Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 566 - 567 

WILLIAM E. BOWERS. Those who came into Kansas during the days of its early history were brave, sturdy fellows, and full of enterprise. One of these, now a leading farmer and stock-raiser of Lincoln Township, having his home on section 14, is a native of Delaware County, Pa., born Sept. 16, 1813, and is the eldest of the family of seven children of his parents, John and Elizabeth (Savill) Bowers, natives of the Keystone State, where they have always resided. His father was the son of John and Mary (Wafters) Bowers, who were also born in the same State, and the maternal grandparents of our subject were Enoch and Catherine Savill. Mr. Savill was a soldier during the struggle for independence and lived to the ripe old age of ninety-five years. He had a beloved brother who laid down his life on the shrine of his country's liberty, having been killed at the battle of Long Island in 1776.

            The father of our subject was a paper-maker by trade, in the city of Philadelphia, and was the descendant of John Bowers and a brother who came from Wales and settled in the city of Brotherly Love. John Bowers, the grandfather of our subject, had two sons, one of whom went to sea and was never heard of afterward, and the other, John Bowers, Sr., was apprenticed to a man by the name of Wilcox, who was engaged in the paper-making business, with whom he remained until the death of his employer. He continued in this trade for many years, until his death, which occurred Feb. 16, 1836, when he had attained the age of forty-six years. His wife did not long survive him, passing to her rest March 23 of the same year.

            The subject of this memoir received his education in the excellent schools of his native county, and in early life learned the shoemaker's trade. Dec. 9, 1849, he was united in marriage, in Carlisle, Pa., with Miss Henrietta Ickes, who was born in Perry County, the Keystone State, in August, 1826, and is the fourth child in a family of eight born to her parents, Jonas and Mary (Duncan) Ickes, who were natives of the same commonwealth. After his marriage he settled in Mifflin, Schuylkill Co., Pa., where he was engaged in carrying on a shoemaking establishment for several years. Previous to this; however, on the 30th of January, 1838, our subject enlisted in Company F, 1st United States Dragoons, and was mustered into the service at Ft. Gibson the 5th of May following. He was engaged in border warfare most of the time of his service in the neighborhood of Ft. Gibson and Cherakee, and was honorably discharged at Ft. Loveland, Jan. 30, 1841. During the time that he was a soldier he had traversed this entire country, capturing Indians in the vicinity of where he now lives. He had several close calls in action, having had some hair sheared from his head by a ball in one of them.

            After his discharge our subject went to Weston, Mo., where he remained until spring, and then returned to his native State. He made his home in Mifflin until 1867, when he removed to Knox County, Ill., and settled in Gilson, where he was engaged in a shoe business and in agricultural labor, as he owned a farm in that locality. Three years later he sold this and came to Kansas in the spring of 1870, and settled in Lincoln Township in May of that year. At that time there was but one other settler in the township, and having homesteaded 160 acres of the raw prairie on section 14, he erected the second house in that sub-division of the county. He commenced improving the property immediately, and has now a fine farm in an excellent state of cultivation. He hauled the lumber for his first improvements from Emporia, 100 miles distant, and set out a good and sufficient orchard. His farm is well stocked with good graded Norman and Clyde horses, and fairly bred cattle.

            In his earlier days Mr. Bowers was actively engaged in the political field. He was Justice of the Peace in Pennsylvania for ten years, and Mayor and Councilman of the city of Mifflin, in that State. Since coming here, however, he does not give much attention to those matters, and is entirely independent of party lines in the discharge of his elective franchise. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, but in later years has not been actively connected with that society. To Mr. and Mrs. Bowers have been born a family of twelve children, of whom the following six are still living: Mary, Mrs. H. I. Merrill; Clara, the wife of E. A. Burden, of Chicago; Samuel I., who lives in this township; Anna, Mrs. James Duffy, living at Ft. Leavenworth; C. L., who has charge of the home farm ; and Susan H., living in Lincoln Township.

            Charles L. Bowers, the manager of his father's farm, was born in Juniata County, Pa., March 20, 1859, and came West with his father in 1870, and having been reared to a farmer's life, has operated the place ever since. He was married, in Kansas, Oct. 6, 1881, to Miss Lena E. Falk, a native of the State of Illinois, born April 6, 1865, and the daughter of John and Mary Falk, who were of German birth. They are the parents of four children -- Frank H., Mary H., Paul J. and Clara E. C. L. is at present Treasurer of the School District in which he resides, and is a highly esteemed citizen of the township. Our subject organized Lincoln Township and named it, and cast the first vote that was cast in the township.

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