Samuel Wheeler BOWEN

Father: Hiram BOWEN
Mother: Martha WHEELER

Family 1: Ella Sarah DAVIS
  1. George Hiram BOWEN 
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 _Hiram BOWEN ____|
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|--Samuel Wheeler BOWEN 
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|                                                            _Samuel WHEELER ________
|                                      _Aaron WHEELER Judge_|_Chloe KIDDER __________
|                  _Samuel WHEELER ___|
|                 |                   |                      _Alexander HARPER ______
|                 |                   |_Margaret HARPER ____|_Elizabeth BARTHOLOMEW _
|_Martha WHEELER _|
                  |                                          ________________________
                  |                    _Samuel JOHNSON Sr.__|________________________
                  |_Lucretia JOHNSON _|
                                      |                      ________________________
                                      |_Lidia or Mercy _____|________________________
INDEX

Notes

1880 US Federal Census Household: Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mothe r's Birthplace S. W. BOWEN Self M Male W 35 OH Printer OH OH Ella BOWEN Wife M Female W 27 WI Asst. Editor NY VT A. B. STINE Other S Male W 19 PA Book Keeper PA PA A. A. TWOGOOD Other S Male W 20 NY Printer ENG ENG Source Information: Census Place Yankton, Yankton, Dakota Territory Family History Library Film 1254115 NA Film Number T9-0115 Page Number 463B ____________________________________________________ 1920 census, South Dakota, Beadle Co., Huron Twp., ED#17 W.S. Bowen, age 76, born Ohio, widowed, publisher, Huronite George, son age 32, born S.D., single, editor, Huronite ___________________________________________________ Col. Wheeler S. Bowen Biography This biography appears on page 25 in "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, V ol. IV (1915) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This fil e may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. An y other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electro nic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This fil e is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from so mewhere else, our front door is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/sd/sdfiles.htm COLONEL WHEELER S. BOWEN. During practically the entire period of his active life Colonel Whe eler S. Bowen has been identified with the newspaper business and since 1909 has been edito r of the Huronite, published at Huron. As such he has exerted a great influence over the deve lopment of the city along many lines and his work has won him an important place among the me n of ability and worth in the community. Colonel Bowen is a veteran of the Civil war, havin g served as a member of the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery. He was born in Ohio, April 8, 1843, an d is a son of Hiram and Martha (Wheeler) Bowen, who moved to Wisconsin in 1849, settling at J anesville. The father conducted a newspaper there for many years having previously been in th e newspaper business at Akron, Ohio, as founder and editor of the Summit County Beacon. Hiram Bowen edited the Janesville Gazette and later the Milwaukee Sentinel. He came to Sout h Dakota in 1876 and moved from this state to California, where his death occurred. Colonel W heeler S. Bowen acquired his education in the public schools of Janesville In 1862 he enliste d in the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery and served in the army until the close of the Civil war. F ollowing his honorable discharge he returned to Janesville, where he became connected with th e newspaper business, editing the Gazette until 1873. In that year he moved to Yankton, thi s state, and bought the Press and the Dakotan, starting the first daily in the Dakotas. Colon el Bowen moved to Sioux Falls in 1901 and edited the Press there until 1907, after which he s pent one year in Boise City, Idaho. In 1909 he located in Huron and bought the Huronite and the State Spirit which he merged unde r one management with the former name. Since that time he has edited the paper, making it on e of the leading influences for progress in the community. It has become an excellent news an d advertising medium and its popularity is evident in a large and growing circulation. In 187 4 Colonel Bowen was united in marriage to Miss Ella Davis of Janesville, Wisconsin, and the y have become the parents of a son, George H., who is in business with his father. Colonel Bo wen is well known in