I have no connection nor further information on this fellow. Linne http://www.rootsweb.com/~ildewitt/id488.htm#hughes_bowles HUGHES BOWLES. (Volume 1, Page 347) Hughes Bowles, a well-known citizen of Hallsville, is the possessor of a good property which now enables him to spend his years in the pleasurable enjoyment of his accumulations. The record of this life, previous to 1900, is that of an active, enterprising, methodical and sagacious business man, who bent his energies to the honorable acquirement of a comfortable competence for himself and family. Mr. Bowles is one of DeWitt county's native sons, his birth having occurred in Tunbridge township, December 5, 1842. His father, Henry Bowles, was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, July 10, 1818, and was a son of Hughes Bowles, a farmer of that county, who, in the twenties, before the winter of the deep snow, brought his family to DeWitt county, Illinois, being one of the first to locate here. He took up a large amount of government land and became owner of several hundred acres. The father of our subject was reared in this county and married Miss Cassie Hall, who was also born in Kentucky and was quite young when she came to this state. Her mother, Mary Hall, was another of the pioneers of DeWitt county. Henry Bowles followed farming, and plowed much of his land with a team consisting of one horse and an ox. He died September 20, 1845, at the age of twenty-eight years, and his wife died March 25, 1851, at the age of twenty-five. She was born April 7, 1826. After the death of his mother our subject made his home with his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Mary Hall, and other relatives until he was grown, and received a good common school education. He then worked by the month as a farm hand for a few years, but after his marriage bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres near Farmer City, but in McLean county, and at once commenced to break the virgin soil and improve the place by the erection of fences and good and substantial buildings. After residing there for twenty-one years he sold the place and bought residence property in Hallsville and a farm in Tunbridge township, DeWitt county. He rented his farm, and while making his home in the village he operated a farm nearer that place for six years. He then removed to Hallsville and successfully engaged in farming for a few years. He then retired from active labor and returned to Hallsville in February 1900. He is still the owner of a good farm of one hundred and fifty-seven acres of land near Kenney, but is now living a retired life. In Barnett township, this county, Mr. Bowles was married, February 5, 1868, to Miss Rachel Bartley, who was born in Madison county, Ohio, but during infancy was brought to DeWitt county, Illinois, where she was reared. Her father, John Bartley, was a native of Pennsylvania, and in early life went to Ohio, where he married Miss Nancy McClimans, a native of that state. Six children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bowles, namely: Myrtle C., now the wife of Ed P. Hildreth, a merchant of Kenney; Lora L., wife of Skillman Hunter, ticket agent and telegraph operator at Hallsville; Mont B., who is married and engaged in farming on his father's place; Laverne and Edna, both at home; and an infant, deceased. Originally Mr. Bowles was a Democrat in politics, and cast his first presidential vote for General George B. McClellan in 1864, but of later years he has been identified with the Prohibition party. He has served on the school board, but has never cared for public office. Religiously he and his wife are members of the Christian church at Hallsville, and as a public-spirited and progressive man he gives a liberal support to all measures calculated to advance the moral, educational and material welfare of the community in which he resides. Socially he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.