From Aunt Helen:
Grampa L. - came to Buff with Geo. -- Others followed in 1901 - (Pan Amer in 1900) -
Aunt Phine Briden - Early - Owen Sound
Her daughter was to * Alison Briden - Mgr. of Bank of Mont in Owen Sound.
* Nora & Florence were daughters-in-law
Granpa L. Interested in Theatre - there was a theatre in site of Rand Bldg. - Geo remembers going there - Grandpa managed it. Stories told that Mike Shea offered him a partnership - .
Lowries had marvelous musical parties. - Grandpa L. was crippled in legs (GOUT?) Gr. L. was a bandmaster - small town. - Jenny Lind & Mdm. Schumann - Heink.
Lowrys probably came from Kingston -
First death of Lowry (maybe Samuel?) in 1839 - Item sent by Aunt Phine to Louise - wollen merchant - came from Belfast (N. Ireland) - Said to have been very successful man - brought over & started other. in business.
In 1906 they were all living at home.
The Lowrys came to the US from Canada - I think my father was born i Ontario but family moved to Buffalo around 1900 - the year of the Pan Amaerican Exposition. He was born in 1879 and came to Buffalo with his Dad. The others followed a year later. All born in Canada except John, around 1900. I think Grandpa Lowry (now that I think of it I'm not even sure of his name - but I believe he was Robert -) sold band instruments - maybe even uniforms. He became bedridden I suppose when he was around 50 -+ I never ever remember seeing him out of bed.
I doubt very much if Grandpa L. was much of a business man. The Lowrys were all dremers (the Irish in them?) ... Grandpa Lowry knew the other big theatre owner in Buffalo - a man named Shea - and was offered a partnership but it never came off. Don't know why. George says Grandpa L. lost the use of his legs - he thinks perhaps GOUT might have played a part. I'm right - both he and George's father were Robert James.
By 1906 - all the family were together and living at 356 Front Street, Buffalo. That was long before I knew anything about them. I only remember a rather dingy old place on 14th street in Buff. - later to become all Italian + who knows what now (1980's) - probably black, because Even in my old neighborhood - blacks were encroaching within a few blocks from the west side. They destroyed the area whenever they moved in, it seems - but that's a problem for society + not to be digressed upon here.
There's a note about Grandpa L. being a bandmaster + even featured Mdm. Schuman-Heink + Jenny Lind. These were outstanding Opera + concert stars in the early 1900's. You would find them written up in encyclopedias. We had records on Granda Folloer's old wind-up "victrola" from both, as well as Caruso - and "The Two Black Crows" who sang "Whistler + his Dog".
Pat Congdon:
Aunt Lou had a picture of her father (Robert James) on a horse playing a bugle. All the little Canadian towns had a band that played in the park.
Old Robert was an Orangeman and hated Catholics. Lowrys were Protestant Irish from Northern Island. Robert disowned the son Robert James when he married the Catholic girl in 1907. John Michael married an Italian, and that was equally taboo.