Ever NOTICE how the Bruchac's (Joe, Marge, Jesse, and his brother Jim Bruchac) are now changing their "Abenaki" narrative about their "Abenaki" ancestry and themselves? Part 1

The Bowman and Bruchac Families

Much has been said or posted on the Internet websites regarding children’s book author and presenter, Joseph Edward Bruchac III over the years since the early-to-mid 1970’s. Very little has been scrutinized or evaluated as to the merits of this children’s author’s claims of being an “Abenaki Indian”, through his mother, Marion Flora (Bowman) Bruchac, the author’s maternal grandfather, Jesse Elmer Bowman, and finally to Joseph Edward Bruchac III’s great-grandfather Louis (1844-1918) "Bowman”.

Louis was born July 20, 1844 in Ely Township, Le Val-Saint-François, Quebec, Canada, (NE of Granby, Shefford Co., Qc., Canada) when his mother was 34 years 1 month and 4 days of age; he was baptized indicating an illegitimate birth (1) , at the age of 10 months and 22 days, his parents (according to the priest) were unknown, on June 11, 1845. This baptized infant’s godparents were Louis Sénécal (2) and Josèphte Vincent.

Was Louis discerned to be "illegitimate" at the time of his baptism in 1845 by the Catholic Priest simply because the parents were not married in the eyes of the Catholic Church (i.e. father was Protestant and mother was Catholic)? Was it because the mother didn’t know who the father was by name or had simply refused to name the birth father of her son? In Ely Township, there was a small group of Anglo- Protestant settlers and some Francophone converts that became Protestant, who had settled there previously.

The Roman Catholic priest who signed this particular baptism record was Jean-Fleury Baudrand (3). This priest was also an Oblate of Mary Immaculate who devoted his energies during the winter of 1843-1844 and he worked for two months with Father Dandurand. He returned to the area together with the diocesan priest, Father Hughes, in July, September and October 1844 and in January-March, June and September 1845. They preached and administered the sacraments in about twenty localities, branching out from four centers: Granby, Stanstead, Dunham and Stanbridge, all in Quebec Eastern Townships.

The godparents listed in the baptism of Louis were, in fact, the young infant’s maternal grandparents, by way of his mother, Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) Sénécal dit Laframboise who had been born June 16, 1810 (4) and baptized at Notre Dame du Rosaire Catholic Parish in Saint Hyacinthe on October 03, 1855 (5). 

Her godparents were Charles Noël Messier (brother-in-law to Louis Sénécal Sr.) and his wife, Angélique Sénécal (sister to Louis Sénécal Sr.) Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) Sénécal dite Laframboise’ younger brother, Louis, was born in ca. 1812-1813 and he was baptized that same day of October 1815 (6) as his older sister, and his godparents were Adrien Ménard and Magdeleine Benoît dite Livernois. These godparents were the sister and brother-in-law of the young son of his mother, Marie Élisabeth Benoît dite Livernois. 

These two young children’s mother apparently had died before January 21, 1822, as on this date, their widowed father Louis had remarried to Marie Josèphe Françoise Jarret dite  Beauregard dite Vincent (7). The second wife was the widow of Noël Collet who had died in the early winter of 1817 in Saint Hyacinthe.

At this, Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) Sénécal dite Laframboise seems to have ‘disappeared’ from the records, until the baptism of her son Louis in 1845, with the child’s father unknown. He was not baptized under the surname Bowman, and it would seem that he ‘picked up’ the Bowman surname later. Or could he have known his birth father Charles (1820-1896) Vaudry, and then upon coming into the United States, had his surname anglicized from Vaudry dit Beaudry?

His mother Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) Sénécal dite Laframboise reappeared in the Catholic records when she showed up living with a man by the name of George(s) Phocas dit Rémon/Raimond, and she had a first daughter, Angéle (Angelina) Rémon/Raymond/Ramo, born July 15, 1850 in Granby. This first daughter was baptized at Notre Dame de Granby on August 18, 1850 (8) and her godparents were her paternal grandmother, Marie Rioux and Thomas Bilodeau (George’s mother’s second husband). Angéle (Angelina) Rémon/ Raymond/ Ramo married to an Irishman by the name James McWilliams, on March 27, 1882, per the Methodist Church record. They had no children. James McWilliams died in 1895 per the Anglican Church Parish record in Brome Township.

