George Meade Bowers [35184]

  General Notes:

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 379


GEORGE MEADE BOWERS, of Martinsburg, Congressman
from the Second West Virginia District, has been active in
the public life of the state and the nation for nearly thirty
years, and at the same time has carried many heavy respon-
sibilities in business and affairs.

He was born at Gerrardstown, Berkeley County, Septem-
ber 13, 1863, son of John S. and Mary E. (Stump) Bowers.
His great-grandfather was a native of Connecticut and a
pioneer of Berkeley County. He died at the age of ninety-
two and his wife at ninety-one. The grandfather of Con-
gressman Bowers was George M. Bowers, a native of Berke-
ley County and a life-long resident there. He married
Eleanor Lamon, who was born at Bunker Hill in Berkeley
County, daughter of George and Eleanor (Ward) Lamon,
natives of Scotland and pioneers of Berkeley County. John
S. Bowers was the only son born to his parents, and as a.
youth he became self-supporting, exercising his genius as a
trader and eventually developing an extensive business in
livestock and real estate, from which he amassed a fortune.
He died at the age of sixty-two. His wife, Mary E. Stump,
was born in Darkesville, Berkeley County, daughter of
Casper Stump, a native of the same county and a grand-
daughter of Caspar Stump, a native of Germany, who brought
his family to America and settled in Berkeley County on a
farm. Caspar Stump, Sr., was a saddle and harness manufac-
turer, and conducted a business for many years at Gerrards-
town, where he continued to live out his life. He married Cath-
erine Maddox, who was born at Williamsport, Maryland,
in 1817, daughter of James and Hannah (McComas) Mad-
dox, of Harford County, Maryland. Six of her brothers
served in the Confederate army during the war between the
states. James Maddox lived near Darkesville in Berkeley
County for several years, and his last years were spent with
a son in Jefferson County.

John S. Bowers was born at Gerrardstown in 1823 and
was twice married. His first wife was Mary E. Stump,
who died of typhoid fever at the age of thirty-six. Her
sister, Virginia Stump, became the second wife of John S.
Bowers, and she is now living at Gerrardstown.

George Meade Bowers was one of seven children, and as
a boy attended private school and the public school at
Gerrardstown, spent two years in the Martinsburg High
School and studied under a private tutor two years. At the
age of seventeen he came to Martinsburg to begin his real
business career, and subsequently operated a flour mill and
dealt in wool. When he was twenty-one years of age his
father died, leaving a large estate, which Mr. Bowers
capably administered. At the age of twenty-one he was
elected a member of the board of directors of the old
National Bank, served in that position several years, then
became a director in the People's Trust Company, and for
a number of years past has been president of that institu-
tion. His business interests cover a wide scope. He is the
largest individual owner of bearing apple orchards in
Berkeley County.

Mr. Bowers on reaching manhood cast his allegiance with
the republican party and early achieved prominence both
in state and national affairs. In 1884 he was chosen chair-
man of the Berkeley delegates to the state convention at
Parkersburg, that being a month before he reached his
majority. In the fall of that year he cast his first presi-
dential vote, for James G. Blaine. In 1887, at the age of
twenty-three, he was elected a member of the House of
Delegates to represent Berkeley County, and at the age of
twenty-five was republican nominee for state auditor, being
defeated by only 300 votes. In 1890 President Harrison
appointed him supervisor of the United States census for the
Northern District of West Virginia. He was a delegate
to the national convention at Minneapolis in 1892, when
Benjamin Harrison was renominated. He was a leader in
his party in West Virginia in advocating the nomination of
William McKinley in 1896. In 1898 President McKinley
appointed him United States commissioner of fish and fish-
eries, a post of duty which by reappointment from Roose-
velt and Taft he filled until 1913, a period of fifteen years.
In 1893 he was member and treasurer of the Board of
World's Fair Commissioners for West Virginia, and in
1902-03 was president of the American Fisheries Society.

While these and other official responsibilities kept Mr.
Bowers away from home, Martinsburg has always been his
legal residence. In 1914 he was the nominee of his party
for Congress, being defeated on account of the split in the
republican ranks that. year. On May 9, 1916. he was elected
to the Sixty-fourth Congress for the unexpired term of Wil-
liam G. Brown, deceased, being chosen by a majority of
461. In the fall of 1916 he was elected to the Sixty-fifth
Congress by a majority of 860, and in 1918 his re-election
was accomplished by a majority of 2,360, while in the great
republican landslide of 1920 his majority in the Second
District totaled 10,342. Mr. Bowers each successive term
has increasing responsibility as a member of Congress, and
is now on the most important committee, that of ways and
means.

On November 18, 1884, Mr. Bowers married Miss Bessie
C. Gray, at Hagerstown, Maryland. However, she was born
in the Gerrardstown District of Berkeley County, West Vir-
ginia, daughter of James W. and Martha (Gilbert) Gray, of
a prominent family elsewhere represented in this publica-
tion. Mr. and Mrs. Bowers have four children: Eleanor
L., George M., Jr., Stephen E. and Jean Gray. Eleanor is
the wife of Philip Grove, and her two children are George
B. and Philip R., Jr. George M. Bowers, Jr., married and
has a daughter Elizabeth. Jean Gray is the wife of Capt.
Draper M. Daugherty, son of the United States attorney
general, Harry M. Daugherty. Mr. Daugherty was in service
during the World war as a lieutenant overseas and was pro-
moted to captain. Both of Mr. Bowers' sons were volunteers
in the war, Stephen E., in the aviation service, while George,
Jr., went overseas as a lieutenant in the army.

George married Elizabeth Coe "Bessie" Gray [35191] [MRIN: 11934] on 18 Nov 1884 in Hagerstown, Maryland. (Elizabeth Coe "Bessie" Gray [35191] was born about 1859.)