Re: John Bowers & Anna Crosby, MA, 1733

I am so pleased to receive your information that verifies John Bowers' death date and relates the fascinating powder horn story.My husband is also a direct descendant -- John Bowers & Anna Crosby are his 5th great-grandparents via their granddaughter Anna (daughter of John Bowers and Rachel Varnum) who married Ziba Whiting.

I presume you may know a little about Ziba who took his wife and children from Wilton ME to western Pennsylvania between 1807 and 1810 and settled in Fayette Co., PA.Shortly thereafter the whole family, I believe, went west to what was called either Missouri Territory or Louisiana Territory.Ziba died there, but we have never discovered where or when.By 1820 Census, his wife/widow and some of the children were back in Fayette Co.Ziba's oldest son George had a daughter Telie who married a Patterson and that's my husband's line.

Your explanation of how men recruited friends and relatives no matter where they lived may help explain why Ziba served in the Revolutionary War with a company that was organized in Worcester, MA.You have provided me a new clue to follow.

Something I have learned over time is that people did not necessarily call themselves "Jr.".This was sometimes applied by census takers and tax collectors merely to distinguish an older man from a younger man of same name, whether it was a son or a nephew or a cousin. In written records, it seems more typical to see some man called "the elder John..." than it does "John Jr."

I would be pleased to receive any other information about the Bowers and Crosbey [email protected]