A second daughter of Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) Sénécal dite Laframboise and George(s) Rémon/ Raimond/ Raymond, was Marie Délina (Adélina) who was born at Ste. François Xavier de West Shefford de Bromont, Shefford, Québec, Canada on May 25, 1852. She was baptized in the Notre Dame de Granby Parish on August 21, 1852. (9)

Her godfather, Joseph Quinn (the Godfather signing who was the Granby Parish Priest); and her godmother was (Marie) Marguerite Goulet (b. 1806 - d. 1891) who had married to Joseph Chaput. It was this latter particular baptismal record that alerted me to the reality that her mother was also the mother of Louis “Bowman” … in that the record stated that the parents of this daughter were “of East Farnham” matching Louis Bowman’s Civil War Pension Record details. (10)

Meanwhile, per his Civil War Pension Record, Louis Bowman, having been born in July of 1844 had in ca. 1859, indicated that he was in Richmond, Chittenden County, Vermont (temporarily); in ca.1860/1861 he claimed that he was in St. Albans, Franklin County, Vermont; and in ca. 1862, he claimed he was in Albany, Albany County, New York.

On August 29, 1864, Lewis Bowman enlisted into the Civil War from Troy, Rensselaer County, New York. There is a record, under Lewis Bowman (Substitute) indicating a residence of Montréal, Canada, having enlisted for 3 yrs. as a Private in Company E., with a rank of Private. He was a substitute enlisting in lieu of William Vandenburgh, resident of Castleton, NY. Shortly thereafter on March 25, 1865, (Louis) Lewis Bowman was shot, and received at least 4 bullet wounds having been wounded in the battle at Hatchers Run, Va., he being struck by a Minnie Ball in the left leg, thereafter having in particular left foot paralysis and leg weakness which made him unfit for usage thereafter in the war.

On August 13, 1865 at Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, Lewis Bowman was honorably discharged from the Civil War. Indeed, in his Declaration for Invalid Pension, in Washington, D.C. the following day of his honorable discharge, he stated he was 21 years of age, a resident of St. Albans, VT who had enlisted at East Troy, NY on Aug. 29, 1864 as a Pvt., in Co. E., commanded by Capt. Sweeney, 69th Reg. of the NY Volunteers. Upon discharge, Louis Bowman went to reside in Cohose, Albany County, NY for about 2 yrs. and by 1867, relocated to Porter Corners (a hamlet in the town of Greenfield), in Saratoga County, NY.

He married on July 04, 1870 to Alice Van Antwerp, by Elder Combs, in Greenfield, NY (11). She was the daughter of Wynant Van Antwerp and Susan Rebecca Barney, having been born in 1855. Following their marriage, in the following year they began having children from 1871 to 1898.

Again the records of George, (Sophié) Sénécal, and their two daughter’s Angéle and Adélina

‘seem to vanish’ without so much as a genealogical/historical footprint, yet the mother and her two daughters do re-appear in the 1870 Census (12) of Plainfield, Windham County, Connecticut, all three of them working in a cotton mill. The elderly (Sophié) Sénécal was indicated to be 59 years of age, while her daughters were 19 and 18 years of age retrospectively. George Raymond was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was in the area having been unrecorded by the U.S. census taker, or that he had stayed in the area of the township of Granby.

On February 12, 1877 (13) , the second daughter, Adélina, married to Jean Baptiste Castonguay (he was born in 1850, the son of Polycarpe and Élisabeth Anastasie (Robichaud) Castonguay. Her parents were of the Ste. François Xavier de West Shefford de Bromont Catholic Parish at the time of her marriage. This marriage record was signed by Jean Baptiste Castonguay, Pierre Castonguay, Israël Bergeron, and Moïse Beaudry. It is very likely that these ‘signers’ were ‘orbiting’ around George and his spouse (Sophié) Sénécal and their two daughters, while this couple were in the area. Israël and his wife Émilie (Lafleur) Bergeron were the godparents of Israël Edouard Castonguay (14) born the following year of 1878 to Jean Baptiste and his wife, Adélina. John Jack (1893-1973) Bowman’s direct-male-descendant (grandson) Robert Howard Bowman of Queensbury, NY Genetic testing results detected the descendants (15) of this Raymond-Castonguay line back to Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) (Sénécal/Laframboise) Rémon/Raimond.

