Talk:John C. Bowers

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A fact from John C. Bowers appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 6 May 2014 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that John C. Bowers (pictured) was a founder of the first African-American Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in Pennsylvania?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2014/May. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/John C. Bowers.

Wikipedia

Questions[edit]

Thanks for the new information on the page, Mary. I'd like to point your attention to the last 2 sentences in the first paragraph under Musician, which are not referenced.

I'm still trying to find good sources for those: Maud Cuney-Hare "Negro Musicians and Their Music" looks promising but I need to get a print copy.^[1]

I also have a few questions:

Are you sure that John C. Bowers was involved in the founding of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society? I thought that was his father.

Winch's bio says the following of son John C. Bowers: "A member of the Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia, he joined in the call that led to the formation of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, and he travelled to Harrisburg for its first convention... On several occasions Bowers was a delegate to the American Anti-Slavery Society's conventions."

Similarly, I've seen sources that a John C. Bowers was involved in the Philadelphia Vigilance Association formed in 1834 (see [1]); our John would be 23 years old at the time, but it could just as easily have been his father. We need to cite biography from a definitive source.

I haven't seen any mention of that for J.C.

Does it seem likely that our John C. Bowers, at the age of 50, would be bugling in the Union Army? I'm inclined to take that out. I saw a different source on Google Books that said he presented the flag to the Union troops when they came to Philadelphia. By that time, he was an old man and a respected member of the community.

I'm fine with that. I hesitated to remove it just in case someone else might have better information, but my sense is that it's someone else.

Do you know what the middle initial "C" stands for?

Sorry, no idea as yet.

Please let me know when you're finished expanding the article, so I can finish the DYK review. Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 20:09, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'll try to work on the article tomorrow (Sunday) to fill out the anti-slavery section; I don't know if I'll be able to get the music book for a few days.Mary Mark Ockerbloom (talk) 21:59, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've done everything I can until I get the music source. I've put in a web-ref for now, will improve it once I can get something better.Mary Mark Ockerbloom (talk) 06:48, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We have so many good refs, it's a shame to put in an unreliable one. I deleted it and moved the paragraph about family musical talent up into the Early life section. If you do find a ref for his musical style, by all means restore the text. Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 13:48, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Cuney-Hare, Maud (1936). Negro musicians and their music (Reprint. ed.). Washington, D. C,: Associated Publishers, Incorporated.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

[Cuney-Hare-1] Cuney-Hare, Maud (1936). Negro musicians and their music (Reprint. ed.). Washington, D. C,: Associated Publishers, Incorporated.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

[1]