Person:Veronica Bowman (1)

Veronica, the seventh of thirteen children born to Samuel Baumann and Annie Biehn, was born in Waterloo County August 21, 1846. Veronica was descended from the original group of mennonites who moved from Pennsylvania and settled in Waterloo County in 1800.

The Baumann family had a farm a little to the north-east of Waterloo.

On January 31, 1865, Veronica Bowman married Aaron Moyer, whose family also originated in Pennsylvania. Aaron and Veronica were married in New Dundee where Aaron owned a general store. Although Veronica's family were reformed mennonites, she and Aaron brought up their family as methodists.

One of Veronica and Aaron's children was Annie Moyer, born Aug. 1, 1875. Annie married John Macdonald Millar in 1909 and their child, Kenneth Millar, became a famous mystery writer who wrote under the name of "Ross Macdonald". The following are extracts from:

Ross Macdonald A Biography

By TOM NOLAN Scribner

"Kitchener, Ontario, half a continent away from any ocean, was where Kenneth and Annie Millar went in 1920.... Annie Millar grew up a few miles from here with eight sisters and brothers, all living above father Aaron Moyer's Mildmay general store. The Presbyterian Moyer, married to the Mennonite Veronica Bowman, raised his children Methodist. An ex-schoolteacher, Aaron Moyer encouraged his seven daughters and two sons to sing harmony, play instruments, write letters, and draw pictures. But Aaron Moyer was dead, buried on the Saskatchewan prairie where he'd gone with his family to homestead at seventy-three.

When his widow came back to Ontario, she joined the reformed branch of the Mennonite Church of her youth. No card playing or other sinful pursuits were allowed in the two-story, brick bungalow at 32 Brubacher Street where Grandma Moyer lived with Annie's sister Adeline (who'd wired the money for Annie's and Ken's train fares). This was the forbidding house where Ken Millar and his mother moved into.

Grandmother Moyer at seventy-four was a strong willed woman who demanded obedience. She insisted that five-year old Kennie attend Sunday School at her New Mennonite Church. There he learned about Judgment Day, when the sheep would be separated from the goats. The boy sensed his grandmother and her Bowman kin already placed him with the latter."

Veronica died on April 25, 1931 in Kitchener.