I am participating (selectively) in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks program of prompts to help you with writing about genealogy and ancestors. The prompt for Week 4 (January 25-31) is “Favorite Photo.”
As I stated in last year’s post about favorite photos, trying to select a favorite photograph from the many I have collected over the years is hard to do. Among my favorites is one I remember seeing in Grandma Toler’s photo drawer when I was a young boy.
The photograph shows a young boy holding the reins of a mule. They stand in front of a barn, while a rooster struts by in the background. The image appears to have been taken in the early to mid-1930s. I now have the original in my collection, since no one else knew who the boy with the mule was.
The young boy is Robert Mowry, son of Uncle Frank Mowry. Uncle Frank was Aunt Mary Jane Toler Stilley’s second husband…a mail-order husband. [That’s a story for another day!]
Robert Charles Mowry was born on 26 July 1924 in Amhurst, Massachusetts, to Frank Howard Mowry and Rowena Baker Mowry.1 Though a World War II draft registration card shows he was born in Amerson, New Hampshire.2
Uncle Frank married Aunt Mary Jane in Craven County, North Carolina, on 22 Apr 1926.3 Frank’s first wife had died, leaving Frank to care for several children (Robert, his twin Roberta, and Frank Jr, to name three of them), and Aunt Mary Jane’s first husband had died, leaving her to care for three sons (Elmo, Dewitt, and Wilbur Stilley).
The combined Mowry-Stilley families lived in Caton at the homeplace of James Lawrence Toler (Aunt Mary Jane’s father). This appears to be where the photograph of Robert and the mule is taken. While living in Caton, Robert attended Caton School.
At the age of 24, Robert joined the military on 22 Nov 1948 and served until 30 Apr 1952.4 He attained the rank of Corporal in the 4th Transportation Truck Battalion. 5
Robert died, unmarried, in the VA Hospital in Philadelphia from complications of colon cancer on 26 May 1954. He is buried in the Beverly National Cemetery in Beverly, New Jersey.6