the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic and in this way keeps i n touch with his comrades of fifty years ago. He is progressive and public-spirited in matter s of citizenship and has held a number of offices of public trust and responsibility, servin g as postmaster of Yankton under Presidents Arthur and Harrison and as clerk of the senate co mmittee on Indian affairs in Washington under Pettigrew. Since taking up his residence in Hur on his influence has been a tangible force for good in the community and he is held in high h onor and esteem wherever he is known. __________________________________________________________ Dakota Central Telephone Co. Automatic Exchange Telephone Directory ISSUED FEBRUARY 1, 1913 HURON AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE Bowen Publishing Co.979 Third 468 Bowen,W. S. res. 569 Kansa s 588 _____________________________________________________________ Huron, BEadle Co., South Dakota 1909 Business Directory Bowen Ella D. treas, Bowen Publishing Co. Bowen George H. sec, Bowen Publishing Co. Bowen Wheeler S. pres, Bowen Publishing Co. Bowen Publishing Co. ____________________________________________________________ 1920 US Census for South Dakota Bowen, W S Age: 76 Year: 1920, Widower Birthplace: Ohio Roll: T625_1714 Race: White Page: 3B State: South Dakota ED: 17 County: Beadle Image: 0955 Township: Huron Listed as Publisher of the Huronite. Also living in household is George Bowen, son, age 32, Single, born S. Dakota, Father born Ohio; Mother born: Wisconsin Editor of Huronite Newspaper _______________________________________________________________ BOWEN, Wheeler S. (Col) ŮSIn 1909 he located in Huron and bought the Huronite and the State Spirit which he merged und er one management with the former name. Since that time he has edited the paper, Making it on e of the leading influences for progress in the community. [1915KING, p. 25:Wheeler S. BOWEN, ) From the Beadle Co., S.Dakota USGenWeb site, copied May 5, 2003. http://www.rootsweb.com/~sdbeadle/newspape.html __________________________________________________________ Web posted Wednesday, September 15, 1999 The Press & Dakotan: A Living History BY BOB KAROLEVITZ For the Press & Dakotan The genealogy of the Yankton Press and Dakotan dates back to the early days of the territoria l capital. The first of its predecessors was the Weekly Dakotian, published by two young printer-journal ists -- Francis M. (Frank) Ziebach and William Freney. They had brought their Washington hand press and other printing necessities from Sioux City in two wagons -- one drawn by a span o f horses, the other by a yoke of oxen. They laid their cases in a log structure on Broadway and produced the first edition of the Da kotian with a dateline of June 6, 1861, although it actually came out two days later. As th e forerunner of the state's oldest continuing newspaper, it quickly became involved in the po litical wars of Dakota Territory, its rival being the Dakota Republican in Vermillion. On June 21, 1864, a second Yankton newspaper -- the Dakota Union -- was issued by two other Y ankton pioneers, George W. Kingsbury and Moses K. Armstrong. Kingsbury had left the Dakotia n after a feud with Dr. Walter A. Burleigh, the opportunistic lawyer-physician who then had a n interest in the paper and was using it to promote his candidacy for delegate to congress. Then, in late 1864 -- proving again that all is apparently fair in love, war and politics - - the two warring papers (both Democratic) merged to become the Union and Dakotaian, with Kin gsbury as publisher. (Note the extra "ai" in Dakotaian.) The peripatetic Kingsbury next showed up as a principal of another paper, the Yankton Press , which made its initial appearance on Aug. 10, 1870, from a plant located on the east side o f Capitol Street where the Gurney complex is now located. For it, Kingsbury and his partner - - James M. Stone -- imported the first steam-powered press in Dakota. By this time, strangely enough, both the Press and the Union and Dakotaian were Republican pa pers doing battle with the Democratic Yankton Herald. In the fall of 1873 the divided old-gua rd and liberal Republicans decided to close ranks, which meant that two party views were no l onger appropriate. Consequently, on Nov. 30 that year still another merger took place and th e first issue of the Weekly Press and Dakotaian emerged. Owners then were Kingsbury; E.M. Bro wn, representing the Union and Dakotaian; and S.V. Clevenger, an electrician who was instrume ntal in bringing the first telegraph line to Yankton. (For a time, the word "Union" appeare d in small type in the