Lula Leavens Low

The 1880 U.S. Census shows Lula, now age 9, living with parents and her sister, Ella Low, at 114 Pacific Street in Brooklyn, New York.² Her father is a grocer, her mother is keeping house, and both children are attending school.

On July 28, 1890, Lula L. Low married my great-granduncle, Walter Gorham Lowery, and a year later on July 28, 1891, their first child, Walter Low Lowery, was born in Brooklyn, NY.^{3, 4} Two years later, in about October of 1893, the couple's second child, Lula Gertrude Lowery, was born in Brooklyn, NY.⁵ Lula had only these two children with Walter G. Lowery.

By the time the 1900 U.S. Census was taken, Lula and Walter Gorham Lowery are already divorced.⁶ Lula is living with her mother, Annie G. (Rathbun) Low, in a home located on Jefferson Avenue in Queens, New York. Also in the household are Christopher Hakes Rathbun, who is Annie's brother, Lula's two children, and a boarder named James H. Oliphant, who was a merchant tailor.⁷ Lula L. Lowery, now age 29, is employed as a school teacher.

Lula's whereabouts for several years after the turn of the century are a mystery at this point. I have not located her in the 1910 U.S. Census. However, we pick up the trail again in 1912 when she marries for a second time. According to an announcement in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a marriage license was issued in Brooklyn, NY, to Lula Low Lowery and William Stewart on May 1, 1912.⁸ Three days later, on May 4, 1912, the Rev. Robert MacDonald married them, based on a marriage notice in the same newspaper.⁹ Unfortunately, the marriage was short, as William Stewart died about less than a month later on June 1, 1912.¹⁰ Death notices appeared in both the New York Times and the New York Tribune. Both newspaper items identified William as the late husband of Lula Low Lowery.

After William's death, once again we lose track of Lula. She is not in the household of her son and daughter-in-law, Walter Low Lowery and Mildred (L'Allemand) Lowery, in Brooklyn when the 1920 U.S. Census was taken.¹¹

Lula Leavens (Low) Lowery -- also known as Lula Low (Lowery) Stewart -- died in Brooklyn, New York, on September 7, 1923.¹²

¹ Rathbone Genealogy - A Complete History of the Rathbone Family Dating from 1574 to Date, John C. Cooley, Press of the Courier Job Print, Syracuse, NY, 1898, p. 704.
² 1880 U.S. Census, T9, Roll 842, ED 3,6 Page 223B, Brooklyn, NY. The Low family surname is incorrectly recorded as Lowe in this census.
³ Marriage certificate.
⁴ Birth recorded in Lowery family bible. The 1990 U.S. Census indicates that Walter Low Lowery was born in August 1891.
⁵ Birth certificate.
⁶ 1900 U.S. Census, T623, Roll 1149, ED 674, Sheet 5B, Queens, NY.
⁷ The Oliphant mentioned in this census may have been a relatvie of an individual who married into the Rathbun/Rathbone line. Helen C. Rathbun [or Rathbone], who was one of Annie G. Rathun's siblings, married a John Culver. John and Helen C. (Rathbun) Culver had a daughter named Helen R. Culver, who married a James H. Oliphant (born in 1853) on October 12, 1876. Although this is not the same individual as mentioned in the 1900 census, it is possbily that there is a connection. The James H. Oliphant listed in the 1900 census was born in October 1821. See John C. Cooley, Rathbone Genealogy, pp. 702-703,for citations, except for census data.
⁸ Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Wednesday, May 1, 1912, p. 3.
⁹ Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday, May 5, 1912, p. 12.
¹⁰ New York Times, Sunday, June 2, 1912,, p 13 and New York Tribune, Sunday, June 2, 1912, p. 9.
¹¹ 1920 U.S. Census, T625, Roll 1109, ED 252, Sheet 13A, Brooklyn, NY.
¹² Death Certificate #16642, September 7, 1923, Kings County, NY.

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