Remembering a forgotten great-granddad
“We too will die and we too will be forgotten. That’s the worst of it, isn’t it – to be forgotten?” - a passage from the book Intimate Fragments.
Although we never knew each other, John Henry Bowes is largely responsible for my very existence.
John Henry was born in Halifax, the son of John Bowes, a carpenter, and Mary Louisa Werling, a homemaker. His grandparents, Johann Christian Borsser and his wife, Anna Marie Masson, both farmers, had lived in Lunenburg before settling in Cow Bay.
John Henry’s two older siblings died in early childhood, but he grew to be a tall, handsome man with dark brown hair and a red beard.
Health issues kept John
Henry from doing farm work and dusty carpentry jobs. Instead, he discovered working on the ocean eased his terrible asthma symptoms. He took a job aboard a Dominion of Canada boat, the steamer Newfield, which was “employed to attend the buoy and light service in Nova Scotia, and also ... in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick.”
At the age of 41, John Henry married his great love, Christianna Patten, of Newfoundland, in Brunswick Street Methodist Church. Together they had four children: John Henry, Annie Clara, Mary Louise and William George.
One day, while working near Georges Island, he was injured aboard the Newfield. There are two versions of what happened. The family version is that a rope broke and the heavy winch handle spun wildly against John Henry, nearly severing both legs.
The second version came from the Acadian Recorder newspaper, which indicated a ring bolt on the deck gave way and the line got entangled with, and badly twisted, his legs.
Whichever version is accurate, John Henry suffered devastating injuries to his lower legs. Rushed to shore, he was taken to hospital where the doctors prepared to amputate both limbs above the knee.
However, he was so weak from shock and blood loss that it was felt he would not survive such an operation, so the doctors decided to cancel it. He died the following evening, on Friday, April 25, 1884, aged 46. His youngest son, William George, was born four months later.
John Henry is buried in historic Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax.
Christianna died on Feb. 21, 1918, aged 70, and is buried alongside John Henry.
Family history records that John Henry’s family was too poor to place his obituary in the newspaper. I believe everyone’s life story should be told, so this is my way of honouring him.
Rest in peace, great-granddad.
A Dayspring resident,
Carolyn (Bowes) Simpson is a genealogist working on her first book about her family’s history.