Bowen Ingram (1904-1980)

Bowen Ingram was the pen name for Mildred Rebecca Prewett Ingram, who was born in Gordonsville, a town named for her ancestor, John Gordon. Always interested in writing, Ingram published her first poem at age 12. She married Daniel Taylor Ingram, Commandant of Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, and began to write for publication after her three children reached school age. Five stories appeared in the New Yorker; one short story, “Death of a Slave,” became the basis for her novel, Milbry. Ingram spent the last several years of her life living on her daughter’s farm in Williamson County, the place where she had lived with her sister in a log house.