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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
WILLIAM BOWEN, residing on section 35, Garfield Township, was born in South Wales in 1839. He is a son of William and Mary Bowen. Being the son of a poor man, his educational advantages were limited indeed, and he was early trained to hard work. In the coal mines of the old country he spent the greater part of his life until he was thirty years of age, when he determined to emigrate to the United States, with the hope of bettering himself and family. He came by steamship and was twelve days in making the voyage. For the first six months he engaged in coal mining in Ohio, but in the fall of 1869 came to Mahaska County and located at Beacon, where he continued the occupation of a coal miner. In the village of Beacon he remained fourteen years, and then located upon section 35, Garfield Township, where he had purchased fifty acres of land some time previous. On this place he erected a comfortable dwelling house at the cost of $800 in addition to his own labor. Before leaving his native land in 1869, Mr. Bowen was united in marriage with Mary Luscombe, a native of the South of England, and daughter of William and Susan (Sargent) Luscombe. Ten children have been born to them: James, who died July 26, 1875; Mary Ann, now engaged in teaching in Edmunds County, Dak.;. she is a graduate of the Beacon public school, and taught three terms in this county before going to Dakota; Susie and Mima are at home; Arthur died July 27, 1874; Frederick, Willie, Oscar, Sarah and Nelly. Mr. Bowen and wife are members of the Baptist Church, and he is also a member of the I. O. O. F. and the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a Prohibitionist. While a resident of Beacon, he was a School Director for two terms.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy