Tuesday, July 31, 2018

The Short Married Life of Frederick Cowdin

Thirty-four year old Druggist, Frederick Cowdin, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, became engaged to marry twenty-one year old Gertrude Morey of West Brookfield sometime in 1883.  Frederick was in poor health, so the couple decided to put off their marriage until his health improved.  More than a year later, Frederick, knowing that consumption would soon end his life, felt a strong desire to marry Gertrude before he died.  Reverend Thomas Babb of the Congregational Church in West Brookfield, was called to his bedside early in the afternoon on July 24, 1884 and the couple was married, though the vows of the groom were barely heard. Sadly Frederick Cowdin died that same afternoon between three and four o'clock. His body was taken to Newton for burial.

Gertrude married twice more before she died in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on 24 December 1899. Sadly, she died of convulsions due to acute nephritis during pregnancy.

Information about the Morey family may be found at West Brookfield, MA Genealogy  No Log In is needed to search the site.

Sources:
Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, Deaths Registered in the town of West Brookfield for the year Eighteen hundred and eighty-four, Pg. 472, Record No. 12; New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911; Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 July 2018.)

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910Vol. 493: p. 28, Deaths Registered in the town of Greenfield for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, Record No. 22. American Ancestors (http://www.americanancestors.org.) Death register entry for Gertrude (Morey) Evans

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910, Marriages Registered in the Town of West Brookfield for the Year eighteen hundred and eighty-four, Vol: 354,  Page: 368, Record No. 12;  (From original records held by the Massachusetts Archives.  AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic, Genealogical Society, 2004 : accessed 30 July 2018.) Frederick A Cowden and Gertrude Morey.

Worcester County : West Brookfield, Springfield Daily Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 26 July 1884, page 6; Online digital  image, Genealogy Bank (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 29 July 2018.). Announcement of the marriage of Frederick Cowdin to Grace Morey, and of Frederick's death that afternoon. 

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