Digging deeper in evaluation, this Jean Baptiste Castonguay (per the 1861 Canadian Census in Shefford County, Quebec) (16) was a youthful shoemaker by occupation, in the protestant household of John Bowman and his wife, Elizabeth (Welch). John (1831-1910) Bowman was born in Brampton Ward,  Calisle, Cumberland, England to William (1799-1873) Bowman and Elizabeth (1806-1874) Hetherington.

William and Elizabeth (Hetherington) Bowman came over from Wigton and Brampton,

Cumberland, England by way of Montréal, into Granby by 1838 and were of the Anglican faith. Perhaps this is where Louis (1844-1918) had picked up the surname Bowman in his early years?

Louis Bowman and his wife Alice (Van Antwerp) had a total of thirteen children: Louisa (1871-), Forrest Franklin (1873-1901), Clarence Franklin (1875-1905), Myrtle May (1877-1879), Sarah Etta (1880-1902), Eva May (1882-1971), Lewis Henry (1884-1944), Jesse Elmer (1886-1970), Jason (1889-1890), Florence May Belle (1891-1922), John Jack (1893-1973), Warren Charles (1896-aft. 1926), and Helene May (1898-1898). (17)

Getting back to the subject of (Sophié) (1810-1901) Sénécal … her father Louis (1784-1855)

Sénécal dite Laframboise and his second wife Josephte Vincent (dite Jarret dite Beauregard) had a single surviving daughter, Marie Sénécal, born ca. 1827 who lived to adulthood. Her siblings, younger and older, sadly did not survive to adulthood. (18) 

This daughter (a half-sibling to Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) (Sénécal), married to

Louis Brodeur dit Lavigne (b. Feb. 11, 1830 being a son of Joseph Brodeur and Marie Cécile Chabot), on May 06, 1856 per the Notre Dame de Granby Parish records. (19)

George(s) Rémon / Raimond (ca. 1828-1898), the son of Michel Henri Rémon / Raimond and Mathilde (Rénaud dite Deslauriers) had two siblings:

Their son, Joseph Rhémond / Raymond married Clémentine Mathilde Bourbeau on July 15, 1845 at Ste. Georges de Noyon Parish. The witnesses were Thomas Bilodeau, Étienne Bilodeau, and Henry Couillard. Their daughter, Martha Clémentine (1872-1957) Raymond married to Louis (1869-1907) Bergeron dite Jeannot on June 18, 1891 at Ste. François Xavier Parish de West Shefford de Bromont, Shefford, Québec, Canada. The groom was the son of Israël and Émilie (Lafleur) Bergeron.

Their daughter, Clémentine Mathilde (Bourbeau) Raymond’s youngest sister, Florence married to her sister’s husband’s brother Jean Baptiste Bergeron/Jeannot (1858-1930) in West Shefford on October 24, 1881.

George Rémon/Raimond's older sister, Marie Rose Rémon/Raimond (ca. 1825-1893), married to Moïse (Moyse) Bourbeau on August 23, 1847 at Ste. Pie de Bagot, Québec, Canada.

Of course, Joseph Edward Bruchac III, children’s book author and presenter, was born, raised and is still living in Greenfield Center, Saratoga Co., NY and yet he did not know of the afore mentioned details about his ancestor (Sophié) (1810-1901) Sénécal.

After having fought in the Civil War and being severely wounded with a number of bullet holes, Louis “Bowman” and his wife Alice (Van Antwerp) went about beginning to build their family life, clearing the land in Porter Corners, near Greenfield Center, N.Y.

