Betsy A. Stowell

Betsy A. Stowell was the daughter of Alpheus S. Stowell and Julia Brown. She was born in December of 1832 in Lisle, Broome County, New York, and her father died when she was about three years old. Betsy married 1st to Squires S. Barrows, son of Isaac Barrows and Cynthia Squires. The couple was living in Lisle in 1855 with one son, also named Squires. Four more children would follow before 1862 when Squires joined to fight in the Civil War in Company A, 137th New York Infantry. The regiment left from Binghamton on the 27th of September, 1862, and Squires died less than three months later, on the 8th of December, 1862. Mr. Barrow’s death, and ultimately the Civil War itself, hereby altered the course of history for our family. Betsy married 2nd to John Clark Harvey between 1870 and 1875, and together they had five children, for a total of ten for Betsy, as stated on the 1900 census. She married 3rd to Lorenzo Short (1840-1914) in Harford Mills on Nov. 29, 1900. In June of 1905 it was reported that she was ill with liver and kidney trouble and that she was being cared for by her daughter, Mrs. Burdette Hamilton, of Ithaca. She died there nine months later, on the 24th of September, 1906. She was 73. She was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Berkshire (Section D, Plot 48) under the name “Betsy Short”.