Tulare County
Biographies
WILLIAM PORTER BOWEN, M. D.
Dr. William Porter Bowen, physician and surgery of Lindsay, California, was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1887, a son of Marshall Polk and Eudora (Conyers) Bowen, and grew to manhood on his father’s farm. After attending the local public schools and the high school, he spent two years as a student in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Returning to Nashville, he continued his studies for two years in the University of Nashville, then entered the medical department of Vanderbilt University, from which he graduated with the class of 1915.
During the two years following his graduation, Dr. Bowen served as an interne in the Mount Zion and French hospitals of San Francisco, and in the New York Nursery and Children’s Hospital, New York city. In March, 1917, he enlisted as a first lieutenant in the British Red Cross and was stationed at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, England, until after the United States declared war against the imperial government of Germany. He then joined the American forces, but was loaned to the British because they were short of doctors, and served at the front until after the signing of the armistice in November, 1918. On November 8, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of captain. Then, attached to the Fifty-ninth British Division (of Bristol), he entered Germany with the Army of Occupation and remained there until July 19, 1919, when with other American troops he was ordered back to the Untied States and was mustered out at Atlanta, Georgia, on September 19, 1919.
Upon receiving his discharge from the military service, Dr. Bowen practiced for about a year in Nashville. At the end of that time he came to California and located in Visalia, where he was associated with Dr. White until he came to Lindsay in 1921. His thorough training in school, as in interne in some of the country’s leading hospitals, and his work as an army surgeon, have given him a broad and comprehensive view of his profession. The result is that he has taken a high rank as a physician and surgeon, enjoying alike the confidence of his fellow practitioners and the general public.
On October 7, 1923, Dr. Bowen was united in marriage to Miss Veronica Wiemals of North Dakota, and they have one son: William Porter. They are members of the Presbyterian church. Dr. Bowen is a member of the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce, and of the Tulare county Golf and Country Club, where he finds the greater part of his recreation.
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California – Kathleen Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 378
Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama
CHESTER B. BOWKER
For the past eighteen years Chester B. Bowker has ably filled the position of general manager of the Lindsay Mercantile Company. He was born in Beloit, Kansas, August 17, 1874. His father, George C. Bowker, was born in Illinois, and his mother, who maiden name was Olive Hamilton, was a native of Indiana. Both were from down east Yankee families. They went to Kansas in 1869, where they fought Indians, grasshoppers and drought with true New England stoicism until success finally crowed their efforts.
Chester B. Bowker completed the course in the local high school, after which he attended the Central State Normal School, where he qualified himself for a teacher in the public schools and followed that occupation for several years. Mr. Bowker’s first position in California was with Fox & Sweetly of Lemoore, in whose employ he remained for two years. In 1906 he came to Lindsay to accept this position of manager of the Lindsay Mercantile Company, then as now the largest store in the city, employing from ten to fifteen salespeople, owing to the season. Since then Mr. Bowker has become a stockholder in the business and is a member of the board of directors. He is also a stockholder in the Lindsay Savings Bank.
In 1900 Mr. Bowker was married to Miss Delia Steere, a native of Kansas, and they have four children: Elvira is now Mrs. H. M. Buchanan of Lindsay; Lois is the wife of Ernest Bremlett of Palo Alto, California; Bessie is a student in the Lindsay high school; and Katherine is also attending the high school in that city. Fraternally Mr. Bowker is a Master Mason in good standing, a member of Lindsay Lodge.
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California – Kathleen Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 373
Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama