The First Baby

At the end of his clerkship for the Tappan brothers, Henry Bowen and another employee started a dry goods business (Bowen & McNamee) specializing in silks, fine ribbons, laces, and trims. By 1844, their new venture was a success. Once established financially, thirty-year-old Henry married nineteen-year-old Lucy, the daughter of his former employer Lewis Tappan, and they made their home in fashionable Brooklyn Heights. The following year, Lucy and Henry’s first child, was born.