JOHN BOWERS VISITS HIS BROTHER, JACOB, IN LINCOLN FOR ONE WEEK; PARTED NEARLY HALF CENTURY AGO

Nearly half a century ago, John and Jacob Bowers parted at Sharpsburg, Md. the one to remain in the east and the other to come to Nebraska. Last week they met for the first time since the Sharpsburg days at the home of Jacob Bowers in Havelock and today they are enjoying a family reunion picnic, after the long years of separation.

Forty-seven years ago Jacob Bowers and his family left their home in Sharpsburg, Md., for Nebraska. Jacob and his brother John had been working on a farm, but farm labor was a slow road to fortune and Jacob suddenly felt the call of the west and decided to come to the still new country to make his way with it.

It was a new venture for the Maryland man. Perhaps the young Nebraska would be a disappointment, but it could scarcely offer less than he was receiving in Maryland, which still suffered from the Civil War. Board, room, and one dollar per month paid semi-annually, in gold, didn't offer much prospect of future riches.

Jacob Bowers had been unsettled since the war, He had been a private in Company H. Thirteenth Maryland regiment, enlisting at Sharpsburg, John Bowers enlisted in the same company at eighteen years of age, August 25, 1863. They were both honorably discharged at Baltimore, May 29, 1865.

The days of change had left Jacob-with a sharp unrest and he was only waiting the opportunity to move. The chance came suddenly and Jacob and his family responded. A man came to Sharpsburg from Nebraska, wanting someone to live on his farm for a time, offering as an inducement a furnished home and productive acres.

Come to Nebraska

Jacob wanted John to come west with him, but John Bowers preferred the east, to remain among the people with whom he had grown to manhood. His was not the adventuring spirit.

Jacob Bowers and his family came west in 1878, forty-seven years ago. John Bowers saw him depart at the old Sharpsburg station. He had helped him buy his ticket that only cost $2 for the 1600 miles to Nebraska. He watched the old wood burning engine pant and puff and choke and looked over the other family that was in the same car with the Bowers.

John was a young man then, Jacob was just in the prime of life, stalwart, strong, vigorous. John was only thirty-three, having been born in 1845, and Jacob was forty-one, his birth date March 6. 1837. Little either man thought then that forty-seven years would elapse before they saw each other again, that a new century would be a quarter completed when they met, that they would be old men of eighty and eighty-eight.

John went to Harrisburg, Pa. where he remained as a carpenter. Jacob came to his farm at Odell, and then moved to another, and another, until about fifteen years ago he came to Havelock to remain.

Another east and west that did not meet.

Did Not Recognize

One week ago last Saturday, John Bowers, his son and his wife, Mr. And Mrs. J.F. Bowers and his granddaughter, Mrs. Paul F. MacDonald, arrived from Harrisburg, so that the two old brothers might meet again.

Jacob Bowers came to the station to meet his brother. But they did not know one another. Each thought the years that had changed them had dealt more kindly with the other and each looked for the brother he had parted from forty-seven years ago.

Tears, unashamed, streamed down their faces when they met at last. The one, a very old man, the other bearing up under his few less years more straightly. Eighty and eighty-eight years old--and meeting after more than half a lifetime had passed! And only for a week, one short week of memories and reminiscences.

The Easterners came a week ago and they go on tomorrow into Iowa and back to Harrisburg. Today they are holding a family reunion in one of the parks.

Only a week, but as the twilight falls and the shadows draw closer two old men will remember, and will be happy that one week was granted them to be together out of nearly half a century.

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So far as I know these are not my line although our William A. Bowers lived in Odell, Nebraska at one time. And a Jacob Bowers was William's grandfather-Jacob was living in Indiana. Does anyone recognize these Bowers?