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Origins of donated Parkersburg High School ring a mystery

Photo by Jess Mancini Hank Bowry holds the ring his mother, Mary Ann Bowry, kept for more than 30 years. The family attempted to ascertain to whom the ring originally belonged, but couldn’t find a match to the initials engraved on the band, HCL.

PARKERSBURG — A Parkersburg High School class ring of 1917 — when the present day PHS school building opened — was presented to the school on Wednesday morning.

The woman’s ring was donated to the school by the late Bill and Mary Ann Bowry and the Class of 1949 and presented to Principal Kenny DeMoss by their great-grandchildren.

But there’s a mystery behind the ring, which Hank Bowry, the Bowrys’ son, had professionally cleaned at Mark Armstrong Jewelry. The identity of the owner of the ring could not be determined despite the initials are engraved on the band, HCL, Bowry said.

“We looked back through all the records, but we couldn’t find anyone with the initials ‘HCL,'” he said.

His mother received the ring in the 1980s, Bowry said. She also didn’t know who it belonged to, but she kept it for all those years, he said.

Photo by Jess Mancini From the left, Parkersburg High School Principal Kenny DeMoss on Wednesday was presented a 1917 PHS class ring from the great-grandchildren of Mary Ann Bowry, Eli Modesitt, Michael Modesitt, Sydney Bohn and Caden Florence. The ring was donated by Bill and Mary Ann Bowry and the Class of 1949.

Mary Ann was a graduate of Parkersburg High School in the Class of 1949. Her husband, Bill, also was a member of the Class of 1949.

She died at the age of 84 in December 2015 and was survived by five children, Hank, J. Dianne Modesitt, Janeen L. Barrett, Joan Dale Florence and Jill L. Sams, and 32 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The ring was found by Sydney Bohn, a great-granddaughter and a sophomore at Parkersburg High, while going through items in the estate.

“We were going through old things trying to figure out what we were going to keep,” Bohn said. “She had a lot of old stuff.”

The ring grabbed her attention because it said PHS.

Photo by Jess Mancini This is the 1917 Parkersburg High School class ring that was in the possession of Mary Ann Bowry for more than 30 years. The family was unable to determine who was the person with the initials HCL engraved into the band.

Bohn went through old yearbooks at the library trying to find someone in the class with the initials HCL. A 1917 yearbook was unavailable, but no one with the initials was found in other yearbooks from preceding years, she said.

The family also is unsure why Mary Ann kept the ring, Bowry said.

“I don’t think she knew who it belonged to,” he said.

Amy Knicely, Bowry’s daughter, said she didn’t know of the ring until after her grandmother’s passing. She never said anything about the ring, Knicely said.

“That’s the crazy thing,” she said. “We just found it when we were going through her things.”

Photo by Jess Mancini Parkersburg High School Principal Kenny DeMoss hopes to create a museum where memorabilia and artifacts from the history of the school can be displayed. Among the items at the school are a photo of the 1909 basketball team, a class necklace from 1927, an old uniform worn by the girls for physical education, the principal’s attendance book from the 1930s to 1970s and Doris Knotts’ diploma from 1938.

The donation was delayed in the event they could identify the initials and locate the person’s family, Knicely said.

“We couldn’t put anybody to those initials,” she said.

The ring was presented to DeMoss by the great-grandchildren, Eli Modesitt, Michael Modesitt, Bohn and Caden Florence.

DeMoss said he will place the ring with other memorabilia collected and donated to the school over the years.

Among the items in the collection are a photo of the 1909 basketball team, a class necklace from 1927, an old physical education uniform worn by the girls, the principal’s attendance ledger from the 1930s to 1970s and Doris Knotts’ diploma from 1938.

“My goal is to eventually have some type of museum,” he said.

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