Bowen House
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
This large brick and wood-frame house on a one-acre lot may have been built by James Butler Bowen in the 1830s. Legend has it that he built this and the house next door, known as Minnie Manor, for two of his unmarried daughters (he and his wife had nine). Bowen lived on Spring Creek north of Lewisburg where he operated a gristmill, sawmill, oil mill, and a carding machine.
Images
Hugh Wilson Donnally, Sr. and Rebecca Frances Johnston Donnally. Photo courtesy of Morgan Bunn.
Mason Bell from Masonic Sketches, 1939.
Bowen House, 2019.
Photo courtesy of Greenbrier Historical Society. Date unknown.
Photo of house before the additions. Courtesy of Greenbrier Historical Society. Date unknown.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
In 1872, the property was conveyed to Hugh Wilson Donnally (1844-1914), the fourth and last of the glove makers (see Donnally House). Donnally had married James Bowen's granddaughter, Rebecca Johnston Donnally (1846-1908).
Later owners included Mason and Mollie E. Bell. Mason Bell was a prominent Lewisburg merchant.
Later owners included Mason and Mollie E. Bell. Mason Bell was a prominent Lewisburg merchant.
Sources
Bunn, Morgan. The People of The Old Stone Cemetery: The Burials, 1853-1979. Self-published, 2017.
Talbert, James E. A Historical Look at Lewisburg, West Virginia's Hard Scrabble Hill And Beyond 1783-2007. Lewisburg, WV: Greenbrier Historical Society, 2007.
Woods Dayton, Ruth. Greenbrier Pioneers and Their Homes. Charleston, WV: WV Publishing Company, 1942.
Talbert, James E. A Historical Look at Lewisburg, West Virginia's Hard Scrabble Hill And Beyond 1783-2007. Lewisburg, WV: Greenbrier Historical Society, 2007.
Woods Dayton, Ruth. Greenbrier Pioneers and Their Homes. Charleston, WV: WV Publishing Company, 1942.