Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 829 - 830

SAMUEL I. BOWERS, of Lincoln Township, came to this section of country with his father's family, and located within what is now Lincoln Township before its organization. He homesteaded 160 acres of wild prairie on section 14 in the spring of 1870, and to this property has since given his special attention, building up a fine homestead, and making stock-raising his principal business.

            Mr. Bowers during the early days, and while gradually bringing his land to a state of cultivation, joined the line of freighters from Emporia to Wichita, when the latter especially was an unpretentious town of a few adobe houses. He was out on the buffalo range in the fall of 1872, and saw thousands of these animals, who had not yet learned to fear the rifle of the white man. Their indiscriminate slaughter since that time has seemed to him a cruel and uncalled-for proceeding.

            The subject of this biography was born in Juniata County, Central Pennsylvania, Jan. 17, 1851, and he is the fourth child of William E. and Henrietta (Ickes) Bowers, who were also natives of the Keystone State. Their family included seven sons and five daughters. Of the paternal grandparents a notice will be found in the sketch of W. E. Bowers on another page in this volume. William Bowers was a shoemaker by trade. He is still living, and a resident of this county, having his home adjoining the farm of his son, our subject. The mother died in July, 1873.

            Mr. Bowers was reared in the town of Mifflin, Pa., and about 1867 made his way to Knox County, Ill. There at Gilson he operated the telegraph in the office of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and continued until the spring of 1870, when he changed his residence to this county. There was not at that time a single dwelling in what is now Lincoln Township, and Wichita comprised a small hamlet of adobe buildings. After locating upon his land, Mr. Bowers began cultivating the soil, put up a log house and set out a good orchard, and continued his improvements until 1883, in which year the first humble dwelling was replaced by the present handsome and commodious residence. His quarter-section of wild land has been transformed into a series of fertile fields, and within the neatly fenced enclosures may be seen fine blooded Norman and Morgan horses, high-grade Durham and Hereford cattle, and pure-bred Poland-China swine. It has taken years to bring about this result, but Mr. Bowers has no reason to feel that his labors have been in vain.

            Our subject assisted in organizing the school districts of Lincoln Township, and was the first Constable serving in this capacity before Lincoln had been laid off by itself as a township, and when he had jurisdiction over a much larger stretch of territory than it now comprises. He has served as Road Overseer and Clerk of his school district, and is one of the useful men of his community, whose name will be held in remembrance by coming generations. He has been quite active in politics, but votes independently. He has taken great pleasure in watching the growth and prosperity of the southwestern country, and is proud of the fact that he has been able to assist in the building up of one of the most intelligent communities of Sedgwick County.

            The marriage of Samuel I. Bowers and Miss Sarah E. Wallace was celebrated at the home of the Rev. George Gay, of Lincoln Township, Nov. 4, 1875. Mrs. Bowers was born in Putnam County, Mo., Aug. 18, 1859, and was next to the youngest of the ten children comprising the family of William and Martha (Jones) Wallace, natives respectively of Tennessee and Missouri. Mr. Wallace came with his family to Kansas in 1867, settling in Bourbon County, where his death took place in March, 1871. The mother then came to her home in Lincoln Township, and died here on the 3d of August, 1882. Mrs. Bowers has four brothers and four sisters living, a brother and sister in Butler County, this State, and a brother and sister in Bourbon County, and two brothers and two sisters in Lincoln Township, Kan. Her paternal grandparents, William and Mary (Nesbit) Wallace, were natives respectively of West Virginia and Ireland. Grandmother Wallace came to the United States with her parents when a child three years of age. The maternal grandparents, Robert and Martha (Cash) Jones, were natives of Ohio.

            Mr. and Mrs. Bowers after their marriage settled on the new farm of our subject, where they have since resided. The household circle includes four children: Josie, born Sept. 8, 1876; William, June 15, 1878; Clara, Sept. 17, 1879, and Victor, June 1, 1881. They are all attending school in the home district, and their father intends that they shall be given a first-class education. Mr. and Mrs. Bowers are members in good standing of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and held in the highest esteem by their neighbors. 

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