Hello! We are related! It is interesting that your last name is Carter, as that is another family name in our family tree from Ohio. More on that later….

The other H.G.” Blake” McDowell ( 1868-1931) that you referred to and his wife Florence Andrews McDowell ( 1872-1968) were my Great Grandparents! H.G. Blake McDowell was always referred to as ” Blake ” McDowell. Yes, his mother and father were Elizabeth Blake McDowell ( 1843-1932) and Robert McDowell ( 1838-1897) . This Elizabeth was the oldest daughter of the more famous H.G. Blake ( 1819-1875) ; the Congressman and operator of the UGRR; whose wife, Elizabeth Bell Blake was known as “Betsy”.

” Blake ” was one of five children born to the McDowells.( Bessie, Blake, Corwin, Kate and Robert)

Blake McDowell had died before I was born, but my Grandmother Elizabeth McDowell Bennett had told me many stories of him, showed me many pictures, and even had a book of his own hand drawn cartoons of animals that he was famous for entertaining the children with. My Grandmother loved her Father very dearly.

Florence Andrews McDowell, my Great Grandmother ( daughter of Marie Louise Provost , who was of French Canadian descent and Theodore Andrews- born 1839) was still alive when I was a child, and I remember her very well. She still lived in the big white house that she lived in with her husband and family (called Windy Hill) just a short walk through the woods from my Grandparents house, in Medina, Ohio. We called her” Mimi.” She had big beautiful flower gardens that I can still see her tending to. I think she died in 1968, when I was about 10 yrs. old. I have a lot of old pictures of her and her family from the 1800’s.,that are beautiful, that my mother gave me. I know she met her husband Blake at Oberlin College, where they both attended school.

I have been doing research myself on all of these people, though predominately H.G. Blake, the Congressman.

I’d be happy to share what I know about Florence, her siblings, parents, etc. as well as The Blakes and McDowells. Much of it comes from family research by my Great Uncle Ted McDowell ( the Theodore you referred to) to accompany the “Descendants of H.G. Blake ” reunion that we had in Medina in the early 1990’s. He and his wife “Toody” Munson McDowell and their daughter lived a short distance also from Mimi’s house in Medina for many years.

I’m thinking that your Great Grandfather Albert must have been the brother Mimi called “Bert” that was from South Haven, Mich., according to his writings. Where was the Andrews family reunion? I know they lived in both Chicago and Cleveland.

The picture of Florence with a baby girl is most likely my Grandmother;” Nana” ( Elizabeth McDowell Bennett) the oldest child; as I have some of those too. (Or, it might be my Great Aunt Helen as a baby. Come to think of it, they dressed baby boys in long white gowns as well….maybe it was Uncle Ted!)

We do have so much to talk about! I’ll contact the original author to see if we can exchange e-mails. Thank you so much for your blog!

Greetings Medina from Marceline MO!