Individual Details

Birth

Remembrances of Vinna (Bowers) Helstern, tape-recorded 1989 by Bob Gross
Rhoda Stutzman Wineland "[David Wineland and Elizabeth Stutzman] had 6 children, my mother [Rhoda Stutzman Wineland] was the youngest [by far]. The mother of the family died of 'consumptive tuberculosis' and my mother was about 4 when she died. Her sisters were [eventually] married; her brothers took off for other parts. But [David] seems to have kept my mother with him.
[David Wineland's] sister who lived here at New Lebanon and her husband went out to IL, got my mother [Rhoda] and brought her back here [OH] and she was here, at Bear Creek Church, until she was in her teens...."

Miscellaneous

Rhoda WINELAND Shock was a sister of David Wineland. She and her husband Beniah (Ben) Shock took young Rhoda WINELAND into their home to raise her after her parents had both died. She lived with them until she left for Manchester College where she met Harvey Bowers.
The family was associated with the Bear Creek Church of the Brethren. During the 1950s, Vinna BOWERS Helstern could still point out the house where they had lived.

Education

Remembrances of Vinna (Bowers) Helstern, tape-recorded 1989 by Bob Gross
Rhoda Wineland " [at] Manchester in 1902-03 and 1903-04. That's when [Harvey] met my mother [Rhoda Wineland]. She was there as a student part of the time; then she became (remember, she was an orphan. There was nothing back of her) assistant to the cook in the boarding house. There is a picture of her room when she was cooking at the boarding house and in the corner of the picture is a trunk - the one 'Nita [Gross] has - was her trunk to go to college. After a couple of years [at MC] she came to S. OH to relatives who needed help with the family and lived there until she and Dad were married."

Marriage

They were married at the Bear Creek Church of the Brethren southwest of Dayton Ohio on State Route 35.

Burial

Rhoda Wineland Bowers' name, birth and death dates are listed on the same gravestone with Harvey S. Bowers in Olive Cemetery, Elkhart Co IN. The sexton of the cemetery is unable to confirm if there was a second burial on that same site.
Harvey's handwritten journal indicates that she was buried near Girard IL, most likely at the cemetery of the old Pleasant Hill Church of the Brethren where her parents and maternal grandparents are buried.
On a 31 Aug 2010 visit to the Pleasant Hill cemetery, Bruce and MarySue Rosenberger were unable to locate a gravestone for Rhoda's burial..

Death

Remembrances of Vinna (Bowers) Helstern, tape-recorded 1989 by Bob Gross
#2B memories of Mother Rhoda "I have no memory [of her] at all. I was 3 ½ [when she died]. It was a year [until my Dad married again]; I was 4 ½. A few [of my] memories have been augmented by pictures over the years."

"OBITUARY Rhoda A. Wineland was born April 26, 1882 in Virden, Ill. and died Jan. 21, 1910, near Osceola, Ind., aged 27 years, 8 months and 25 days. At the early age of 2 years her mother was removed from this world's trials and difficulties, and at the age of 5 years her father died. So this threw Rhoda in her tender years out in the world. She spent the following six years under the guidance and instruction of her aunt, Rhoda Shock in Ohio. Then a number of years with her sister Sarah.
Then followed several years at various other places. On Dec. 24, 1904 she was united in marriage to Harvey S. Bowers; to this union there have been born three children: Vinna Mary, aged 4 years; Floy Naomi, aged 1 1/2 years and Viola Ruth born on Jan. 17, 1910. Rhoda leaves to mourn her loss two sisters: Sarah, wife of Alvin Fite, residing at Girard; and Cora, wife of James Neher, residing near Ramona, Kansas [sic]. Three brothers, Benjamin F., residing at Flora, Ill.; Charles D. whose place of residence is, at present, unknown to the relatives, and Herbert L., of Boynton, Okla; also a kind and loving husband, and to whom she was an ever true and loving wife, and innumerable friends in the three states in which she has lived.
Rhoda was of a kind and loving disposition, always considerate of those about her, thus winning the love and respect and help of those with whom she came in contact. Her final thoughts were those of concern for her three little children and it was her heart's desire that they should grow up to noble womanhood.
Early in life she united with the Church of the Brethren and has remained a faithful and consistent member until death, and the people of the Baugo congregation in Indiana, feel that, although acquainted with this sister but a short time, that they have lost a faithful and consistent helper in the cause.
Her death caused a reunion of all her brothers and sisters but one, and a number of relatives from a distance. May there be many more reunions, but under more pleasant surroundings."
(This obituary apparently appeared in a Macoupin County, IL newspaper at the time of Rhoda's death."