Dr.
Alfred Bowlby died on Monday
at his home in Waterford
Dr. Alfred Bowlby died at his
home in Waterford on Monday evening, having attained the great age of
95 years 2 months and 13 days. He had been ill about three weeks;
previous to which he had enjoyed a life practically free from any
bodily ailment. He retained the possession of all his faculties in a
wonderful degree and was able to continue the practice of his
profession as a physician until the last.
Dr. Bowlby was born at Round
Plains, on the Windham side of the road, in the year 1820, and in
Norfolk County he spent all his long life.
His father, Adam Bowlby, was
born on the Annapolis River, some sixty miles from Halifax, on a farm
taken up by Dr. Bowlby's great-grandfather, John Bowlby, at the close
of the Revolutionary War. Adam Bowlby came to Norfolk in the wake of
an uncle, Thomas Bowlby, who had settled in Woodhouse, towards the
close of the eighteenth century.
John Bowlby, the founder of
the family in America, lived to be within a few days of one hundred
years; his son Richard was upwards of 80 at his death; the doctor's
father, Adam Bowlby, son of Richard, lived to be almost 91.
Of his father's family there
still survive Ward H. Bowlby of Berlin, county crown attorney of
Waterloo County; J. W. Bowlby, K.C., of Brantford; and Mrs. Powell of
Ottawa, widow of Col. Walker Powell, ex-adjutant-general of Canada,
whose death took place at Ottawa recently.
He is also survived by his
widow and by two sons, Arthur of Waterford, and Russel of Toronto; and
two daughters, Mrs. J. E. Reynolds and Miss Maggie Bowlby of
Waterford.
Dr. D. A. Bowlby of Simcoe is
a nephew, his father, the late William Bowlby, having been the second
of Adam Bowlby's five sons.
In a column of reminiscences
furnished the Waterford Star on the occasion of his celebrating his
84th birthday, Dr. Bowlby said that as a lad he went to school in the
county about Round Plains for two years. He then attended for two
years the Simcoe grammar school kept by Rev. George Salmon. Afterwards
he read medicine with Dr. Park of Simcoe for two years, then going
first to New York, then to McGill college, Montreal, from both of
which places he obtained degrees. He opened an office in his father's
house in Waterford and began practice in 1846. He continued it down to
1915, a period of 69 years -- truly a wonderful record.
Dr. Bowlby's funeral takes
place this afternoon at 2:30 to Greenwood cemetery, Waterford.
