Hon. Daniel Hampton Bowen
Dr. Daniel Hampton Bowen
The sketch of Dr. Bowen was prepared by a friend.
One of the most powerful and virile forces in republican politics
in the State of Iowa, one of the most able and successful
physicians and surgeons in Allamakee county and one of the
biggest, most broad-minded and most generally beloved men of
Waukon is, beyond question, Dr. Daniel Hampton Bowen, who for
more than a third of a century has given of his best energies,
powers and talents towards the promotion of state and municipal
development along professional, political, social and fraternal
lines. His success and prominence are only the natural reward of
his many years of earnest and well directed labor.
Dr. Bowen was born on a farm near Decatur, Green county,
Wisconsin, September 6, 1850, and is a son of Jared Ingersoll and
Lacy Ann (Fleek) Bowen, the former of Welsh and Scotch-Irish
descent and the latter of Dutch ancestry. The paternal branch of
this family has been in America for many generations, its
representatives having crossed the Atlantic long before the
Revolutionary war. The father was born in Pennsylvania just
across the Virginia line and in his youth learned the
carpenter’s trade which, however, he followed only a short
time, most of his life having been spent in farming. He came west
in 1844, settling in that year in Wisconsin where the remainder
of his life was passed. His wife, still active and hearty at the
age of eighty-nine, makes her home at Brodhead in that state.
Dr. Bowen spent his childhood on his father’s Wisconsin farm
and his youth was passed amid such conditions as usually fall to
the lot of the farmer’s boy. In the winters he attended
district school and in the summer months assisted with the work
of the homestead, alternating in this way until he grew to
manhood. He was ten years of age at the outbreak of the Civil war
but was not too young to have some understanding of the important
issues involved, which formed his political belief, in future
life. After completing the course in the public schools he turned
his attention to teaching, following this occupation for several
terms. At the end of that time he took up the study of medicine
under the tutorage of Dr. R. Broughton, to whose able teaching he
owes much of his professional success. Three years in the
physician’s office were followed by a course at Rush Medical
College in Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1876 with the
degree of M. D. Coming west in search of a suitable professional
opening he settled at Rossville, Allamakee county. From the
beginning he met with a gratifying degree of success, building up
a large and lucrative practice and becoming well known as an able
physician and surgeon. He remained in Rossville until 1880 when
he moved to Waukon where through many honorable and worthy years,
filled with useful achievements along professional and public
lines, he has since made his home. In the beginning he practiced
in partnership with Dr. Mattoon but since their association was
discontinued has been alone. He is numbered among the pioneer
physicians of Allamakee county, having taken up his residence
here long before the railroad reached Waukon and in his practice
has had the varied experience which commonly falls to the lot of
the country practitioner. Dr. Bowen has been honored by his
professional brethren in many ways. He served as president of the
Alumni Association of Rush Medical College and also was president
of the Allamakee County Medical Society. He is at present a
trustee of the Iowa State Medical Society and an alternate
delegate to the American Medical Association from the state
society. The Doctor was honored by appointment of Governor Shaw
to represent Iowa at the international congress of tuberculosis
held at London, England, in 1901.
Although he has attained such distinction in professional circles
it is not alone along this line that Dr. Bowen has done good work
for Allamakee county and for Iowa, for since taking up his
residence he has been one of the greatest individual forces in
local republican politics, his activities touching and affecting
the political growth of the state. In Waukon he has held many
offices of trust and honor, having served as alderman and mayor
of the city and as a member of the school board, holding the
latter position for twenty years. In 1878 he served as county
coroner, doing able and efficient work for two terms. His
brilliant legislative career began with his election to the
twenty-sixth general assembly and he served with credit through
this session and during the special session held for the purpose
of revising the code of Iowa. At this time he was chairman of the
committee on public health and as such was responsible for the
amending and codifying of that portion of the laws of the state
dealing with questions of health and safety. So well did he
accomplish this important work that but few changes, and those
minor ones, have been made since that time. In recognition of the
importance of his services and their effectiveness in promoting
the best interests of the state, Dr. Bowen was reelected to the
legislature at the end of his first term and in the
twenty-seventh assembly was again made chairman of the committee
on public health, displaying in the discharge of his duties an
integrity, political ability and high conscientiousness which
constantly deepened his popularity and gained him a place in the
ranks of Iowa’s statesmen. Upon his reelection to the
twenty-eighth general assembly he was one of the republican
candidates for the office of speaker of the house, his opponents
being such distinguished Iowans as Hon. M. L. Temple, Colonel W.
G. Dows, Hon. Mahlon Head and Senator W. L. Eaton. A spirited
contest ended with the member from Allamakee county the winner
and it is said of him that no more broad-minded, just and liberal
man ever held the gavel in the Iowa house of representatives.
Always a stanch and loyal republican and popular with the rank
and file of the party, Dr. Bowen became a candidate for the
office of alternate at large to the national convention of 1904
and was elected. He was elected in 1908 presidential elector from
the fourth district by a majority of twenty-five although the
opposing faction carried the district by a majority of four
thousand. Thus it will be seen that during the years he has made
his home in Iowa Dr. Bowen has been prominent in the councils of
his party and has become a well known figure at state and
district conventions – a man held in high honor by reason of
his personal integrity, his public standards, his ambitions and
ideals and by reason also of the usefulness and benefit of his
public service.
Dr. Bowen married in Albany, Wisconsin, in February 1877, Miss
Hettie E. Burns, who has proven a worth helpmate to him on his
journey through life, sharing in all his successes, joys and
sorrows. They have two children. The eldest, a son, Albert Sidney
Bowen was born in Rossville, July 28, 1879, and after completing
the course in the public schools of Waukon attended the State
University at Iowa City. He afterward studied medicine at
Northwestern University, Chicago, and then spent three years as a
partner with his father in the practice of his profession. He
then took the civil service examination, passing with great
credit, and was assigned to hospital service at Colon, Panama.
After two years in this service he took examination for entrance
into the regular army as a surgeon and was sent by the government
to Washington, D. C., where he entered the army medical school,
later receiving his appointment as army surgeon. He has served at
Fort Snelling, at Fort Sam Houston and is now in the foreign
service in the Philippines with the rank of captain.
The other child born to Dr. and Mrs. Bowen is a daughter, Mary
Charlotte, and she has had a no less successful career than her
brother. She was born in Waukon, August 14, 1885, and acquired
her education in the city schools, later teaching for a time in
the public schools of Worth county. She afterward attended the
State University, where her splendid work won for her not only
the degree of B. A. but also a scholarship providing for a
year’s post-graduate work at the end of which she received
her Master of Arts degree. A special course in normal training
completed her preparation and she is now employed as a teacher of
German and English in the State Normal School at Bellingham,
Washington. In his children Dr. Bowen renews his youth, which
indeed he has never lost, and rejoices in their success more than
in his own.
Dr. Bowen has also taken an active part in the work of two great
fraternities, the Masons and the Knights of Pythias, in which he
has held the highest offices within the gift of the local lodges,
representing them with credit and ability in their state
conventions. He is widely known and very popular in the sections
where he is known and most of all where he is best known. Many
friends who love and honor him have grown to depend upon his
wisdom and kindly counsel, and their opinion combines with that
of the state at large that he is one of the most substantial and
loyal-hearted men that Allamakee county has ever known.
-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by
Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Linda Earnheart
Return to Bio index