Betty's Critters - & History Views

   Aaron Thomas Bowden (who was also known as "Ary" or "Airy" and "Tom"), was the third of nine children born to Parker Bowden, Jr. and Mariah C. Birch; his grandparents were Reverend Parker Bowden, Mary Anna Russell, Thomas H. Birch, and Mary Crippen Conner.  He was born on 19 June 1861; and was a waterman, and, mostly, an oysterman; he was also in the US Life Saving Service for a time.   At the age of 21, on 2 January 1883, he married Mary Catherine Chandler on Chincoteague.    Mary Catherine Chandler was the fifth and last child of Captain Joshua L. Chandler (he whose solitary grave is located at the old north Main turn-table) and Catherine Mary Lynch.  Her grandparents were William James Chandler, Ellen Parker, Joseph Jewell Lynch, and Mary W. Tubbs, all born and raised in Baltimore Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware.    Altogether Tom Bowden and his wife had 8 children, the last daughter being born 8 months after Tom's death, and the ...