Bartlett Anthony Bowers (1878 - 1965)

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Biography

Bartlett Anthony Bowers Sr. (1878 1965)

b. 6 28 1878 on the family plantation in Halifax County, near Littleton, N. C. He was the first of 14 children of Thaddeus Ray and Mary Elizabeth (Dowtin) Bowers. d. 2 12 1965 in Belmont, Gaston Co., N. C. m. Lemma Susan Moss (b. 5 4 1878; d. 2 5 1957) on 12 16 1897 at the Moss home at Moss, near Littleton, in Halifax County, N. C.

Bartlett Anthony Bowers was born at the family plantation in Halifax Co, near Littleton NC. He grew up on the plantation and helped harvest the main crop – cotton. He obtained his secondary education in Halifax Co NC at Bowers Hill Academy.

After their marriage "Bat" and Lemma lived and worked on the Bowers family cotton plantation. Under this arrangement they, and Lemma in particular, were unhappy living under the authoritarian rules of "Pa" Bowers. Their first child Mary Helen was born here. Within about two years "Bat", with Lemma concurring, decided that he wanted to leave the farm and become a minister but they had no funds and "Pa" Bowers did not believe in higher education. Lemma appealed to her father for help. Ben Moss built a house for them in the textile mill town of Roanoke Rapids, N.C. This house was built with extra rooms that could be rented. There they rented out the extra rooms, "Bat" worked in a textile mill and Lemma taught music lessons and they saved money to enable both of them to attend a seminary. In 1902, they rented their home in Roanoke Rapids and moved to Chester, Pa. where they both entered Crozier Theological Seminary. On Sept. 25, 1904, while still completing work at Crosier, he received his "License to Preach" from the Roanoke Rapids Baptist Church in Roanoke Rapids, NC on Sept. 25, 1904. He had specifically returned to his home church, Bear Swamp Baptist (just outside Littleton NC) to be ordained. During his first pastorate at Point Pleasant, Pa. (BA JR born here 1908) he commuted to the Univ. of Penn. at Philadelphia, for further studies. He subsequently held pastorates in Baptist churches in Cape May City (Kathryn born here 1909), and Bellville, in N.J.(Dorothy Born here 1912), Fredrick (1914), and Baltimore, in Md.(May 1st, 1916), In 1918 he took a leave of absence to work in ministry with the Army and Navy bases near Cape May, the YMCA and the Red Cross for 4 months. ~1920 he went to Knoxville, Tn., On May 11,1921, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Divinity by Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. (He shared the stage with Marie Curie who was receiving an honorary doctorate for her work in discovering Radium) In 1928 he moved to Gastonia, N.C. He was pastor at the First Baptist Church in Gastonia for 16 years. While he lived in Gastonia he had a summer cottage in Ridgecrest NC. In 1940 he and Lemma built their retirement home on land adjacent to the cottage. They named this home Park Place. After he retired from the active ministry in 1946, he held (38) interim pastorates in Baptist churches in Florida and North Carolina. As an interim pastor, he worked with a pulpit committee to find and place a new pastor for the concerned church. He was always able to find interim positions in Florida in the winter and NC in the summer. He was, for many years, a member of the Board of Directors of the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board which met in Nashville, Tn. He was also on the Board of Directo¬rs of the Southern Baptist Assembly at Ridgecrest, N.C. for a number of years. They kept a cottage (3 bedroom house) open to summer guests on land adjacent to the Southern Baptist Assembly Grounds for about 25 years. They built their retirement home (5 bedroom house) adjacent to this cottage in 1940. This home had four large upstairs bedrooms and a large basement that they rented to summer guests. They named this home "Park Place". It was sold to the Assembly after Lemma's health forced them to live in a more accessible area. They built another retirement home in Belmont NC. On Feb. 5, 1957, Lemma, his wife of 60 years , died after suffering a series of strokes. In 1959 he remarried; to Leona Atkinson. They lived in the Belmont home until Bat’s death in 1965. Leona died about 1990. His death was due to complications following an operation to remove gall stones. He is buried in with Lemma his first wife, cemetery near Belmont N.C.

Children of Bartlett A. and Lemma S. (Moss) Bowers: 1) Mary Helen, b. 12 13 1898 2) Bartlett Anthony Jr. b. 8 19 1908; d. 5-6-1983. 3) Susan Kathryn, b. 9 23 1909; 4) Dorothy Moss, b. 8 9 1912; d. 10-19-1999

Sources

• full Biography was recorded by his son Otto Kurt Hunerwadel Jr from direct conversations with his mother, Mary Helen Bowers Hunerwadel , His aunts , uncles and cousins. He recorded this in his family genealogy records

"North Carolina Birth Index, 1800-2000," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VHGH-51D : 8 December 2014), Bartlette Anthony Bowers, 28 Jun 1878; from "North Carolina, Birth and Death Indexes, 1800-2000," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2005); citing vol. D-6, p. 40, Halifax, North Carolina, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh.

"North Carolina, Department of Archives and History, Index to Vital Records, 1800-2000", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7XLS-DM3Z : Wed Dec 13 14:37:22 UTC 2023), Entry for Bartlette Anthony Bowers and Thaddeus Ray Bowers, 28 Jun 1878.

"North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979 ", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP9G-MB8M : Wed Oct 18 05:26:50 UTC 2023), Entry for Bata Bowers and I R Bowers, 16 Dec 1897.

"United States Census, 1910", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKTS-K2Y : Wed Oct 04 09:21:54 UTC 2023), Entry for Bartlett A Bowers and Lemma S Bowers, 1910.

"United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZ83-WB4 : 24 December 2021), Bartlett Anthony Bowers, 1917-1918.

"United States Census, 1920", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M63G-3DD : Fri Dec 22 10:08:56 UTC 2023), Entry for Bartlett A Bowers and Lemma S Bowers, 1920.

"United States Census, 1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KW35-5CK : Tue Nov 28 13:41:40 UTC 2023), Entry for Bartlett A Bowers and Lemma M Bowers, 1940.

"North Carolina Deaths and Burials, 1898-1994", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H4VR-ZFN2 : 21 January 2020), Bartlett A. Bowers in entry for Lemma Moss Bowers, 1957.

"North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979 ", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KL7R-T33 : Wed Oct 18 04:49:53 UTC 2023), Entry for Bartlett Anthony Bowers and Thadeus Ray Bowers, 28 May 1958.

"North Carolina Deaths and Burials, 1898-1994", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H4GB-9YPZ : 21 January 2020), Bartlett Anthony Bowers, 1964.

"United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J2X6-ZM7 : 8 January 2021), Bartlett Bowers, Feb 1965; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).