Iona Belle Brock

Iona Belle Brock

KentuckyConfirmed

1865–1947

Born

31 December 1865, London, Laurel County, Kentucky

Died

4 July 1947, Potosi, Taylor County, Texas

Buried

Potosi, 6 July 1947

Parents

Solomon Alfred Brock

Married

William Anderson Bowles

Sources

17

Images

11

Life in the order the records give it

Birth1865

Born 31 December 1865, London, Laurel County, Kentucky S170 S23

Death1947

Died 4 July 1947, Potosi, Taylor County, Texas, aged 81 years 6 months 3 days; buried Potosi, 6 July 1947 S170 S23

Cause—

Cause of death coronary thrombosis; widowed; occupation housewife S170

Death2026

🔑 Updated 22 September 2026. Her own Texas standard certificate of death, no. 31724, filed at Abilene on 11 July 1947 by the local registrar — seven days after the death — has been read at full resolution S170. Four facts move off Find a Grave onto it: the birth date, the birthplace, the death date and the burial, all of which stood on a memorial alone S23. S170 is cited ahead of S23 for all four. And her parentage is stated in words for the first time — field 10 names her father, field 12 her mother's maiden name — corroborating the 1865 Harlan County marriage register's Matildia Howard S151. ⚠ The caveat travels with it: the informant, Iona Reah of Hermosa Beach, California, named for the deceased and almost certainly a daughter, was reporting her own grandparents. Second-hand, far better than a compiled memorial, and not primary. 🔑 London is the seat of Laurel County — the county the 1860 census puts her father's family in S167. The tree had the place from a memorial; it now has a reason. 🔑 She is on the 1870 and 1880 schedules too: Iona B., 4, in Valley Township, Madison County, Arkansas in July 1870 S153 — a reading her 1880 age of 14 settles against three earlier alternatives — and Iona B., 14, eldest of six in her mother's household at Hilburn Township in June 1880 S166.

Census1910

In 1910 she was the mother of 18 children born, 15 living S186. Widowed, she was living in 1940 with her daughter L. Jean Julius at 912 Buchanan, Amarillo S185.

Census1940

🆕 The 1940 Amarillo directory lists her as “Bowles Iona B (wid W A)” at 912 Buchanan, the address of the 1940 census S373; added 24 September 2026.

Census1950

🆕 The 1950 census of Hermosa Beach lists Iona B. Reah, 55, born Texas, as the head of a household that included her sister Jean Julius S637, so the informant Iona Reah was Iona's daughter. added 26 September 2026.

Military1918

🆕 A World War I transport list for Co. D, 111th Ammunition Train, 36th Division, has Bowles, William A., private first class, no. 1480433, whose person to notify is “Bell Bowles, mother, R.R. #2, Abilene, Texas” S773 Probable confirm or correct →. It puts the family on a rural route out of Abilene in 1918 and points to a son William A. who served in the war. What is weak: no other record read so far names this son. added 26 September 2026.

Family parents, marriages, children, siblings

Parents—

Father Solomon Alfred Brock · mother's maiden name Matilda Howard, both born Kentucky S170

Marriage1880

Married William Anderson Bowles on 24 December 1880 Confirmed, the date in the family typescript S72; she was still single at home in the June 1880 census S166, which a December wedding fits. Her brother John B. and her grandparents James and Elizabeth Brock have cards too

Children1882

🆕 Five more of her children Probable confirm or correct →: James Daniel Bowles (1882–1941), whose Indiana death index gives his mother as “Ioma” S890; William Anderson Bowles Jr. (1893–1957) S899; Iona Belle Bowles Noonan (1895–1986) S905; John Wesley Bowles (1902–1960), whose Texas death certificate gives his mother as “Belle Broach” S904; and Robert Anthony Bowles (1904–1974) S895. Details are on William Anderson Bowles's card. Research status: PROBABLE, accepted by Earl 28 September 2026 pending more evidence. What is weak: the death certificates are read from their indexes only, and two of the five rest mainly on Find a Grave. added 28 September 2026.

