Missouri Fox Clowser was the oldest of Levi Fox and Sarah Hartley's children and was born on December 16, 1851 in St. Clair Township, Butler County, Ohio.
She married James Monroe (Doc) Clowser (Clouser) in Iowa when she was seventeen and he was 23 on September 16, 1868. James was born on April 25, 1844 in Ohio. His parents were Henry Clowser and Mary Gookin. James Clowser was a farmer.
James and Missouri lived in Benton Township, Lucas County, Iowa. Their children were: William Martin (Mart) Clowser (1869),
Alburton (Burt) B. Clowser (1870-1896),
Nevada Clowser (1873-1892),
Charles Edwin Clowser (married Grace Josephine Gillham in 1897),
John Elvin Clowser (1876),
and Virgil M. Clowser (1879-1918).
At the time of the 1880 census, the Clowser children were not living with their parents. Alburton (Albertin Clouser) was age nine and working as a servant in the R. B. Hammond home in Washington Township. Nevada age seven was living with the Nimrod Wood family in Benton Township. The Woods were Clara Fox Wood's parents-in-law. Charles (Clouser) age seven and Virgil (Clouser) age one were living with the Gookin family in Washington Township, Lucas County.
Missouri died on January 16, 1880 when she was 28. She was buried in Confidence Cemetery in Wright Township, Wayne County with her husband, daughter Nevada, and son Alburton.
After Missouri died, James married Ann Elizabeth (Annie) Hodges who was born in 1858 in Ohio. James and Annie had a son, Henry Rezin Clowser who was born in 1885 in Iowa.
James died on January 16, 1888. Frank Myers wrote in his blog, The Lucas Countyan on October 22, 2008
the small headstone to the left of the larger stone marks Missouri's grave. The inscriptions on the main stone are very hard to read unless the light is just right. Missouri and James are on the north side of the stone; A. B. and Nevada, on the south.
St.
Clair Township, Butler County, Ohio was organized in 1803. It included the present
townships of Oxford, Milford, Wayne, Reily and Hanover and was bounded
on the north by Preble County, on the east by Lemon Township, on the
south by the Miami River and Ross Township, and on the west by the State of
Indiana.
Lucas County is in south central Iowa. It was founded in 1846 and the county seat is Chariton.
In the 1830s settlers began arriving inIowa from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia. Iowa became a state in 1846.