Their daughter, Clémentine Mathilde (Bourbeau) Raymond’s youngest sister, Florence married to her sister’s husband’s brother Jean Baptiste Bergeron/Jeannot (1858-1930) in West Shefford on October 24, 1881.

George Rémon/Raimond older sister, Marie Rose Rémon/Raimond (ca. 1825-1893), married to Moïse (Moyse) Bourbeau on August 23, 1847 at Ste. Pie de Bagot, Québec, Canada.

Of course, Joseph Edward Bruchac III, children’s book author and presenter, was born, raised and is still living in Greenfield Center, Saratoga Co., NY and yet he did not know of the afore mentioned details about his ancestor (Sophié) (1810-1901) Sénécal.

After having fought in the Civil War and being severely wounded with a number of bullet holes, Louis “Bowman” and his wife Alice (Van Antwerp) went about beginning to build their family life, clearing the land in Porter Corners, near Greenfield Center, N.Y.

Eight years before George Rémon / Raimond passed away at the age of 71 years, his wife (Sophié) Sénécal on July 22, 1890 (20) sought to apply a claim against her son’s military service in the Civil War perhaps thinking that he had died at the Stanton City Hospital in Washington, D.C., and as a survivor of her son Louis, she surmised could benefit financially, in her elder years.

In the Province of Quebec, in the County of Shefford on the 22nd day of July 1890, personally appeared before a Notary Public, a Mrs. Bowman aged 80 years, and a resident of West Shefford, Quebec, Canada.

She declared that she was the widow of Charles Bowman, and mother of Lewis Bowman who volunteered under the name of Lewis Bowman at "N" on the ____ day of August 1864, as a private, who died of ... wounded in the knee and thigh, while in the service on the _____ day of _____, A.D. 18 ___, at Washington D.C.

That Charles Bowman, aged _____, years, is dead, 8 November 1843, that she is still the widow of the aforesaid Charles Bowman.

Sophié [her X] Sénécal, widow of Charles Bowman

She did not mention George Rémon / Raimond nor the existence of their two daughters, all three, very much alive in 1890, and so too was her son Louis. She apparently thus abandoned her petition in seeking benefit from her son’s war service, quite suddenly, for reasons unknown, perhaps learning her son was very much alive and with wife and children.

It is surmised that the 1844 illegitimate birth of her son Louis caused Sophié to “be discreet” as to how much information she gave to the attorney George Lemon. And perhaps the same dynamic were true for when her son Louis gave testimony in affidavit as well in his own petitioning of Civil War pension benefits. So too, interestingly enough, and for good reason(s),  Sophié been close-mouthed about her husband George Rémon / Raimond and their two living daughters as well.

“To the Honorable Commissioner of Pensions, The following Statement Under Oath is made in Answer To Enclosed Call from your Honor, for Deponent To State Under Oath my Exact age and stating the reason why I know my True age. Certificate no. 208.738.

I therefore dispose and say that I was 68 years of age on the 20th day of July 1912, as I was born on the 20th day of July 1844 at East Farnham, Canada.

The reason I know the same is true is because my father and mother always told me I was born on said date and the said record of date of my birth is filed in my own family Bible and same was placed in my own family Bible record at least 40 years ago. 

I also file Physicians Affidavit showing that I am now and have been all the time since the filing of my said claim in Pension Office, on or about June 29, 1912, totally disabled from performing manual labor on account of gunshot wounds received in battle in the Civil War.”

Louis’ mother (Sophié) was living with her daughter Angéle (Angelina) (Rémon/Raymond/ Ramo) McWilliams in Magog (both working in a cotton mill), died December 16, 1901. (21) She was ninety-one years, six months and 6 days at the time of her passing. The two half-sisters of Louis “Bowman” Sr. died in 1923 (22) and 1938 (23) in Canada, respectively.

‘Raspberry’ is an anglicized version of Laframboise.

When Louis, as a widower of his first wife Alice (Van Antwerp), remarried to her widowed sister, Mary Emily (Van Antwerp) Gray, on December 01, 1911 (24), retrospective of the death of her third husband John Henry Gray, who had died in 1894, Louis had indicated that his father was ‘Joe Bowman’ and ‘Sophia Raspberry’ on their second marriage record. 

