John Manson Dowell, the son of Armsby Hiatt Dowell and Armilda Caroline Voyles, was born in Salem, Indiana in 1867. Much of his youth was spent in Kansas, where he married Mary Ivy Fleck in 1893, the same year he won farmland in the Cherokee Strip Run in Oklahoma, where all but one of his ten children were subsequently born.

He later moved his family to Trochu, Alberta, Canada in 1914, having purchased farmland from the Canadian Pacific Railway, after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper.

For a while after immigrating to Canada, John retained the farm in Oklahoma, because the Great War was on, and it was illegal to sell farmland at this time. Then one day shortly after the war ended, a man on a horse unexpectedly appeared in the yard in Trochu. He had taken the train to Calgary from Oklahoma, then the branch line to Innisfail, where he hired a horse and rode out to the Dowell farm. He had come asking to purchase the farm in Deer Creek, which John sold to him on the spot.

John farmed in Trochu for twenty-nine years, before his life was suddenly cut short by an accident while he was working in the barn. No one knows what happened, whether he fell or was kicked by an animal, but he was found unconscious, dying of an internal haemorrhage.

John, his wife, and minor children were naturalized as Canadians in 1921, and today his descendants are in Canada, the United States, and England.

****************************************
Obituary from a newspaper in Trochu, Alberta:

John Manson Dowell, 76, Trochu, died in a Calgary hospital Tuesday, Dec. 21, following an accident on his farm.

Born in Indiana he had farmed in the Trochu district 29 years.

Surviving are his widow Mary; six sons, Lloyd, Calgary; Morris and Arnold, Edmonton; Reed, Vancouver; Myron and Joe, Trochu; two daughters, Mrs. J.P. Green, Huxley; Mrs. C.E. Maddox, Redlands, Calif.

Gooder Brothers forwarded the remains to Trochu Wednesday for services and interment.

***
From the Trochu Tribune, dated 6 Jan 1944:

OBITUARY
John Manson Dowell

Funeral services for the late John Manson Dowell, who passed away on Tuesday, December 21 [1943], in Holy Cross hospital Calgary, were held in the United church, Trochu, on Sunday afternoon, December 26.

The late Mr. Dowell, who was 76 at the time of his demise, was born in Indiana in 1868, was one of this district's most highly respected old-time residents, having farmed here for almost thirty years and will be greatly missed by his many friends and neighbors both in town and country.

Those surviving are his wife, Mary, six sons, Lloyd of Calgary, Morris and Arnold of Edmonton, Reed of Vancouver, Myron and Joseph of Trochu; two daughters, Mrs. J. P. Green of Huxley, Mrs. C. E. Maddox of Redlands, Calif.

With Rev. E. J. Heuer conducting the services the remains were laid to rest in the local cemetery, the pallbearers being the six sons of the deceased.

Parents:
Armsby Hiatt Dowell (1837-1914)
Armilda Caroline Voyles (1842-1904)

Wife:
Mary Ivy Fleck/Flack (1873-1955)
m. 2 Mar 1893 in Burlington, Kansas, USA

Children:
Zelda Lois (Dowell) Ross (1893-1920)
Ada May (Dowell) Maddox (1895-1954)
Lloyd Bryan Dowell (1897-1959)
Florence Ethel (Dowell) Green (1899-1995)
Morris Jennings Dowell (1901-1992)
Hattie Mildred Dowell (1903-1923)
Joseph William Dowell (1905-1967)
Myron Lee Dowell (1907-1962)
John Arnold Dowell (1910-1995) (nicknamed "Dick")
Reed Alden Dowell (1912-1997)

Siblings:
Rosetta "Rose" S (Dowell) Murphy (1858–1938)
Sarah "Sadie" Catherine (Dowell) Miller (1860–1929)
Harriet "Hattie" E Dowell (1863–1879)
Mary Etta (Dowell) Calvert/Tebow (1865–1947)
Anna "Annie" A (Dowell) Reynolds (1869–1934)
Armilda "Milly" Caroline (Dowell) Campbell (1871–1947)
Stephen Mathias Dowell (1874–1947)
Martha "Mattie" Emily Dowell Moore/Peckham(1876–1931)
Charles Edwin "Ed" Dowell (1878–1961)
Adah Belle (Dowell) Koehler/Ringin (1881–1964)
Clara Mae (Dowell) Ireland (1884–1931)