Photos & documents 9 photos · 2 documents

Photos (9)

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Documents (2)

Documents · 2 page images all documents

Retrieved from the UNT Libraries' Portal to Texas History, or — for the University of Texas Cactus yearbooks — from Texas ScholarWorks. Each thumbnail opens the full page scan, which can also be downloaded. The quoted text is the OCR that ships with the scan, copied verbatim; the page image is the authority.

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1940 United States Federal Census — Amarillo, Potter Co., TX, ED 188-26, sh. 25B (Ancestry record 159380593) · **S185** — page sh. 25B

Federal census schedule · 1940

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Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, **Standard Certificate of Death no. 31724**, Taylor County, Potosi precinct one; file no. 225, filed 11 July 1947 by local registrar Lila Fern Martin, Abilene; received by the Bureau 8 August 1947 (Ancestry coll. 2272, record 82067279, image 40394_b062310-02504) · full resolution 2048 x 1713 px — page certificate

State death certificate · 1947-07-04 / filed 1947-07-11

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In the record Generation 5 — the immigrants and the frontier

1. S23FindAGrave memorial 63936483, Iona Belle Brock Bowles (1865–1947), Potosi Cemetery — findagrave.com/memorial/63936483.
2. S72Coffman and Bowles family record — typescript, undated. Four typed sheets compiled within the family and kept by Robert William Coffman (1906–1990), Earl's grandfather; passed to his son David and photographed 16 September 2026. Covers David Emily "Dee" Coffman & Mary Jane Wright, William Anderson Bowles & Iona Belle Brock and their eighteen children, and James Daniel Bowles & Lydia Williams and their ten. Family testimony, not a vital record — weighed as such. It agrees with the registers on Lydia Mae Bowles's birth to the day and on Iona Belle Brock's dates exactly, and it supplies two marriage dates and twenty-two names that no record here had. It also contradicts itself on William Anderson Bowles's birth year (1858 on one sheet, 1859 on another) and gives Mary Jane Wright's death as 1934 against 1935 elsewhere. Those conflicts are recorded, not resolved.
3. S151Harlan County, Kentucky marriage register — Salomon A. Brock and Matildia Howard, 6 March 1865. Ancestry collection 61372 (Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783–1965), record 902259827, image TH-1971-28951-10144-30, register opening pp. 98–99. Read from the image at full resolution — 4320 × 3837 px, 72/72 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Their line, verbatim: "Salomon A Brock — Matildia Howard", by whom married left as ditto marks, "march 6 1865", then John C. Howard, Lenard Farmer, J. W. Foster. 🔑 The marriage is on a register for the first time. Until now this site carried only the 1900 census's bare "married 35 years" [S138]. 🔑 And her maiden surname is documentary: the clerk writes Matildia Howard, where before Howard came off a member-submitted photograph's filename. 🔴 STRUCTURAL FINDING — the form is a SCHOOL-CENSUS SHEET REPURPOSED AS A MARRIAGE REGISTER, and the column semantics are genuinely uncertain. The printed headings (CENSUS REPORT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN, Signature of Parents Guardians or Heads of Families, Post Office Address of Parent, Guardian, Etc.) are struck through in ink and overwritten by hand as MARRIAGE REGISTER · PARTIES NAMES · BY WHOME MARRIED · Date · PLACE OF MARRIAGE · NAME O WITTNESS · PRESENT. The two schemes do not line up, so the cell holding John C. Howard reads either as place of marriage, given as a householder's name, or as the printed parent or guardian column. Preferred reading: PLACE OF MARRIAGE — it is the only one consistent across neighbouring rows, which put the bride's own surname in that cell both times (Sarah Hulton