Evening star., 1939-04-16
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

AS one of the few living real
daughters Of 1872, 87-year -old Mrs.
Clara Bowling of GLIB 1 street NE.
will be one of the most honored
members of the National Society
of 1872 at it's Grand Council meet
ing in its headquarters at 1851
Rhode Island avenue NV. the week
of April %.
Plans are now under way to place
the soclety's marker on the grave
Of her father, John William Ander-
son of Maryland who enrolled as
drummer boy at the beginning Of
the War of 1872, served until peace
was declared. and after long
life In Washington was buried in
historic old Holyrood Cemetery,
Georgetown.
Still active and sprightly, a reg
ular attendant at worthwhile
movies and fond of good concerts" "
Mrs. Bowling comes and goes at
will. whenever and wherever her in
clinations dictate. She expects to
be in regular, daily attendance at
the weeks council meetings, in sew
eral attractive new dresses, entirely
Of her own design and fashioning
without recourse to a sewing ma
chine. To be permitted to view
their fine handiwork is to wish that
effectiveness with needle and thread,
were not only fashionable, but the
routine accomplishment for our
daughters of today that it was in
Mrs. Dowling's girlhood.
Age Is No Secret.
The 18th member of family of
IA children, Mrs. Bowling was born
in this city on February IA, 1852,
and is, as she herself puts it, living
proof at her age. which she no
longer minds telling, but rather
likes to brag about" of the fact
that the jinx about 13 either passed
her by or was counteracted' by St.
Valentine, her patron saint.
Her girlhood was spent in a double
frame house on F street NV, upon
the site now occupied by St. Johns
Orphanage.
According to the general custom
of that day, the family's entire water
supply was obtained either from
the general community pump at the
corner of Nineteenth and G streets,
or from the drippings from the
caves of their home which were
stored in large rain barrels" espe-
cially placed there for such storage
purposes.
Mrs. Dowling has vivid recollec-
tions Of various scenes of her child
hood in Washington during the
War Between the States in the Cos. -
She paints a colorful picture of
Pennsylvania avenue lined with
teary-eyed mothers and pretty girls
singing and waving flags while the
boys in blue marched away to battle
with the bands playing The Girl I
Left Behind Me-" as if the war were
just a gay adventure and the de-
parture of the troops only an inter-
lude to the victory that was to be
won almost Immediately.
In more somber strain, she recalls
the subsequent emaciated appear
ance of the troops of both the blue
and gray armies, returning from
prison camps or going to them, there
perhaps to linger and die. One of
her great chums of those days was
Helen Dortch, who afterWard be-
came the second wife of the South
ern officer, Gen. Longstreet.
Tragedy BefelI Home.
Equally poignant are Mrs. Dowl-
ing's rememrance of the tragedy
that befell her home, the cold gray
dawn that her father died, as re-
placements were going by their
house or their way to make possible
the victory that had been prolonged
from year to year as the Nation
was torn asunder by the horrors
of the Civil War.
Then came the midnight news of
Lincoln's assassination. Following
this, Mrs. Bowling tells you there
was a general order that homes
should be draped in mourning, SOL
diers going from house to house to
see to its enforcement" To COM
ply with this regulation, it was nee
essary for her mother to tear an
older sisters black dress in half and
drape the two parts below the main
upstairs windows.
Mrs. Dowling went to a school on
the corner of Eighteenth street and
New York avenue in the old Tayloe
Mansion, now moe familiarly known
as Octagon House, which had pc
viously long been vacant and
thought to be haunted. Taken over
by the Sisters of Charity, it was
opened wide to air and sunshine.
fitted up for classroom purposes
and blessed to the use of little chill
dren.
Whether there ever had been any
ghosts, ''or they were frightened
away by the prayers of the nuns and
the activities of their pupils" all of
whom Mrs. Bowling has long since
outlived, she will not commit herself
beyond the statement, cat least
my classmates and I were never dis
turbed by them"
She does have vivid memories
though, of the fun of the recrea-
tion times in the fine old garden be-
hind the high walls of this famous
one time residence. A favorite game
was to play at being nurses. helping
to bring in the wounded from the
battlefields.
The widow of Edward Joseph
Dowling. who was q veteran OF the
Civil War. Mrs. Dowling has had