Mary Stowers found her son Willis Green after 28-year separation

A Long Lost Mother.
----
[Evansville Journal.]

Twenty-eight years ago Mary Stowers,
a slave woman, belonging to Harrison
Stowers, of Owensboro, was sold to parties
living in Shelby county, Kentucky, and
was with her little girl of two years
taken away, leaving her boy, Willis
Green, then four years old, with her
former master, John Stowers, who had
sold her to his brother. For some time
after her sale she managed to send word
to her boy occasionally, but after a
couple years she was sold to the dreaded
negro-traders, and was taken south, after
which all trace of her was lost. The
boy Willis grew to manhood, and by the
events of the war became free and came
to Evansville. During all these years,
not having heard of his mother, he supposed
her dead, but her memory was still
bright, and he often thought of her as
she must have suffered in the cotton-field
under the lash of the cruel taskmaster.

On Monday he was almost electrified
at being told that an old woman, claiming
to be his mother, was in the city in search
of him, but the lapse of time had been
so great that he was incredulous, but
faint as the hope was, he determined to
follow it, and see if it should prove delusive.
He went, as directed, to the
house of his uncle Ed. Davis, and there
met an old woman who clasped him in
her arms, and wept over him as her son.
To test the genuineness of her claim,
Willis asked, "How do you know I am
your son?" And the old woman gave
her reasons, detailing facts that were
known to him as having occurred. He
then showed her his right hand, and
asked, "Can you tell how I lost that little
finger?"

"Yes," replied she, "your young master
cut it off while chopping a trough,"
and Willis accepted the evidence as much
stronger than that of the traditional
strawberry mark.

The aged woman, after being sold to
Alabama, was placed on a cotton farm,
and worked as a field hand until the
close of the war extinguished slavery.
As soon as free, she determined to return,
and worked to that end, but ill
health several times interfered to prevent,
and it was not until two weeks ago that
she found her way to Lewisport, and
subsequently to Owensboro, where she
heard that her daughter was dead and
her son, and brother, (Ed. Davis), were
in Evansville, and now, after a separation
of twenty-eight years, the old and broken
down woman has found her son, who rejoices
at the reunion, and welcomes her
to his humble home.

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