Ida Barbara Haefling

On October 6, 1875, Ida Barbara Haefling was born into the family of Adam and Agnes Barbara [Kuhn] Haefling. Out of her eight siblings, she was the youngest. Ida was born and raised in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. Agnes, Ida's mother, was born in the Bas-Rhin region of France in 1830. Adam, her father, was born in January 10, 1823, in Bavaria. Before relocating to Tiffin in 1839, they initially made their home in Pennsylvania. Adam was a prosperous miner during the California gold rush, according to her father's obituary. He possessed 160 acres in the township of Hopewell.

As an adult, Ida lived with her brothers, Francis "Frank" and Jacob Alphorus, and handled domestic chores. In addition to farming, Frank worked as a machinist for Hanson Clutch & Machine Co., a company that manufactured excavators, and Jacob was a butcher. Despite never getting married, the three siblings played a crucial role in raising their nieces and nephews.

After their oldest sister Clara [Haefling] Lonsway passed away, Ida and her brothers took in Everett and Louis Lonsway, their nephews, into their home. Sylvester Bertram Lonsway, their brother-in-law, remarried and relocated to Colorado in the interim.

Ruth and Marian Lonsway, their adolescent grand-nieces, were welcomed into their house following the passing of their parents, Louis Lonsway and his wife Lowessa.

Ruth Lillian (Lonsway) Bowser

When Ruth Lillian Lonsway was born on January 2, 1904, in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, her father, Louis, was 21, and her mother, Sarah, was 19.  Ruth was the oldest of two daughters.

Ruth was raised by her maternal grandparents in Evansville, Indiana, after becoming an orphan at the age of eleven. She later returned to Tiffin and stayed with her great-grand aunt, Ida Haefling. She completed high school graduating from Columbian High School in 1921.

Ruth was a teacher at the Junior Order United American Mechanics National Home (Tiffin).  “Jr. O.U.A.M.” is a fraternal order that originally began as a youth affiliation of the Order of United American Mechanics. Originally, an anti-Catholic, nativist group, the home was an orphanage for children of deceased members.

She married her high school sweetheart, Myron Egbert "Mike" Mann on May 29, 1926, in Seneca, Ohio. Mike graduated from Heidelberg College (Tiffin) and worked as a clerk for Ohio Bell. He died of influenza on February 1, 1928 at 24. Shortly after her husband’s death, Ruth moved to Cleveland and worked as a teacher at the Rosedale and Broadway Schools. Ruth's teaching abilities carried over outside of the classroom, as she frequently corrected the grammar on her little nieces and nephews thank-you notes then returned them. 

Ruth met and married Louis Frederick Bowser on April 18, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois and then settled in Glen Ellyn, DuPage County, Illinois. He was a member of one of Lafayette Indiana's best known families. Louis graduated from Purdue University (Alpha Tau Omega fraternity). He was a Director and co-founder of Wallfill Company of Chicago, Illinois. Nieces and nephews remember being forced to listen to Uncle Lou’s recordings of bird sounds and rolling their eyes at every vinyl record that was taken from the shelf. 

Louis died on December 12, 1976 at the age of 85. Ruth died on February 19, 1992, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, at the age of 88.