Biography of John  C. Stowell, Tompkins Co., NY 

Everts and Ensign, HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS & SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NY, Philadelphia,
1879

Copyright (c) 1999 by Deborah (Huntington) Smith (rover42256@aol.com).

************************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in
any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material,
must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal
representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb
archivist with proof of this consent.
************************************************************************

John C. Stowell

Among the representative, self-made business men of Ithaca, none have been more successful, and
deservedly so, than the gentleman whose name heads this brief sketch.  For more than forty
years he has been prominently identified with the business and material interests of Ithaca and
has acquired a reputation for enterprise and individual integrity second to that of no man
within the province of our work.

John C. Stowell was born in Bainbridge, Chenango Co., NY, Feb. 20, 1817.  He is of New England
descent, his father, Calvin Stowell, having been born in New Hampshire;  his mother, Lucy
Bramhill, was a daughter of Joseph Bramhall*, son of Joshua, who was the son of George Bramhall
who resided at Dover, NH,  in 1670, and at Casco, Maine, in 1678.  The arrival of the family
was contemporary with that of the Pilgrim fathers, and the descendants at the present day enjoy
the satisfaction a reputable and honest genealogy always gives.  Joseph Bramhall, grandfather
of Mr. Stowell, was born Jan. 4, 1750; married Experience Blackman, and removed from Plymouth,
Mass. To Dutchess Co., NY, somewhere between the years 1765 and 1775, and died in Meredith,
Delaware CO., NY.  After his death the widow and her family removed to Franklin, in the same
county.  Calvin Stowell and his family removed to the town of Groton, NY, where he died in
1838.  By this sad event the care and support of the widow devolved upon the subject of this
sketch, which duty he cheerfully performed, until her death, which occurred Dec 2., 1871, --a
period of thirty-six years.  She lived to the good old age of ninety-three years.

In 1835, Mr. Stowell came to Ithaca, and entered the employ of Miles Finch, in the general
mercantile business, as a clerk.  By strict attention to the duties of his position, and a
faithful regard for the interests of his employer, at the end o five years he was taken in as
an equal partner, under the firm-style of Finch & Stowell.  This copartnership existed twelve
years, when he purchased the interest of the senior member.  In 1852 he formed a partnership
with Samuel P. Sherwood, which was continued until 1864.  In 1872 he sold the general
mercantile business to H. L. Wilgus, and established the wholesale grocery and provision firm
of J. C. Stowell and Son, taking his son, Calvin D. Stowell, into partnership.  The young
gentleman was educated at Yale, from which institution he was honorably graduated in 1868.  In
1875, Messrs. Stowell and Son, in connection with Charles M. Titus, erected the fine brick
block known as the "Stowell Block," in which their wholesale house is located.

In December, 1843, Mr. Stowell was married to Mariette, daughter of Deacon Harley Lord, who is
descended from the Webster family, of which Noah Webster was a distinguished member.  They have
had four children,----Mary A., Calvin D., Julia F., and Harley L., of whom but one, Calvin D.,
alone survives.  The others, who reached maturity, possessed more than ordinary intellectual
endowments, and their loss was a sore bereavement to the fond and indulgent parents, whose
pride they justly were.

Mr. Stowell has been a member of the First Presbyterian Church for forty years, and for
eighteen years of that time one of its trustees.  He is at present a deacon of that church, and
one of its most zealous and active members.  He was one of the original incorporators of the
First National Bank of Ithaca, and is at present, and has been from its establishment, one of
its directors.  The very flattering success that has attended Mr. Stowell in all of his
business transactions has been due to his uncompromising integrity, and the high sense of moral
obligation that has attended him through his long and busy career.  In short, a practical
exemplification of the golden rule has been the basis alike of his business and private life,
and hence the acquisition of the creditable and honorable reputation which he enjoys.