Baby Fontabelle in her young mother, Ada's arms. Sitting next to: you guessed it, her mother and grandmother. A priceless photo, once again found at Miss Pixies.
Ada was born to John Robinson Taylor and Emma Bowen, who is "Grandma Taylor" in this photo: the first woman on the left. Emma is who we will learn about today.
Emma was born to Martin and Elizabeth Bowen, the latter of whom is likely the middle woman...but therein lies the aforementioned mystery which we will get to later! In the 1860 census, 38-year old Martin, his wife Elizabeth of the same age, and their six children including 7-year-old Emma were living in Union Township, Ohio: the same location where the next two generations of daughters would grow up.
And, well, that's all we have on Emma's early life.
I could go into the details of Emma's adult life with her husband John Taylor but nothing notable happens: marriage, kids, death. A skeleton of life milestones, but unfortunately the only facts you can expect to find when researching a woman at this point in history.
So with that, let's dive into the mystery.
Note the labeling of the photo: 'grandmother Taylor, great-grandmother Wilkinson'. As Taylor was Emma Bowen's married name and she is known as 'grandmother Taylor', this would insinuate that Wilkinson was the married name of the middle woman as well, as she is known as 'great grandmother Wilkinson'.
It is safe to assume that 'great-grandmother Wilkinson' was 'grandma Taylor's mother (beyond the fact that they are all in the same photo together, just look at those facial similarities!); however, this would mean that the maiden name of grandma Emma Taylor would have been Emma Wilkinson.
It wasn't.
It was Emma Bowen.
So where did this Wilkinson name come from?!
This wasn't the only instance I came across Wilkinson in this huge photo haul. Take a look at this photo:
A house with what appears to be a woman and a baby sitting on the front porch. On the back, it is labeled "Dr L E Baker and Grandmother Wilkinson, home Mechanicsburg."
Dr L E Baker is, of course, Lyman Baker: husband of Ada, father of Fontabelle. But if the label on the back is correct, why would baby Lyman, the presumed baby, be in the lap of what would be his wife's grandmother?
This Mechanicsburg photo, on the contrary, insinuates that Ms Wilkinson was Lyman's mother.
But if this were the case, then we must be able to explain why Lyman's mother would sit in a photo with three generations of her in-law's family. Not to mention, the eldest woman in that photo looks awfully similar to the woman on the left.
Also, Lyman Baker's mother couldn't be 'Grandmother Wilkinson', because that means Lyman would be Lyman Wilkinson, not Baker!
In fact, Lyman was born to Lyman Gates Baker and Mary Elizabeth Monson. No Wilkinson in sight.
So what's going on here?
An answer could lie in the house itself. Maybe the labeling on the photo wasn't meant to mean the people in the photo were Lyman and Grandmother Wilkinson. Rather, perhaps the focus was meant to be on the house: that it belonged to both Grandmother Wilkinson and then to Lyman. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for a man to buy property from his in-laws. It seemed like the house itself was important to the family, because someone else wrote on the back "home where I was born on West Sandusky St."
I have reason to believe Fontabelle wrote this, as her and her family lived on West Sandusky Street when she was growing up.
This still doesn't explain who 'Great grandmother Wilkinson" is in the first photo though! Shouldn't it be Great Grandmother Bowen?
One such explanation could be that Mr. Bowen had died, and his wife remarried a Wilkinson. Martin and Elizabeth Bowen (b. 1822) appear in federal censuses in 1850 and 1860 with their children: Mary Bowen (1843), Myron Bowen (1848), Isabel (1849), Lucy (1851), Emma (1853), Alice (1855), and William (1859).
After 1860, there is no sign of the family. In the 1870 census, the youngest children, Alice and William, who would be 15 and 11 respectively, should still be living with their mother, but there is no sign of them anywhere, nor can I find Emma Bowen.
Considering Mechanicsburg in the mid-1800s was a rather small community (an understatement, to be sure), I thought it necessary to look through some censuses to see if if I could find any Wilkinsons living in the area.
Lo and behold, there were, but I cannot find any relation to the Bowens.
Maybe this is just one of those impossible genealogy mysteries.
Calling all genealogy mystery solvers! Who can solve the new mystery we have on our hands?