above; Littleton Marcum below, for Silas J. Howard — Emily Marcum). ⚠ The rejected reading is the valuable one, which is exactly why it is hedged and not asserted: it would make John C. Howard her FATHER. A portrait of a John C. Howard is already published here off a member tree. This page does not settle it. ⚠ CRITICAL NEGATIVE: this register has no age column, no birthplace column and no parentage column, so it cannot touch the 1847-versus-1848 question. The Owsley County register [S143] has those columns; Kentucky county registers of this period are not uniform. ⚠ The officiant is not recoverable — her by whom married cell is ditto marks and the run is long. 🔑 SUPPLEMENT, 22 September 2026 — the register re-read across BOTH leaves, and the right leaf carries everything. Ancestry indexes only the left leaf. The right leaf's PLACE OF MARRIAGE column reads "John C. Howard" for this couple — and the column names the bride's father's household on every row checked above and below (Sarah Helton above; Littleton Marcum below, for Silas J. Howard — Emily Marcum). This is a SECOND INDEPENDENT CHAIN to John C. Howard as Matilda's father, alongside the 1860 Harlan household [S165] — and the death certificate of the couple's eldest daughter names her mother's maiden name as Matilda Howard [S170]. 🔑 John C. Howard was a JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, officiating at other marriages in this same register. 🔑 New from the right leaf: witness Lenard Farmer, and J. W. Forster in the third column. ⚠ Two chains are still not a statement of parentage. No document read says Matilda was John C. Howard's daughter in words; the sheet PRECEDING image 4230650_00446 carries the head of dwelling 822 and has not been pulled. The row stays open in the review queue.
4. S1531870 U.S. Federal Census — Salomon Brock household, Valley Township, Madison County, Arkansas. Ancestry collection 7163, record 12720236, image 4259273_00413. Page 9, dwelling and family 62, lines 26–29, enumerated 12 July 1870, post office St Paul, by the assistant marshal. Read from the image at full resolution — 3428 × 4528 px, 63/63 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Brock, Salomon, 32, M, W, "Teaching School", personal estate $100, born Kentucky; Matilda, 23, F, W, keeping house, born Kentucky; Sara B., 4, born Kentucky; Mary E., 2, born Kentucky. 🔑 The age column says 23, and that requires January 1847 — not 1848. Enumerated 12 July 1870, a woman born January 1847 is 23; born January 1848 she is 22; born June 1848, as the headstone has it, she is 22. This is the second schedule whose own age column backs January 1847, and it is independent of the 1900 sheet [S138], which reads Jan 1847, age 53. 🔑 The family is in ARKANSAS in 1870, and the Kentucky → Arkansas move is now bracketed at both ends. They married in Harlan County, Kentucky in March 1865 [S151]; both daughters on this sheet were born in Kentucky; and by July 1870 the household is in Madison County, Arkansas. The move happened between about 1868 and mid-1870 — and the 1880 sheet [S166] narrows it further to 1869 × July 1870, since Mary E. was born in Kentucky and Ellen in Arkansas. 🔑 Solomon's occupation is "Teaching School" — new to the record. He is a schoolteacher at 32 with $100 of personal estate and no real estate, two years before the invalid pension he began drawing in November 1872 [S152]. 🔴 This sheet is the reason the Harlan County non-population schedule was rejected. That row indexes a Matilda Howard in Harlan, Kentucky on 28 July 1870 — sixteen days after this enumerator wrote Matilda Brock, aged 23, keeping house in Arkansas with two children, and five years after she became a Brock. The Harlan Matilda Howard is a different woman, and the row is closed on that ground rather than on a guess about the schedule's contents. ⚠ No month and no day. Pre-1900 schedules carry age only; this sheet narrows the year and cannot give a date. ⚠ The enumeration-date digit reads 12 and 13 cannot be wholly excluded; nothing here turns on it, since both fall in July 1870 and give the same arithmetic. 