In the end, Mrs. Clowser very nearly made it to the century mark, passing on March 9, 1937. She is buried with her husband, John, in the Ragtown Cemetery, near the farm home they occupied before retiring and moving into Chariton.
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"Chariton was just a calf pasture when I first came to Lucas county," says Mrs. Mary Clowser. That was a long time ago --- Mrs. Clowser has been a resident for 74 years. She celebrated her 94th birthday at her home on West Linden avenue last Sunday.
Mrs. Clowser was born in Indiana in 1838, and began the journey to Iowa with her family at the age of 15. The journey was made in a covered wagon.
"My sister and I walked from Burlington to the farm upon which we settled near Russell," she told the Herald-Patriot this morning. She did not consider the trip a hardship. "We had lots of fun enjoying the scenery and camping out," she said.
In describing early Chariton as a "calf pasture," Mrs. Clowser explained that there were few homes or business places here during her youth. "The court house was built of logs, and was located on the east side of the square near where the Beem and Atwell store is now situated. There were a few other buildings scattered around the square, but not many."
Chariton did not have a single church at that time, according to the pioneer woman. The lone school house stood where the Baptist parsonage is now located, and church services were held there on Sunday. Later a petition for funds to erect a church was circulated, and it was erected near the southwest corner of the square.
Outstanding in the memory of Mrs. Clowser concerning her youth in Lucas county are the log house in which she lived, and the total eclipse of the sun.
"I will always remember that day," she said. "Suddenly, in the afternoon, the sky was overcast and it was almost like night. The chickens went to roost and the cows came up from the pastures. We children were very much frightened until Mother explained the spectacle."
Her first husband was James Cobb. He enlisted with the Southern forces during the Civil War, was reported to have been held in prison camps, but was never heard from after the end of the fighting. He is believed to have been killed in battle.
She was later married to John L. Clowser. She has four children, Ed Cobb of Russell, Mrs. Florence Childs of Moulton, Mrs. Jessie McClure of Woodburn and Harry Clowser of Chariton.
In spite of her advanced age she easily conducts the household of her son here. The only handicap of her age, she says, is her inability to remember incidents of later years. "Sometimes I start to tell something, and forget what it was before I get through," she says. She finds little difficulty in bringing to memory things that happened during her childhood, however.
One of the outstanding incidents of her late life was the occasion upon which Elmer Gookin of Chariton saved her from being badly burned. "I had been burning some rubbish in the back yard, and thought the fire was completely out. A spark reached my dress, however, and it commenced to burn. Elmer Gookin happened to be passing, and immediately ran to the pump where a bucket of water stood and tossed it over me." Mr. Gookin is a distant relative of Mrs. Clowser.
Mrs. Clowser has been very fortunate with fires and rescues. On another occasion she lighted an oil lamp in order to smoke a piece of glass for viewing a partial eclipse of the sun. She went into the yard, leaving the lamp in the pantry, and a fire started there. It was put out by a mail carrier who was passing the house. She has lived in Chariton for 27 years. Her husband died here several years ago.
Life has not lost interest for Mrs. Clowser. She enjoys having visitors, bustles about to assure their comforts, and insists that they return again. "So many of them say, 'I will come back, grandma,' but they don't. I don't want you to be that way," she warned as her guests departed.
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Now and then, 21st century family research tools uncover without too much difficulty information that our ancestors might have preferred remain confidential, and that's the case with Mary's marriage to James N. Cobb which, according to family historians, occurred on May 18, 1858, in Putnam County, Missouri.
The young couple was living in Chariton with their first child, Florence, when the 1860 federal census was taken. His occupation was given as "engineer."
Compiled Civil War records show, too, that James enlisted on May 1, 1861, in Company F, Tennessee 2nd Infantry (Confederate). So he returned to the South to enlist, leaving his family behind in Lucas County.
I think it quite likely that Mary believed that James had not survived the war when she married a Union Civil War veteran, John Clowser, in Lucas County on April 14, 1870.
But that does not seem to have been the case. James N. Cobb resurfaces in Alabama, where he married Paulina Willingham --- twice (for unknown reasons, although the first marriage may have been flawed), during October of 1883 and June of 1887. They went on to have a family of seven children. He died on May 18, 1912, at Wallington in Calhoun County, Alabama, age 72.
Did Mary ever know? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I just can't say.
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