In another direction, Catherine Gray, daughter of Mary Emily and John H. Gray, had married to Dwight E. Ritchie in June of 1907 in Cummington, Hampton County, Massachusetts (25). In this first marriage, he was 36 and Catherine was 15 years of age. 

It is indicated that her first husband had died on her 2nd marriage to Jesse E. Bowman; and yet in 1920, Dwight Ritchie was working with Charles E. Ayers (Dwight’s parents were Emma Jane Ayers and James Ritchie). 

Catherine’s first husband Dwight was, quite to the contrary to the 2nd marriage record “that he was dead”, he was very much alive in 1920. (26)

In late May of 1913 as part a General Affidavit in the Civil War Pension Records, at the age of 68 years of age, Louis Bowman Sr. stated, “it is impossible for me to prove the date of my birth by the public record, as there was no public record of births filed in Farnham, in the year 1844, and there is no Church record of my said birth.” 

Louis went on to mention in this affidavit, a particular Family Bible, in which there was handwritten entries of births, marriages and deaths, and he stated that such details came from an older Bible, that had disappeared, he knew not where.

Jesse Elmer Bowman (1886-1970), married retrospectively to Katherine (1893-1982) Jane Isabelle (Gray) Richie, on December 10, 1911, Greenfield, NY (27). She was the daughter of John Henry Gray, and Mary Emily (Van Antwerp) Gray. Jesse was 25 and she was 18 years of age. It would seem that they had no children together. Yet upon evaluation, perhaps they did!

On November 27, 1917 Jesse E. Bowman and Catherine (Gray) Ritchie, in fact, were divorced through a Special Session of the Court, in Greenwich, Saratoga County, New York (28).

According to one family story, according to the Bowman’s Store author, Jesse Bowman had married his younger brother John’s girlfriend Catherine, because “she was ‘in the family way’,” since John was too young to marry. Apparently it was said that John and Catherine, though not married, had a child. So Jesse married John’s girlfriend, so the child could have the Bowman surname. 

The actual historical records do not support this narrative.

At an unknown time thereafter, she ended up with Jesse E. Bowman’s younger brother John Bowman (1893-1982). 

The first four children, one girl: Chloe Lillian (1911-1991), and three boys: Ralph Wynant (1914-1918), Earl Kenneth (1916-1983), and Howard Leroy (Sept. 1917-1997) are all attributed to John Bowman. 

The first 4 children attributed to John Jack Bowman 

could indeed be Jesse Elmer Bowman's children!

If so, then the question: why for the divorce specifically to Jesse E. Bowman on November 27, 1917 and Catherine? It would appear that the first four children of John that are attributed to him and Catherine, are from his older brother Jesse E. Bowman and Catherine, while Jesse and her were previously married. 

Marion Edna (Dunham) used her awareness of the judicial law, to have the marriage of Jesse Bowman and Catherine annulled per the Nov. 1917 Special Session of the Court in Greenwich, Saratoga County, NY, so that Marion could marry Jesse E. Bowman for herself!

John Bowman and Catherine went on to have four additional children in their marriage. Myrtle Irene (1919-1921), Otis Lewis (1920-1976), John Lee (1921-2007), and Edith Isabelle (1924-2006).

If this were John Bowman who was marrying to Catherine in December of 1911 (at his age of 18 yrs. and 2 months) under his older brother Jesse’s name, why the deception, as has been implied, in Bowman’s Store by Joseph Edward Bruchac III (?) 

Clearly, the marriage record in 1911 points to Jesse E. Bowman as the groom, and that he was 25 years of age. Was the marriage to Jesse Bowman ‘illicit’ because it was discovered that Catherine’s first husband Dwight E. Ritchie had been found not-to-be-deceased only in 1917, after Catherine had those four children with Jesse E. Bowman, only to find all parties involved in ‘a precarious predicament’? Such is the possibility that those four children were kept from ‘shame’ so that they were then attributed to the younger brother of Jesse: John ‘Jack’ Bowman. And yet, no marriage of John and Catherine has been found to date. 

