63.0°,
A Few Clouds and Breezy Mary Lowden, grandchild of East Meadow's original farmers, dies at 86
Mary E. Lowden, formerly of East Meadow died on April 1 at her residence, in Fellowship Village, Basking Ridge, N.J., at 86 years old. Mary was a descendent of one of East Meadow’s oldest and largest farming families in East Meadow, “The Carman-Lowden Family”.
Mary’s grandmother, Mary Ann Carman was born on 1844 in the Carman Homestead on Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow. On Jan 27, 1867, Richard Lowden married Mary Ann Carman and started their family in the homestead that was then called the “Carman-Lowden Homestead” on Hempstead Turnpike.
Mary’s father, William, was also born in the family homestead, in 1867 and lived in the homestead for 94 years. Their farm was located on the north side of Hempstead Turnpike across the street from present Dunkin Donuts and Home Depot. Today, there is a strip mall where the Carman-Lowden Homstead once stood. For decades this family house stood proudly on Hempstead Turnpike and was one of the oldest and most gracious homes in East Meadow.
Throughout the years the home served not only as a family farm but also an inn and a toll house, where, as the traffic passed, a toll was paid for the upkeep of road. At that time it was called the Hempstead-Bethpage Road and today, it know as Hempstead Turnpike.
Mary was born December 16, 1924 in the Carman-Lowden Homestead, daughter of William T. Lowden and Estelle Berg-Lowden. Both families farmed along Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow. She has two sisters, the late Betty Hansford and Ann Brandt, three cousins, Walter Lowden, Jane Williamson and the late Richard Lowden, and many nieces and nephews. She was born and raised on the family homestead, attended the Front Street School, where today, the East Meadow Public Library is located today. Mary grew up in rural East Meadow, in the days when most of East Meadow was a farmland. She attended Alfred University and received her masters in education from New York University. She taught for one year in Newfoundland, Canada with the US Air Force and several years in the East Rockaway school system.
