Genealogical records confirm that Alsa Gale Bowers was born on December 24, 1808, in Merrimack County, New Hampshire. She was one of at least twelve children born to Captain Jerahmael (often variably spelled) Bowers V (1773-1847) and Dorothy “Dolly” Gale (1783-1847). Alsa married James McQuestion Barnard in 1836 in Hebron, New Hampshire, and died in Middlesex County, Massachusetts on January 23, 1881.

The Bowers family was living in New Hampshire by 1810, according to census records, but their ties to Middlesex County extend back to the 1630s, when grant ancestor George Bowers (1590- circa 1656), a planter, arrived in Plymouth Colony. Of his seven children, Colonel Jerahmael Bowers, Sr. (1650-1724), the progenitor of the Jerahamael name within the family, acquired land in Chelmsford around 1670, where he erected the area’s oldest known home in 1673 at 150 Wood Street. Colonel Bowers. was a prominent citizen locally, serving as a town selectman, representative to the General Court, and militia leader in King Philip’s War, and operating a distillery. His son, Captain Jerahmael Bowers, Jr. (1685-1764) continued the legacy of military service and land cultivation, as did his son Jerahmael Bowers III (1719-1751), grandson Jerahmael Bowers IV (1749-1840), who served in the Revolutionary War, and Jerahmael Bowers V, father of Alsa.