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Civil War Vet, Railroad Conductor

Leonard Lowell (1836-1896)

Frances Gay Lowell (1840-1922)


Leonard Lowell was born on July 10, 1835 in Abbott, Maine.

Typical uniform of a Pvt, in Maine's 9th Regiment.

On September 24, 1864, he was drafted into Co. E. 9th Maine Regiment, Infantry as a Private. He was 29. He was mustered out on June 15, 1865.


On May 3,1868, Lowell married Frances J. Gay, 27. She had been born on September 1, 1840 in Dedham and was the daughter of Jarvis Gay, a veterinarian, and his wife, Fanny Gay. Leonard and Frances Gay lived in the South Dedham area (in 1870 they were in Dedham; in 1880 in Walpole). Leonard was a conductor on the railroad.




In November of 1868, the couple had a daughter, Alice Fanny Lowell; the baby died just over a year later on December 10, 1869 of confluent small pox.


In 1871, they had a son, Arthur G. Lowell but, once again, tragedy struck the Leonard family. On June 24, 1880, nine-year-old Arthur, who had been born in South Dedham, was the victim of an accidental drowning.



Leonard Lowell continued to work for the railroad and in November of 1877, he was mentioned in a Boston Globe article when the engine of the NY & NE Railroad collided with loose cars at Franklin, Massachusetts, resulting in the death of an engineer. An inquest was held and it was determined that Leonard Lowell, the conductor of the 5:15 pm train which stopped overnight at Franklin, had left his train there as usual. Another employee had failed to secure the cars for the night.


When Leonard Lowell died on May 16, 1896 of cirrhosis of the liver, the couple had been living in Woonsocket, R.I. for some time where he held a position on the street railway. Lowell had been a member of the South Portland (Maine) GAR. He was survived by his wife, Frances Gay Lowell, who died on August 12, 1922.


Both Leonard Lowell and his wife, Frances Gay Lowell are interred in Old Parish Cemetery along with their son and daughter.





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