My parents, Harold W. and Bernice F. Stevens Dowdy met and married in Seattle, King County, Washington. They raised a family of four daughters and one son in the Seattle area.
The ancestors of Harold W. Dowdy came to this country from Ireland, via England, in the late 1600's and settled in the Virginia/North Carolina area. His family continued to live in that general area until the mid-1830's, when they began to move west and south. Allen Dowdy left North Carolina with his wife, Ann Mariah Sanders Dowdy, two sons and one daughter, along with several other family members and friends, relocating first in Hardin County, Tennessee and then on to Stoddard County, Missouri by 1840. One son, name unknown, died en route and is reported to be buried at Shiloh. Allen Dowdy and much of his family remained in the Missouri bootheel area for the rest of their lives.
Rebecca Catherine Dowdy/Gallaway/Haggard/Nichols, the only one of his children to out-live Allen Dowdy, left Stoddard County, Missouri with William Higbee Nichols, her third husband, and their surviving children, relocating to Texas, eventually settling in the area around Graham, Young County.
Henry Frankln 'Tucker' Dowdy, grandson of Allen Dowdy, married Amanda Elizabeth Hambleton before leaving Stoddard County in about 1890, along with their son, Henry Franklin, Jr., my grandfather. Their family relocated in the Clay County, Texas area, where he became a very successful farmer. They produced five additional sons and one daughter before Amanda died after being horribly burned in a freak accident. Tucker returned briefly to Stoddard County and remarried -- this time to Laura Dennington, an old friend. They had three additional sons.
In 1910, Henry Franklin Dowdy, Jr. married Elizabeth Jane Waggener, the daughter of family friends. Elizabeth, or 'Bill' as my grandfather called her, died of tuberculosis in about 1921, leaving her two children with her parents in New Mexico. Frank eventually re-married and the family settled in Arizona until the late 1920's and then moved north through Salt Lake City, Portland, Oregon and then to Seattle.
The immigrating members of the Heyer, Stefanski, Hartmann and Ullmann families arrived in Seattle by quite a different route. Their families left Germany in the mid-1880's, arriving first in New York and then moving west into the Great Lakes area. The Heyer and Ullmann families went to Cleveland, Ohio and the Stefanski's to Wisconsin before moving on to Seattle just after the turn of the century.
Elsa Hedwig Heyer, daughter of Frederick Heyer and Freideriche August Ullmann Heyer, married William Martin Stevens (Stefanski), a Seattle policeman, in 1911. They raised two children: my mother, Bernice Fredericka Stevens and William Martin Stevens, Jr.
Many of the descendants of these families remain in the Seattle area today.
Additional Note: The recent addition of Descendants of Stephen W. Harris is courtesy of and with the permission of Marian Rice. There is a great deal of information contained in this file, which links to the Dowdy family with the marriage of Stephen W. Harris to Emily S. Dowdy in about 1857 in Stoddard County Missouri.
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- Theodosia "Dosia" Nichols Freeman (32 KB)
Theodosia Nichols Freeman was the daughter of Rebecca C. Dowdy and William H. Nichols. She was born 18 Feb 1871 in Stoddard County, MO and died 09 Mar 1953.
- The Ullmann Family, 1907 (57 KB)
Top row: Ernst, Ernest, Martha and Elsie. Front row: Alice, Euphemia, Clara, Nina and Alvin.
- Tucker As A Young Man (41 KB)
Henry Franklin Dowdy Sr., known to all as "Tucker", born 01/14/1863 in Stoddard County, Missouri and brought his family to Clay County, Texas, where he died 07/28/1931.
- John T. and Elizabeth (Hollingsworth) Poteet (40 KB)
John T. (10/18/1858-12/09/1928) and Lizzie (Hollingsworth) Poteet (01/16/1859-06/21/1931), resided in Texas. Lizzie is the granddaughter of Armstead S. Dowdy and Elizabeth (Cross) Dowdy.
- Haggard Housewarming (31 KB)
Family photo taken on the occasion of the completion of the Haggard home in Proffitt, Young County, Texas.
- Amanda Elizabeth Hambleton (33 KB)
This portrait of Amanda Elizabeth Hambleton Dowdy is the only photograph of her to be found to this date.
