#52 Ancestors Week 35 Unforgettable: Effie Gwynn Bowie, The Chronicler of Prince George's County

My great-aunt, Effie Gwynn Bowie, like her sister, my great-grandmother, Louise Gwynn Scrivener, loved family history and she made that love very concrete in her landmark work,  Across the Years in Prince George's County.

Effie Augusta Gwynn, the oldest child of Andrew Jackson Gwynn and Marie Louise Keene, was born in Baltimore MD 20 February 1869 and baptized in Baltimore's Cathedral of the Assumption where her parents had been married a year earlier. At the age of 8, although her family was living in Spartanburg SC, Effie was sent to Mount St. Agnes In Baltimore MD  to study with the Sisters of Mercy, where her aunt, Sr. Mary Augustine, was the mother superior.  Since her family was so far away, Effie often spent the school vacations with her aunt and godmother, Harriett Clotilda Gwynn Bowie (Aunt Clocy) in Prince George's County where her father had grown up.  Effie graduated from Mount St. Agnes in 1886, taking home the school's medal for music in which she excelled.

Aunt Clocy

After graduation, Effie divided her time between her parents' home in Spartanburg and her godmother's home in Maryland. Spartanburg in 1886, as Effie describes it, was a college town, and Effie's life there was a round of  parties, operettas, horseback rides, vacation trips to the mountains of North Carolina and college dances as well as the St. Cecelia Balls in Charleston.

However, it was not a Carolina boy who won her heart.  Instead she was courted and married by Richmond Irving Bowie, the widowed younger brother of Aunt Clocy's husband, Benjamin Hall Clark Bowie. Effie was married at her parents' home in Spartanburg in July 1894, wearing her mother's wedding dress and veil. Effie's sister, Loulie, acted as her maid of honor, dressed in pink silk.  The couple spent their honeymoon in Asheville, Charleston, Boston and New York. They returned to Irving's Bowie's home, Norbourne, where Effie took over the management of the household and Bowie's three sons from his first marriage.

The Bowies had seven children together: Marie Clotilde (1895), Andrew Gwynn (1896), Louise Keene (1898), Benjamin Hall Clark (1900), Andrew Keene (1902), Richmond Irving Jr. (1904), Effie Augusta (1907), and Harriett Clotilda (1912).  Richmond Irving Bowie, a graduate of Charlotte Hall Military Academy, served as Chief Judge of the Orphan's Court of Prince George's County.  He died  suddenly at his home in 1923 at the age of 65. After his death, Effie returned to Beechwood to assist her widowed  Aunt Clocy who died in 1928 at the age of 97.

Effie was then free to pursue her longtime dream of writing about Prince George's County and its families.  As she noted in the preface to her book, "To find the spirit of an individual or a locality requires sympathetic acquaintance."  And that she had in abundance. She had set out to write a short account of happy memories of her time with her Aunt Clocy at Beechwood.  Instead, Across the Years grew to over 900 pages and included not only her personal reminiscences but also a comprehensive genealogical history of dozens of Prince George's families, covering almost 12,000 individuals.  And so in 1946 was born the genealogical Bible of Prince George's County: Across the Years in Prince George's County.

Besides her writing, Effie was also active in many genealogical and historical societies including the DAR, the Colonial Dames, and the Pilgrims of St. Mary's, to name but a few. In the picture below, she is with her sister Louise and brother-in-law Frank Scrivener at the graves of their grandparents, John Hilleary Gwynn and Ann Eliza Dyer. She was also one of the first women to serve on the PG County Democratic State Central Committee. She travelled to Europe in 1937 with her sister Louise for the coronation of George VI, returning from Bremen Germany aboard the City of Newport News.

The two sisters were always close and the photo below shows the two families about 1931.

Effie is standing in the center next to her sister Louise (in the hat).  At the far left is Effie's son Dr.  Keene Bowie and his wife Ethel with their son, Andrew Keene Bowie Jr. My grandmother Elizabeth Dent Scrivener is standing next to Ethel in the cloche hat.  My grandfather Frank Scrivener Jr. is stooping down with his son Jack.  The girls seated in front are Marie Gwynn, my aunt Louise (Reds) Scrivener, and Mary Hammond, niece of Effie and Louise. Effie's daughter Effie Bowie Mahoney (later Melchior) is standing next to her with her daughter Effie Mahoney in front of her. My great-grandfather, Frank Scrivener Sr. is standing in the back row with just his head poking up over Effie's shoulder.  On the far right are Louise Bowie Hall and her husband Frank Magruder Hall and their son Frank Hall Jr. My father Frank Scrivener III is the little boy seated at the far right, looking very put out about the whole proceeding. Next to him is Bowie Hall, the son of Frank and Louise. My mother thought that the woman next to Louise Hall was Dr. Emily Hammond, a niece of Effie and Louise. The baby that Effie is holding might be Charles Carter Hall, the youngest son of Frank and Louise. (Unfortunately, neither my mother nor I were able to identify the handsome young man on the far right or the couple standing behind Effie.)


Effie Gwynn Bowie died at Beechwood, her home in Upper Marlboro, 22 June 1950 at the age of 81. She is buried beside her husband at Trinity Church Cemetery in Upper Marlboro.

My well-worn copy of Across the Years remains one of my prized possessions, a copy passed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. Effie Gwynn Bowie's work assures that her family (and mine) in Prince George's County will not be forgotten.