James S. McGowan and Elizabeth Blaney
Elizabeth 2 Blaney (James D.1) was born on 31 August 1831 in St.-Sylvestre, Québec, Canada. She married James S. McGowan on 21 July 1864 in Buffalo. James apparently suffered regularly from financial difficulties, and after the birth of her two children Eliza began working in 1872 as a teacher at Public School Number 5. Their marriage was troubled, and they separated circa 1888. She eventually went to live with her daughter Blanche and her husband. The 1900 census lists her occupation as "president of an insurance company" referring to her position as "Supreme President" for 20 years of the Ladies Catholic Benevolent Asosciation, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the first insurance company established by and for women. She later moved with her daughter and her family to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where she died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 21 March 1923. She was buried in the McGowan family plot in Holy Cross Cemetery, in Lackawanna, NY.
James S. McGowan was born in Buffalo in 1836, the son of Andrew McGowan and Mary S. [?]. Andrew was an Irish immigrant who first appeared in the Buffalo City Directory in 1832, working as a teamster. James himself appeared in 1854, when he was 18, "working on the lake," where so many of the young men of Buffalo found their first job. In 1861 he was working as a weighman in the Buffalo grain trade.
On 22 August 1862 he enlisted in the 116th New York Volunteers, a unit recruited largely from Buffalo, and was commissioned a lieutenant. He saw combat in Louisiana and was promoted to Captain. Like so many soldiers in the war James was disabled by disease. He resigned from the unit on 5 March 1864 and returned home just before the 116th NY set off on the Red River Campaign.
The war took a lasting toll on his health. According to one of the affadavits in his pension file, he returned from the war "as yellow as a saffron bag." Every winter thereafter he suffered from bouts of illness lasting several weeks, undoubtedly contributing to the family's financial difficulties. The war may have contributed to another of James' problems: according to her own pension application, Eliza attributed their separation to "said soldier's habits." These habits are suggested by his death certificate: James died in a police station at 3:00 am on 17 July 1902 of apoplexy. Alcoholism was given as a contributing cause. James was buried in his son-in-law's family plot in Holy Cross Cemetery.
James S. McGowan and Elizabeth Blaney had the following children:
| 20 | i. | Richard B. McGowan was born in Buffalo in 1865. | |
| + | 21 | ii. | Marie Blanche McGowan was born on 11 March 1868 in Buffalo. |
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