🔑 SUPPLEMENT, 22 September 2026 — the one open reading on this sheet is CLOSED. Line 28 reads Iona B., not Sara B., not Jane B., and not Ancestry's Imma M. — settled on the image, and independently by the 1880 Hilburn Township sheet [S166], where the eldest daughter is Iona B., 14, born Kentucky: four in July 1870 and fourteen in June 1880 is the same child. The four-year-old on line 28 is Earl's great-great-grandmother. 🔑 And the move from Kentucky narrows. With Mary E. born in Kentucky and Ellen in Arkansas on the 1880 sheet, the arrival closes to 1869 × July 1870, from the wider December 1865 × December 1874 bracket.
5. S1661880 U.S. Federal Census — Matilda Brock household, Hilburn Township, County of Madison, State of Arkansas. Ancestry collection 6742, record 5406340, image 4239811-00834. SCHEDULE 1.—Inhabitants, enumerated the Eighteenth day of June, 1880 by Aaron L. Thompson, Enumerator; page 27, S.D. 2, E.D. 104, stamped 554; dwelling and family 228/234, lines 11–17. Read from the image at full resolution — 3888 × 4560 px, 22 September 2026. Brock, Matilda, 33, head, MARRIED, Keeping House, born Kentucky, both parents Ky; Iona B. 14 (Ky), Mary E. 11 (Ky), Ellen 9 (Arkansas), Ida C. 7 (Ark), John B. 6 (Ark), James B. 3 (Ark). 🔑 Age 33 is the fourth age column to exclude 9 January 1848. Reference day 1 June 1880; 33 puts her birth between 2 June 1846 and 1 June 1847. With 1860 (13) [S165], 1870 (23) [S153] and 1900 (Jan 1847, age 53) [S138], four independent schedules close the year on 1847 and the day remains unattested by any document. 🔑 She heads her own household and the tick is in the MARRIED column, not Widowed — while Solomon heads a separate household at Eureka Springs, Carroll County, sixty miles north, fourteen days earlier [S168]. These two sheets must be read as a pair. ⚠ This is NOT early widowhood: the pension index dates his death to on or before 23 May 1904 [S152]. 🔑 The Kentucky-to-Arkansas move narrows to 1869 × July 1870. Mary E., 11, was born in Kentucky; Ellen, 9, in Arkansas, and the 12 July 1870 sheet already has the family in Madison County with both then-living daughters Kentucky-born [S153]. The wider December 1865 × December 1874 bracket closes to a little over a year. 🔑 It settles S153's one open reading. The eldest daughter here is Iona B., 14, born Kentucky; four in July 1870 and fourteen in June 1880 is the same child, so the 1870 line-28 given name is Iona B. and Sara B., Jane B. and Ancestry's Imma M. can be retired. 🔑 A sixth child, James B., 3, born Arkansas — Ancestry's index truncates its household list at "John B. Br" and he is not in the tree. ⚠ No month, no day. ⚠ The page gives no reason for the split household, and no separation, desertion or estrangement should be inferred from it.
6. S1671860 U.S. Federal Census — James Brock household, County of Laurel, State of Kentucky. Ancestry collection 7667, record 39738881, image 4231191_00444. SCHEDULE 1.—Free Inhabitants, enumerated the 25th day of July 1860 by J. R. Martin, Ass't Marshal; page 112, dwelling 760, family 714, lines 9–17. Read from the image at full resolution — 2237 × 2930 px, 22 September 2026. Brock, James, 56, U.B. Clergym'n, $700 real and $152 personal, born Ky; Elizabeth, 57; Caleb 26 (farm labor, $82); Sabrey A. 24; Soleman, 22, farm labor, $50; Mary J. 19; Mahala 17; Carline C. 13; Hetia C. 10 — all born Ky. 🔑 A CANDIDATE sixth generation on a line that had none. PROEGER-TREE.md records the Brock side of Generation 6 as unknown: Solomon Alfred Brock has no parents on the tree. This sheet puts him at 22 in the household of James and Elizabeth Brock with seven others of the surname, and the 1850 Harlan County sheet [S169] shows the same couple with the same children ten years earlier and Solomon at 12. ⚠ The hedge is the whole point and it is stated plainly: a census names a household, not a parentage. No record read in this research says son of, so it was published as a CANDIDATE — not probable, not confirmed. Updated 24 September 2026: approved as PROBABLE and entered in the family tree, labelled probable there too. 