Bowen Railroad Quarter (NE ¼ of Section 33)

This article is part of a series. To find other articles, see Some South Reardan Homesteads.

This quarter originally purchased from Northern Pacific Railroad by George Bowen in April 1884. He sold the following year to Arius and Sarah Glassburn. He was born to David and Mary “Polly” Glassburn in Ohio. Sarah was born in Ohio to Joseph and Nancy (Cook) Robison.

Arius Glassburn headstone (findagrave.com)

Arius died in 1885 at age 43. He was buried in the Medical Lake cemetery. At the time of his death there was no cemetery at Reardan, so Medical Lake may have been one of the closest cemeteries. It is also possible that he was buried in the Deep Creek cemetery that was moved in the 1930’s to Medical Lake.

The probate for his estate took several years. Arius and Sarah Glassburn have two boys (George, born 1875 in Iowa and L. age 16 years born Illinois) according to the 1885 census. [This would put L’s birth about 1879. According to Rootsweb, there was a daughter, Mabel, born in 1864 in Illinois. She would have been 21 when Arius died. Rootsweb has no record of “L.”] So when Sarah took control of the other half of the property in 1898, G. would have been 23 years old. A widowed neighbor living a mile away, Jeremiah Rice, served as the administrator to the will. Sarah and Jeremiah were married in 1886. There is no record of the boys living with their mother after she remarries.

Sarah sold to Annie Jerard in 1894. (Annie was the wife of Rev. E. F. Jerard, the minister of the Baptist Church in Reardan, and she must have been sure the title was good, although there are several transactions between Sarah and Jeremiah Rice recorded in 1894 and an affidavit to David Glassburn [probably Arius’ brother or his father, who died in 1895] in 1895. David was probably looking after the interest of the two boys. Unfortunately the probate file, that is supposed to be kept by the Lincoln County Clerk, was checked out in 1922 and not returned.

Annie Jerard sold the quarter to Gustav Wendlandt on 6 Nov 1914. The property remains in the Wendlandt family.

Jeremiah Rice died in 1898 (see Rice homestead). Sarah marries again, this time to Manuel Glassburn on 14 January 14, 1903. Manuel is a second cousin to Arius. This is Manuel’s second marriage, so again Sarah is assisting with raising children. By 1910 they are living in Cunningham, a settlement near Connell, WA.

Sarah B. Glassburn headstone (findagrave.com)

Manuel Glassburn headstone (findagrave.com)

Sarah and Manuel are buried in the Medical Lake cemetery with Arius. Sarah died in 1916 and Manuel in 1940. The tombstones of both Manuel and Arius include Sarah as their wife, but only Manuel's tombstone includes Sarah's dates.

Manuel had seven children by his first wife. His fifth child, Edward, married Hazel Ayers. They had at least on child, Hazel, who married Clark Cordill and they had at least two children including Colleen, who married Terry Snow, who was raised in the Reardan area and provided legal services. So Colleen’s great grandfather was Manuel Glassburn. Sarah B. would be a step great grandmother, who just happened to the Jeremiah Rice's second wife. Arius Glassburn would be Colleen’s second cousin thrice removed.

The Glassburn family tree is interesting. They were originally the Glassbrenner family from Germany. If all of the relationships could be proven that are on the internet, one branch of the family includes the Carpenters who can be traced back to the original colony at Rhode Island. William Carpenter was one of the charter members of Roger William's Baptist Church in America and had one of the first recorded deeds in Rhode Island. He married Elizabeth Arnold on the ship on the way to America. Elizabeth's brother is Benedict Arnold, the infamous traitor. The notes on this family that can be found on the Internet tracing back through the generations claiming to have descended from William the Conqueror, Charlaemagne, and Joseph of Arimathea, an uncle of Jesus.

This article is part of a series. To find other articles, see Some South Reardan Homesteads.