Travis Stowers, Sr. was born March 27, 1777, in Culpepper
County, Virginia, the eldest child in a family of five boys and two girls, was
born to William (1736-37 SFoA Vol. II Page W-1) and Mary Jane (Polly) Sims
Stowers.
There is no record telling when Travis went to Giles County, but it was there
that he married Elizabeth Blankenship on February 23, 1799. About 1817 he
settled in Cabell County, Virginia, now Wayne County, West Virginia.
In 1828 they moved to Johnson County, Indiana, Elizabeth carrying two children
on horseback. She died October 13,1829. It would seem that the trip was too
severe for her.
Travis Stowers, Sr. was a huge man. He is described as
having to turn sideways to walk through an ordinary door, and to bow his head
as he entered. One day Travis went to the mill where the owner told him he
could have a barrel of molasses if he could pick it up and set it in his wagon.
Travis promptly rolled the barrel over to his wagon, set it up on edge, and
lifted it in; He thanked the mill owner and drove off. A barrel of molasses
weighs seven hundred and fifty pounds.
At one time Travis was helping to clean a graveyard at the
church. By this time he was an old man and very hard of hearing. Two men were
laughing and talking across the fence. Deciding that they were talking about
him, Travis jumped the fence and gave them both a whipping.
Old folks in Virginia have stated that these Stowers men
were all tall and handsome and of high character. They had a characteristic of
large blue eyes that sparkled in mirth and turned steely under emotion. This
gene, so strong, it has returned through later generations.
Travis died in Johnson County, Indiana in 1863 at the age of
86.
Thanks to Anita M. Stowers Clinton for this story.