🔑 James Brock was a United Brethren minister — U.B. Clergym'n in the occupation column, against page totals of $3,200 and $2,000, with a second U.B. clergyman, B. Cochins, 78, born Georgia, at line 2 of the same page. The first religious vocation anywhere in the Brock line. 🔑 Solomon is a farm labourer at 22 with $50 to his name — ten years before he is Teaching School in Arkansas [S153]. 🔑 Laurel County, not Harlan. The family is in Harlan in 1850 [S169], in Laurel in July 1860, and back in Harlan for the marriage of 6 March 1865 [S151]; the birthplace column on both schedules reads only Kentucky. ⚠ Age 22 leans against the tree's 8 April 1837 without overturning it. Reference day 1 June 1860; 22 requires a birth between 2 June 1837 and 1 June 1838, and born 8 April 1837 he is 23. Neither schedule carries a month or a day, so the day is untouched and only the year is in question — review queue. ⚠ Ancestry indexes him Salman; the image reads Soleman.
7. S170Texas standard certificate of death no. 31724 — Mrs. Iona Belle Bowles, Potosi, Taylor County, 4 July 1947. Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics; file no. 225, filed 11 July 1947 by local registrar Lila Fern Martin, Abilene, received by the Bureau 8 August 1947. Ancestry collection 2272, record 82067279, image 40394_b062310-02504. Read from the image at full resolution — 2048 × 1713 px, 22 September 2026. Date of birth December 31, 1865; birthplace London, Kentucky; age 81 years 6 months 3 days; widowed; housewife; father SOLOMON ALFRED BROCK (b. Kentucky); mother's maiden name MATILDA HOWARD (b. Kentucky); informant Iona Reah, Hermosa Beach, California; date of death July 4, 1947; burial Potosi, July 6, 1947; undertaker Garrison Funeral Home, Abilene; cause coronary thrombosis. 🔴 The hint is filed under Solomon Alfred Brock because he is named on it. The certificate is his DAUGHTER's, and it belongs on Iona Belle Brock's card. 🔑 Four facts move off Find a Grave onto a state certificate filed seven days after the death — the birth date, the birthplace, the death date and the burial were all cited to a memorial [S23]. S170 is cited ahead of S23 for all four. The same pattern as S160 over S22 for her husband. 🔑 Her parentage is stated in words for the first time. Field 10 names her father and field 12 her mother's maiden name, independently corroborating the 1865 Harlan County register's Matildia Howard [S151]. 🔑 London is the seat of Laurel County, the county the 1860 schedule puts her father's family in [S167]: Solomon grew up in Laurel, married in Harlan in March 1865, and his first child was born at London nine months later. The tree had the place from a memorial; it now has a reason. ⚠ An informant on a death certificate knew the deceased, not the deceased's parents. Iona Reah, named for the deceased and almost certainly a daughter, was reporting her own grandparents. The parentage is strengthened, not made primary; what would make it primary is an Owsley or Harlan County record naming Iona as a child of Solomon at the time. ⚠ The duration of the fatal illness is smudged — 1 day is the reading, 5 is not impossible. ⚠ It says nothing about Solomon himself beyond his name and Kentucky birth, and does not touch the 8 April 1837 question.
8. S1851940 U.S. Federal Census — Harry Julius household, 912 Buchanan, Amarillo, Potter County, Texas. Ancestry record 159380593; ED 188-26, sheet 25B. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Harry Julius, 59, born Indiana; L. Jean Julius, 49, born Arkansas, who ran a cafe; and Iona B. Bowles, 74, widowed, mother-in-law. 🔑 Iona's daughter Jean, born Arkansas c.1891. ⚠ The sheet puts Iona in the "same house" in 1935, when William was still alive at Abilene; that line is not adopted.
