States and Counties to research:
From GRF Newsletter July 2002:
ISAIAH GOWEN, 34, BURIED ALIVE ON FARM IN YORK COUNTY, MAINE
Isaiah Gowen, son of William Gowen and Olive Witham Gowen, was
born May 11, 1811 at Sanford, Maine . He was a great-great-great-
grandson of William Alexander Gowen who was deported to Maine by
Oliver Cromwell in 1651.
He was 34 years old when he met his untimely death by being buried
alive.
His father, William Gowen, was a farmer, a surveyor, an astrono-
mer and a school teacher, and gave young Isaiah and his brothers
instruction in each of the arts. His father was married three
times-all to Witham women.
William Gowen was married October 3, 1808 at Sanford to Olive
Witham who was born August 7, 1786 to Jonathan Witham and Lydia
Witham. Olive Witham Gowen died May 20, 1811, at age 24, after
less than three years of marriage, according to the June 11, 1811
edition of “The Sanford Tribune.” William Gowen was remarried
to Mary Witham, younger sister of Olive Witham, May 3, 1813. Six
years later, she died on June 11, 1819 and was buried beside her
sister, according to the July 3, 1819 edition of “The Sanford
Tribune.”
A year later, William Gowen and Sarah Haines Witham of Kittery,
Maine, a cousin of his first two wives, were married June 27, 1820,
according to “Kittery, Maine Town Records.” Isaiah Gowen was
the second child of the first marriage.
A certificate of marriage certificate between Isaiah Gowen and
Sarah Ann Earle of Acton, Maine was filed July 17, 1835, accord-
ing to Sanford town records. They were married three weeks later.
He was living on his father’s farm when he was killed in a freak
accident March 9, 1846. Rain had softened the bank of a creek on
the farm, and as Isaiah Gowen walked along the creek, the bank
suddenly collapsed, burying him alive. Family members dug fran-
ticly to extricate him, but he was asphixiated long before they
could reach him. He was buried in Riverside Cemetery.
Sarah Ann Earle Gowen appeared as a 36-year-old widow living in
the household of Sarah Haines Witham Gowen in the 1850 census.
“Gowen, Sarah H. 66, born in ME
Sarah A. 36, born in ME
John C. 13, born in ME
Witham, Joshua 63, laborer, brother, born in ME”
Sarah Haines Witham Gowen was enumerated in the 1860 census of
York County, Maine living in the household of her son, John C.
Gowen.
Sarah Ann Earle Gowen was remarried October 20, 1861 to William
Emery, also of Sanford. Sarah Ann Earle Gowen Emery died at age
74, according to the “Springdale Advocate:”
“Sarah Ann Gowen Emery, widow of the late Isaiah Gowen died
Wednesday, December 28, 1887 at the home of her son, John C.
Gowen of Sanford.”
One son was born to Isaiah Gowen and Sarah Ann Earle Gowen:
John C. Gowen born about 1836
Goyen Family Tree 