Mary Ellen Bowman was the daughter of John Patterson Bowman and Catherine Ellen Myers.

She first married, on 31 Dec 1874, the farmer Joseph Myers (born on 20 Jan 1847) who was the son of Henry Myers and Sarah Thornburg.

Mary & Joseph made their home in a log cabin on an 80 acre farm in section 10 Jefferson Township, Miami County,. Here their three daughters, Emma Lavina, Ida Ellen and Addie Irene Myers, were born. Joseph died of typhoid fever on 29 Sep 1881 in Jefferson Township, Miami Co., Indiana.

Joseph's widow Mary (Bowman) Myers and her three small daughters, Emma, Ida and Irene went back to her home. At first they lived in the same house with her parents, but when her sister Amanda (Bowman) Anderson's husband, Frank , died of typhoid fever leaving her with a two month old baby. Gertie, Mary and her daughters moved into a small house on Grandpa Bowman's farm and Amanda and her baby, Gertie came back home.

Mary's single brother, Dan Bowman, was very helpful to her while she lived in the little house. Her children recall their mother warning them to watch for tramps that were common along the railroad track near their home and would come begging for food from houses nearby.

Three years after the death of her first husband, Mary Ellen (Bowman) Myers married the farmer Jacob W Sutton on 3 Apr 1884. Jacob brought two children to the marriage; Vivian and Arthur. Jacob and Mary lived on a farm north of La Fountain, Indiana and they had two children they named Joe and Sam Sutton.

When the girls were of age their father's (Joseph Myers) estate was settled. Ida moved back to her birthplace where her five youngest children were born in the same log cabin, which was destroyed by fire September 1916. Emma and Irene bought 90 acres that lay next to the farm of their mother and step-father. That was their home for the rest of their lives. In 1934 Ida moved to Wabash County near Lincolnville.

Mary (Bowman) (Myers) Sutton her husband Jacob and all three daughters are buried in the IOOF LaFountain Cemetery.