Jesse (or John) Bowman’s mother Alice (Van Antwerp) was an aunt to Catherine, because Catherine’s mother Mary Emily was Alice’s sister, thereby making either Bowman husband, a first cousin to Catherine herself.

Throughout the Federal and State Census Records Louis (1844-1918) Bowman Sr. consistently indicated that he was white, and that he was born in ‘French’ Canada. In his Civil War Pension Application documents, at the age of 68 years, Louis had stated that he was born on July 20, 1844 in East Farnham, Quebec, Canada, and that he could not locate a baptismal record in 1844 for his birth. He mentioned two Family Bibles, the first being ‘lost’ and the second one, smaller, that had been published in 1890, Louis stated, “I know where and when I was born, because my father and mother always told me I was born on said date and the said record of date of my birth.” 

How would Louis have known his father or have heard from him, if his father “Charles Bowman” had actually died November 08, 1843? 

Perhaps the death date for this elusive “Charles Bowman” was actually a marriage date (?). His mother did in fact reside either in the N.E. corner of East Farnham Township., or that of the other side, on the Granby Township Line, near that of Israël Bergeron.

It is interesting to note that an Edgar Vector (1871-1958) Sénécal and his wife Margaret Melvina (Daniels) of West Rutland, Vermont, were in Greenfield, Saratoga County, NY (29) (per the 1915 NY State Census). Documented nearby (on the same Census page) were Louis Bowman (Sr.) age 79 yrs. and his son, Warren Charles Bowman, age 19 yrs. 

Following the genealogical paper trail, this Edgar V. Sénécal’s genealogical male ancestors goes back through time to  Théophile Hector Sénécal (1838-1893), to his father, Jean (1810-1864) Baptiste Sénécal, to his parents Joseph (1774-1858) Sénécal dit Laframboise and Marie Josephte Geneviève (Angélique) Gosselin of Notre Dame du Rosaire Catholic Parish. Jean Baptiste had married twice: first to Marie Marguerite Matilda Massé in 1831; and secondly to Mathilde Jarret dit Beauregard in 1847. 

Another FTDNA match is a descendant of Jean Baptiste  (1810-1864) Sénécal, by the name of Kenneth Sénécal (born in 1942) … to his father Frank Edward (1882-1962) Sénécal, to his father Théophile Hector (1838-1893) Sénécal … was the first Family Tree DNA genetic match (30), detected to the great-grandson of Louis (1844-1918) “Bowman” of the Sénécal surname lineage. 

Multiple genetic matches ‘downstream’ from Jean Baptiste (1810-1864) Sénécal have been now detected in both in the genetic testing companies of FTDNA, AncestryDNA, and 23andMe, etc. These genetic matches may be indicative of ‘endogamy’ wherein Louis (1844-1918) “Bowman’s” unknown paternal ancestors may somehow be related to his mother’s paternal Sénécal ancestors, whom have been discerned. 

On a social research level per the Saratogian newspaper articles,  Jesse Elmer Bowman of Greenfield, NY during WW1 applied for enlistment in Company H, 1st Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, known on the Texas border as the “Alleghany Mountain Tigers.” Bowman was to be examined. He was employed at Hot Springs, VA (31). 

On Jesse Bowman's WW1 Registration Card, his ethnicity was listed as ‘Caucasian’ (White).

Louis (1844) Bowman (Sr.) died September 20, 1918 at the Saratoga Hospital (32) at the age of 74 years and almost 2 months. His son Warren Charles (b. 1896 - d. aft. 1926) Bowman received most of the estimated $2,400.00 estate of his late father. (33) 

On January 26, 1920, Jesse Elmer Bowman had married secondly to Marion Edna (Dunham), daughter of Edward Hobbs Dunham and Flora Marion Mann. (34)

In June of 1920, Lewis Henry Bowman (Jr.), 26 years of age, pleaded guilty to malicious mischief, in that he had cut the tires on a Super Six Hudson automobile. He was placed on probation for a year, fined $8.25 court costs, and told to pay $50.00 dollars to the owner of the vehicle. (35)