Death of a Well Known and Highly Respected Citizen
Mr. Alexander Stowell died at his residence, 915 Stowell Street, yesterday. He expired in a house that was built thirty years ago, the first in that part of the city. He was born in Worcester, Mass., April 16th, 1797. He was early left fatherless and in the year 1817, at the age of twenty, moved to Caroline, Tompkins County, where he purchased one hundred acres of wood land, which he cleared. He was foremost in creating the first church ever built in Caroline center, and supplied the town with over a dozen other substantial buildings. In 1839 he left Caroline and for a number of years successfully farmed in Maine, Broome Co. He came to Elmira in 1848 and built his first house on Railroad Avenue, on the ground now occupied by Moody & Bowman's steam bakery, which was then an open field. At that time Elmira was a town of 2,500 inhabitants and devoid of railroad facilities. About thirty years ago he bought eight acres of land near Washington Avenue, then a pasture lot far outside the city limits. His life has been one of industry, and the property he reaped as a reward was liberally shared with the poor, and with religious and educational institutions. Mr. Stowell, so long as health and strength permitted, was an active, public spirited citizen, and of inflexible habits. He did much to lay out and develop the portion of the city where he resided. Unpretentious, still a close observer and a well read man, he was well fitted to perform the duties of citizenship. His family connections take in some of the oldest and best known people in the southern part of Tompkins County - in the town of Caroline. He had reached so ripe an age that death was not unexpected and welcomed as a relief to infirmity and the wearing out of physical powers. In his death Elmira loses another of her oldest and most respected citizens. The time of the funeral will be announced hereafter.