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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

My grandfather farmed in NE Missouri.  His great grandparents moved there in
the 1830 and opened one of the stage stops between Keokuk Iowa and
Kirksville, MO.  Bowens and Matlicks have owned a succession of farms all
over NE Missouri but I do not think any now do so.

My grandfather owned several farms in the twenties but sold some off in
anticipation of coming bad times.  He was a very busy farmer and kept his
four sons working.  He ran a threshing outfit and in winter put the steam
engine to work on a sawmill.  He dug wells, built barns and at least one
cemetery wall.  According to my father things were tight with very little
extra cash but they lived well and kept the two or three farms.  In fact he
worked the sons so hard that all of them as soon as they could joined the
military, my father in the marines in 1938.

My grandfather died in an automobile accident in 1950 and we moved to
Missouri to take over the farm outside Kahoka.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html