Bowen Collection, 1853-1910

Series — Box: MS 014-5-01

Identifier: MS 014- series MS 014-5

Staff Only

The Bowen Collection comprises the greatest piece of the Tim Johnson collections. Thomas Mead Bowen was born near the present site of Burlington, Iowa on October 26, 1835. He attended the public schools and the academy at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He later studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1853 and began his law practice in Iowa. He was elected a member of the Iowa House of Representatives in 1856, and then moved to Kansas in 1858.

During the Civil War, he served in the Union Army and was commissioned a Captain in the 13th Kansas Volunteer Infantry. After being promoted to Colonel in 1863, he commanded a brigade with the Seventh Army Corps for the entire Frontier Campaign. He was brevetted Brigadier General in 1865 and relocated to Arkansas where he was appointed justice of the Supreme Court which he served from 1867-1871.

President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him as Governor of the Idaho Territory in July 1871; he resigned from this post on August 15 and returned to Arkansas. He moved to Colorado in 1875 and was elected judge of the fourth judicial district in 1876, serving that post until 1880. He became a member of the Colorado State House of Representatives in 1882, and he resigned from that position after he was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, which he served from March 4, 1883 to March 3, 1889. He engaged in mining in Colorado and lived in Pueblo, where he died December 30, 1906. He is buried in Roselawn Cemetery in Pueblo, Colorado.

Portions of this collection are available for viewing in digital format via the FHSU Scholars Repository at https://scholars.fhsu.edu/tj_bowen/.

Or via this link: Digital Collections - FHSU Scholars Repository – Digitized Copies of Materials