- Gillium Ezell and Nancy Mary Robertson (24 KB)
Photo with the permission of Dorris Gaines; Nancy Mary (Mollie) Roberton Ezell and her first husband, Gillium Ezell. These two are linked to the Dowdy family through the marriage of Molly's sister, Sarah Jane Robertson, who was the mother of Mahalia Ezell Dowdy, wife of John Armstead Dowdy. John A. was the grandson of Armstead Lilly Dowdy, Sr. and Martha Riddle.
- Addie G. Swan (21 KB)
Addie Swan, daughter of Margaret Ann Nichols, widow of John Wesley Nichols, who later married John W. Swan. Photo courtesy of Coy L. Watson.
- Bernice Stevens, 1931 (14 KB)
Bernice Stevens' high school graduation photo.
- Dowdy Brothers (57 KB)
Left to right are: Paul, Tom, Claude, Albert, Rob and Frank. Location is unknown.
- The Pyle Brothers (1336 KB)
Photo with the permission of Dorris Gaines; Nicholas Adam Pyle, with his two younger brothers, was the husband of Ima Lurline Dowdy, eldest daughter of John Armstead Dowdy and Sarah Mahalia Jane Ezell Dowdy and the granddaughter of Charles Dowdy and Mary E. Gassett. Nicholas is the eldest of the Pyle brothers.
- William R. and Delula Dowdy and Family (65 KB)
William R. and Delula N. (Donham) Dowdy, with their six children: Leonard Hambleton, William Clint, John A., Myrtle, Marvin and Lethia Estelle. William and Delula both died in 1909.
- Julius Ullmann With Margaret and Adeline Heyer (17 KB)
Gross Fadder with his two young granddaughters, Margaret, age four years, and Adeline, age about two years.
- Willie Jane and Children (32 KB)
Elizabeth (Willie) Jane Waggener Dowdy with her children: Waggener Harold, age 6 and Gwendolyn, age one year.
- Tom and Arvie Dowdy (46 KB)
James Thomas Wiley Dowdy with his wife, Arvie. Tom is the son of Andrew J. Dowdy and Mary Ann (Hatley) Dowdy and the Grandson of Armstead L. Dowdy and Elizabeth Cross.
- Viola Martin, Age 16 (33 KB)
Viola Martin in 1918, age 16, in the pink crepe de chine silk dress she made for her first Black and Green Dance at Franklin High School.
- Tom Dowdy Family (30 KB)
Tom, with daughter, Lena, on his lap; Alvie with daughter, Lula. Mary Dowdy Cockrell is standing behind. Mary is Tom's mother, who remarried following the death of Andrew J. Dowdy.
- Wilhelm Hartmann (17 KB)
Wilhelm Jacob Hartmann, husband of Johanna Sabine Friedericke Muther and father of the five Hartmann children was a longtime actor with the Duke's Theater of Saxe-Coburg, Germany.
- The Heyer Family, 1909 (37 KB)
Front row left to right are Frederiche Heyer with Adeline and Margaret. In the back row are Adolph, Antoinette (Nettie), Elsa (Elsie) and Frederick.
- William Higbee & Rebecca Catherine (Dowdy) Nichols (26 KB)
Rebecca and William Nichols in a photo taken of them about 1900. This photo with the permission of Coy L. Watson, grandson of William and Rebecca Nichols.
- Harold W. Dowdy's high school graduation photo (7 KB)
Graduating from Roosevelt High School; Seattle, King County, Washington.
- Elsa Heyer Stevens with Her Children, Circa 1918 (21 KB)
Elsa Heyer Stevens with her children: Bernice, age five and Billy age six to seven months.
- Agnes Kujawa Stefanski (31 KB)
My great-grandmother, Agnes Kujawa Stefanski, was born and raised in East Prussia/Poland but immigrated to America in 1881, along with her husband, John Stefanski. Her children were all born in the USA.
- Nina Hartmann in Salzburg, Austria (29 KB)
Nina also performed throughout Germany before being brought to America by Walter Damrosch to sing in the New York Metropolitan Opera and to tour American with his opera company.
- The Family of Bill Stevens, Circa 1915 (34 KB)
The Back row, left to right: William Martin Stevens, Elsa Heyer Stevens, Bernice F. Stevens, Edward G. Lohrman. In the front row are Helen Stevens and Frances Stevens Lohrman.
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