Our Auxiliary is named for Rachel Bowman Cormany
Rachel Bowman was born 12 April 1836 near Carlisle Hill in what was then Canada West (now the Province of Ontario), Canada to Benjamin Baer Bowman and Mary Clemens. During a time when few women had the opportunity for a formal college education, Rachel received the antebellum equivalent of a B. S. degree from Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, a coeducational school founded in 1847 by the Ohio Conference of the United Brethren Church.
In the Spring of 1859, Rachel met Samuel Eckerman Cormany, a fellow Otterbein student. After an eighteen month courtship, they were married 25 November 1860 in Westerville, Franklin County, Ohio. Soon afterward, they went to Ontario to be near Rachel's family. Their first child, Mary Cora Britannia was born 3 May 1862 in Carlisle, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada.
In the Spring of 1859, Rachel met Samuel Eckerman Cormany, a fellow Otterbein student. After an eighteen month courtship, they were married 25 November 1860 in Westerville, Franklin County, Ohio. Soon afterward, they went to Ontario to be near Rachel's family. Their first child, Mary Cora Britannia was born 3 May 1862 in Carlisle, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada.
With the escalation of the Civil War back in his home state of Pennsylvania, Samuel and Rachel returned to check on his family and friends. Samuel wrote in his diary that some men went to Canada to escape the war. He and Rachel both felt a patriotic and moral duty to to serve his country. On the 10th of September 1862 Samuel enlisted in the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry, and served for the duration.
Throughout the remaining years of the war, Rachel endured the poverty and privations with friends and neighbors in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In August 1864, Rachel was present at the burning of Chambersburg Pennsylvania by Confederates. The house in which she and another woman were living was spared only by their quick thinking, when they told the attackers that they were widows.
The Cormany family migrated to Macon County Missouri after the war, where Samuel had originally planned for them to live before war intervened. However the Cormany's found the volatile political and social climate of the post - war Missouri frontier not to their liking. After a brief time in Kansas where a second daughter, Harriett (Hattie) was born in 1871, Samuel's declining health forced them to move north to Canada, where he continued as a circuit rider for the United Brethren Church. However his health did not improve. He resigned from circuit riding in 1878, and the family went to Michigan where Rachel became active in the National Kindergarten Movement and the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
In 1886 the Cormanys traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on business. In 1887 they were appointed Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of the Protestant Home for Boys in Pittsburgh.
Rachel died of cancer 18 February 1899 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She and Samuel are both buried at Grandview Cemetery in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
After graduating from Otterbein, their daughter Mary Cora Brittania Cormany married in 1885 to the Rev. Lawrence Keister, who later became President of the Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. Her sister Hattie became a music teacher in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She married Howard S. Wilson, a United Presbyterian minister, and lived in York County, Pennsylvania.
The diaries of Samuel and Rachel Cormany from 1858-1866 have been published as The Cormany Diaries, A Northern Family in the Civil War (ed. James C. Mohr, University of Pittsburgh Press 1982). More information about the family and the times in which they lived can be found at Valley of the Shadow, a project of the Virginia Center for Digital History.
Samuel and Rachel are the relatives of Mike Rusk, husband of Rachel Cormany Auxiliary No. 2 Past President, Kathy Rusk. Mike Rusk is Past Department Commander of the Oklahoma Department SUVCW.
Throughout the remaining years of the war, Rachel endured the poverty and privations with friends and neighbors in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In August 1864, Rachel was present at the burning of Chambersburg Pennsylvania by Confederates. The house in which she and another woman were living was spared only by their quick thinking, when they told the attackers that they were widows.
The Cormany family migrated to Macon County Missouri after the war, where Samuel had originally planned for them to live before war intervened. However the Cormany's found the volatile political and social climate of the post - war Missouri frontier not to their liking. After a brief time in Kansas where a second daughter, Harriett (Hattie) was born in 1871, Samuel's declining health forced them to move north to Canada, where he continued as a circuit rider for the United Brethren Church. However his health did not improve. He resigned from circuit riding in 1878, and the family went to Michigan where Rachel became active in the National Kindergarten Movement and the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
In 1886 the Cormanys traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on business. In 1887 they were appointed Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of the Protestant Home for Boys in Pittsburgh.
Rachel died of cancer 18 February 1899 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She and Samuel are both buried at Grandview Cemetery in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
After graduating from Otterbein, their daughter Mary Cora Brittania Cormany married in 1885 to the Rev. Lawrence Keister, who later became President of the Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. Her sister Hattie became a music teacher in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She married Howard S. Wilson, a United Presbyterian minister, and lived in York County, Pennsylvania.
The diaries of Samuel and Rachel Cormany from 1858-1866 have been published as The Cormany Diaries, A Northern Family in the Civil War (ed. James C. Mohr, University of Pittsburgh Press 1982). More information about the family and the times in which they lived can be found at Valley of the Shadow, a project of the Virginia Center for Digital History.
Samuel and Rachel are the relatives of Mike Rusk, husband of Rachel Cormany Auxiliary No. 2 Past President, Kathy Rusk. Mike Rusk is Past Department Commander of the Oklahoma Department SUVCW.
Excerpts and photos from Cormany Diaries: A Northern Family in the Civil War, edited by James C. Mohr© 1982. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh PA 15260. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.