9. S1861910 U.S. Federal Census — William A. Bowles household, Justice Precinct 7, Taylor County, Texas. Ancestry record 123373807; ED 268, sheet 2A, enumerated 16 April 1910. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. William A., 52; Iona, mother of 18 children born, 15 living; twelve children at home. The farm is owned and mortgaged, on the Abilene–Potosi road. 🔑 18 children born, 15 living, in Iona's own answer. William's 52 supports 1858 over the death certificate's 1856. ⚠ Clara L. H., 18, born Arkansas, may be the L. Jean of 1940 [S185]; not assumed.
10. S373Amarillo, Texas, city directory, 1940, p. 113. Ancestry record 377859274. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed “Bowles Iona B (wid W A) r3 912 Buchanan” — Iona Belle Brock Bowles, widow of William Anderson Bowles, at the address of the 1940 census (S185). Also Ancestry record 377859273 (the same page, filed under Iona). The index turned “wid W A” into a listing for W. A. himself; the page shows he was already dead. Three other Bowles on the page (Robert A., Thomas L., Warren D.) are not shown to be kin.
11. S6371950 U.S. census — Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles County, California. Ancestry record 259470630. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Dwelling 230, 1906 Pacific Coast Highway: Iona B. Reah, 55, head, born Texas, visiting nurse; Harry Julius, 68, brother-in-law; Jean Julius, 59, sister, born Arkansas. The Ancestry index calls Jean never married; the page lists Harry as the head's brother-in-law.
12. S773U.S., Army Transport Service Passenger Lists, 1910–1939 — transport Orizaba, Hoboken: Co. D, 111th Ammunition Train, 36th Division. Ancestry record 123188075. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, September 2026. Probable Line 132: Bowles, William A., private first class, service no. 1480433, Company D; person to notify Bell Bowles, mother, R.R. #2, Abilene, Texas. The sailing date is blank on the page. “Bell Bowles” of Abilene fits Iona Belle, but no other record yet names a son William A. A 1900 or 1910 household, his draft card, or a Texas service card for 1480433 would confirm him.
13. S890Indiana death certificate index — James Daniel Bowles, 20 November 1941, Michigan City, LaPorte County. Ancestry collection 60716, record 359388 (primary index row). Parents Wm A. Bowles and “Ioma”; spouse Bessie Alice. The index row for his mother (record 750359388) reads “Ioma Breck”. Probable Read from the index only; the image has not been examined. Record 750359388 is the mother row on his certificate, not a death record for Iona. Accepted as PROBABLE by Earl 28 September 2026.
14. S895Find a Grave memorial 32204228 — Robert Anthony Bowles (1904–1974). Born 3 April 1904, Potosi, Taylor County, Texas; died 27 February 1974, Phoenix, Arizona; parents William Anderson Bowles and Iona Belle. Probable A compiled memorial, not a record. His Arizona death certificate has not been read.
15. S899Find a Grave memorial 114180807 — William Anderson Bowles Jr. (1893–1957). Born 28 April 1893, Elmdale, Taylor County, Texas; died 15 September 1957, Pasadena, California; buried Rose Hills. Probable A compiled memorial, not a record; no California death certificate read.
16. S904Texas death certificate index — John Wesley Bowles, 6 December 1960, Abilene. Ancestry collection 2272, record 23227833. Born 26 June 1902, Potosi, Taylor County; father W. A. Bowles; mother “Belle Broach”. Probable Read from the index only; the image has not been examined. “Broach” is read as Brock.
17. S905Find a Grave memorial 141783210 — Iona Belle Bowles Noonan (1895–1986). Born 18 January 1895; died 10 September 1986; parents William Anderson Bowles and Iona Belle; husband Charles Francis Noonan. Probable A compiled memorial, not a record; nothing else yet read names her parents.