This final installment in our series on the group of 19th century Pekin business cards that we’ve been examining will delve into the life of T. W. Lowrey, who owned and operated a liquor store on Court Street in the early 1870s.
The card says T. W. Lowrey’s liquor business was located at “Stone Front, Court Street,” which of itself does not help us to locate it. An advertisement for Lowrey’s business on page 27 of the 1870-71 City Directory of Pekin slightly expands that address to “Court Street, Birkenbusch’s stone front,” but the directory’s entry on Lowrey gives a precise address:
“Lowrey T. W., liquor dealer, ns Court 6 d w Third; bds American House.”
This location places Lowrey’s liquor store in the 200 block of Court Street, six doors west of Third Street. The very next directory entry lists “Lowrey, David F., res sw cor Court and Sixth.” That is none other than T. W. Lowrey’s father David F. “Davie” Lowrey (1798-1887), who again appears in the 1876 Pekin City Directory as “Lowrey David F., retired, res 622 Court.” These are the only Pekin city directory entries on T. W. Lowrey and his family.
The “T.” in Lowrey’s name stands for “Thomas.” His father David was born in 1798 in Londonderry, Ireland, and his mother was David’s first wife Susan Patterson, who was born in 1809 in Ireland. Besides their son Thomas, David and Susan had two daughters, the elder of whom was named Sarah Jane.
A review of U.S. census records shows “David F. Lowry” living in Logan County at the time of the 1840 census. David was then the head of a household consisting of one free white male, age 30-39, one free white female, age 20-29, and one free white female under age 5. That would be David, Susan, and Sarah Jane.
The 1850 U.S. census of Logan County shows David Lowry, 50, born in Ireland, a farmer, with Susan Lowry, 39, Sarah J. Lowry, 11, and Thomas Lowry, 9. In 1860, the U.S. Census of Pekin shows D. F. Lowry, 50, gentleman, born Ireland, Sarah Lowry, 19, born in Illinois, Thomas Lowry, 17, born in Illinois, Missouri Lowry, 11, born in Illinois, and Catherine Harris, 28, domestic, born in Missouri.
The name of the daughter “Missouri” is somewhat unusual. It could be a mistake of the census-taker whose eye may have strayed to the “Missouri” of Catherine Harris’ place of birth on the next line. Or David and Susan may have decided to name their second daughter after the state of Missouri for some reason. In any case, “Missouri” Lowrey does not appear in any later censuses, so she may have died before the 1870 census. David’s wife Susan is not enumerated in the 1860 census because she had died on 9 Feb. 1857 in Pekin.
David remarried in Pekin on 27 Feb. 1862 to Linda M. Fennelly (born in Waterford, Ireland, in 1834, died 1914 in Lincoln, Nebraska), with whom he had another son, George W. Lowrey. David and his family lived at the southwest corner of Court and Sixth Street, where the Charles H. Duisdieker family subsequently lived beginning in the 1880s.
As for David’s older son Thomas W., he registered for the June 1863 Civil War draft as “Thomas W. Lowrey,” 23, farmer, born in Illinois, married, from Toulon, Illinois. Thomas had married Lizzie A. Furnas (born 1850, died 3 Nov. 1875 of heart failure), a daughter of George and Lotta Furnas. Thomas and Lizzie never had any children. As for Thomas’ older sister Sarah Jane Lowrey, she married her first cousin Joseph Ewing Lowrey in Pekin on 20 April 1874. Joseph’s and Sarah Jane’s fathers were brothers. They had several children together.
T. W. Lowrey appears in the 1870 U.S. Census of Pekin as “Thos. W. Lowry,” 29, born in Illinois, selling wholesale liquor, living in the household of David F. Lowry, 60, and Linda M. Lowry, 37, (both born in Ireland), along with Geo. W. Lowry, 6, Sarah J. Lowry, 30, and Louisa Falke, 20, domestic, born in Prussia.
By 1878 Thomas is known to have settled in Lincoln, Nebraska, as shown by city directories and several other records. His father, step-mother, sister, and brother appear to have moved to Nebraska at or around the same time. While living out there, Thomas became a wealthy landowner, acquiring tracts in both Nebraska and Kansas.
He passed away on 4 Aug. 1893 in Walton, Nebraska, and was interred on 7 Aug. 1893 in the Lowrey Vault in Wyuka Cemetery, Lincoln. He had made provisions in his will for the construction of the vault, where many members of the Lowrey family are also interred. His sister Sarah Jane Lowrey and her husband Joseph E. Lowrey and their children, his half-brother George W. Lowrey, his stepmother Linda M. (Fennelly) Lowrey, his late wife’s sisters, and others are named in his will and granted generous bequests out of his fortune. Thomas left a very substantial estate: about $150,000 in personal estate, and about $75,000 in real estate in Nebraska and Kansas.
Thomas’ will is dated 9 March 1893, but was amended by the agreement of his siblings Sarah Jane and George W. on 22 Aug. 1893, and proved and accepted as amended. The amendment was to avoid a hurtful dispute over Thomas’ estate, for George presented a purported earlier will, dated 3 Aug. 1887, in which he got the majority of his brother’s estate, while in the later will Thomas left most of the estate to his sister Sarah. Through the amendment, George was granted $50,000 out of the estate and the remaining bequests of the later will were left intact.