By now, you've read about Fontabelle Baker, Ohio University alumna. Then, you read about her mother, Ada Baker, who left her abusive husband, Lyman. See where this is going? Take a look at the photo below and have a guess:
Four generations of women. FOUR. Baby Fontabelle in her young mother, Ada's arms. Sitting next to: you guessed it, her mother and grandmother. A priceless photo, once again found at Miss Pixies.
Ada was born to John Robinson Taylor and Emma Bowen, who is "Grandma Taylor" in this photo: the first woman on the left. Emma is who we will learn about today.
Emma was born to Martin and Elizabeth Bowen, the latter of whom is likely the middle woman...but therein lies the aforementioned mystery which we will get to later! In the 1860 census, 38-year old Martin, his wife Elizabeth of the same age, and their six children including 7-year-old Emma were living in Union Township, Ohio: the same location where the next two generations of daughters would grow up.
And, well, that's all we have on Emma's early life.
I could go into the details of Emma's adult life with her husband John Taylor but nothing notable happens: marriage, kids, death. A skeleton of life milestones, but unfortunately the only facts you can expect to find when researching a woman at this point in history.
So with that, let's dive into the mystery.
Note the labeling of the photo: 'grandmother Taylor, great-grandmother Wilkinson'. As Taylor was Emma Bowen's married name and she is known as 'grandmother Taylor', this would insinuate that Wilkinson was the married name of the middle woman as well, as she is known as 'great grandmother Wilkinson'.
It is safe to assume that 'great-grandmother Wilkinson' was 'grandma Taylor's mother (beyond the fact that they are all in the same photo together, just look at those facial similarities!); however, this would mean that the maiden name of grandma Emma Taylor would have been Emma Wilkinson.
It wasn't.
It was Emma Bowen.
So where did this Wilkinson name come from?!
This wasn't the only instance I came across Wilkinson in this huge photo haul. Take a look at this photo:
A house with what appears to be a woman and a baby sitting on the front porch. On the back, it is labeled "Dr L E Baker and Grandmother Wilkinson, home Mechanicsburg."
Dr L E Baker is, of course, Lyman Baker: husband of Ada, father of Fontabelle. But if the label on the back is correct, why would baby Lyman, the presumed baby, be in the lap of what would be his wife's grandmother?
This Mechanicsburg photo, on the contrary, insinuates that Ms Wilkinson was Lyman's mother.
But if this were the case, then we must be able to explain why Lyman's mother would sit in a photo with three generations of her in-law's family. Not to mention, the eldest woman in that photo looks awfully similar to the woman on the left.
Also, Lyman Baker's mother couldn't be 'Grandmother Wilkinson', because that means Lyman would be Lyman Wilkinson, not Baker!
In fact, Lyman was born to Lyman Gates Baker and Mary Elizabeth Monson. No Wilkinson in sight.
So what's going on here?
An answer could lie in the house itself. Maybe the labeling on the photo wasn't meant to mean the people in the photo were Lyman and Grandmother Wilkinson. Rather, perhaps the focus was meant to be on the house: that it belonged to both Grandmother Wilkinson and then to Lyman. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for a man to buy property from his in-laws. It seemed like the house itself was important to the family, because someone else wrote on the back "home where I was born on West Sandusky St."
I have reason to believe Fontabelle wrote this, as her and her family lived on West Sandusky Street when she was growing up.
This still doesn't explain who 'Great grandmother Wilkinson" is in the first photo though! Shouldn't it be Great Grandmother Bowen?
One such explanation could be that Mr. Bowen had died, and his wife remarried a Wilkinson. Martin and Elizabeth Bowen (b. 1822) appear in federal censuses in 1850 and 1860 with their children: Mary Bowen (1843), Myron Bowen (1848), Isabel (1849), Lucy (1851), Emma (1853), Alice (1855), and William (1859).
After 1860, there is no sign of the family. In the 1870 census, the youngest children, Alice and William, who would be 15 and 11 respectively, should still be living with their mother, but there is no sign of them anywhere, nor can I find Emma Bowen.
Considering Mechanicsburg in the mid-1800s was a rather small community (an understatement, to be sure), I thought it necessary to look through some censuses to see if if I could find any Wilkinsons living in the area.
Lo and behold, there were, but I cannot find any relation to the Bowens.
Maybe this is just one of those impossible genealogy mysteries.
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