name-plate, but eventually it was dropped.) Within a year the ownership changed again. Brown sold out to Gen. William P. Dewey, the surve yor general; Clevenger disposed of his interests to A. W. Barber; and Kingsbury went off to C olorado to seek his fortune in the San Juan silver; mining region. Then, in late November of 1874, still another individual entered the picture. He was Wheele r S. Bowen, printer-son of Janesville, Wis., publisher and personal friend of George H. Hand , the territorial secretary. Bowen saw an opportunity in the Press and Dakotaian, then in hands of two men with little pri nting experience. He soon was able to buy out Dewey and Barber under the name of W.S. Bowe n & Company. Kingsbury, meanwhile, failed to strike it rich in Colorado and returned to joi n the new owner. While this was going on, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer had led an expedition of his Sevent h Cavalry into the Black Hills and in the process confirmed the existence of gold in the regi on. The wave of excitement this created was especially felt in Yankton, then a potential supp ly point for argonauts heading for the new bonanza. To furnish gold-seekers with news, Bowen and Kingsbury began to issue a daily sheet they call ed the Yankton Black Hiller. The paper was so successful that the two men began to conside r a new plan for their regular publication, and on the morning of April 26, 1875, they publis hed the first edition of the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotaian. With hand-set type and dot-and-dash telegraphic service which cost $150 a month, the publishe rs were faced with a tedious and expensive operation. The transmission of the daily telegraph ic report was extremely unreliable, and the Yankton publishers concluded that it was due t o a conspiracy in the Sioux City office. To complicate matters further, the printing plant was moved to a second-story room over Joh n J. Duffack's Boot and Shoe Store at 306 W. Third Street. Hauling newsprint, supplies and co mpleted papers up and down a flight of narrow steps was neither efficient nor practical. Fina lly in 1880 the plant was relocated in the new James A. Danforth building next to the Brech t & Purdy Drug Store on Third Street. When Yankton's steamboat fleet was destroyed in the great flood of '81 and the territorial ca pital was lost two years later, the town became known as the Fountain City as gushing artesia n wells promised a new water-powered future. To take advantage of this opportunity, Bowen an d Kingsbury again moved their plant, this time to a new brick building diagonally across fro m the Pierce Hotel at Third and Capitol. An artesian well there offered less expensive powe r for their press, an advantage which was to peter out when the water table eventually droppe d. In 1889 -- the statehood year -- the superfluous "ai" was eliminated from the paper's title a nd it became the Press and Dakotan. While other papers came and went, the P&D and the Dakot a Herald continued as major competitors until August of 1896 when the Daily Yankton Gazette a ppeared on the scene to support the candidacy of William McKinley and other Republicans. It w as edited by Doane Robinson, later to become the state historian. The confusion in the Press and Dakotan's family tree continued. Bowen became the personal sec retary of U.S. Senator Richard F. Pettigrew and withdrew from the paper. In 1898 Willard C. L usk came to town and bought the Gazette. In 1902 David E. Lloyd acquired the P&D as George Ki ngsbury began to devote his time to writing territorial state histories. Several months late r Lloyd sold his two papers as the Press and Dakotan-Gazette. It was to remain under that tit le until 1907 when the Gazette was dropped form the nameplate. A year earlier Lusk had joined with John Holman, Herman Ellerman and Gustav Kositzky to for m the Yankton Printing Company, a combination which included the Press and Dakotan-Gazette an d the Dakota Freie Presse. Turner Hall, the former German Turn-Verein building, then became t he office and plant for the two papers, and eventually just the P&D when the Freie Presse mov ed to Aberdeen. After that, Lusk published the paper for 37 years until his death in 1940. He had also purcha sed -- and closed -- the Daily Herald which had survived until 1918. Lusk's son, Bob, succeed ed his father until 1944 when editor Fred Monfroe became owner and publisher. The Press and Dakotan remained in the Monfroe family until January of 1979 when it was sold t o Stauffer Communications, Inc., of Topeka, Kan. In 1995, the Stauffer group was purchased by the Morris Communications Corporation of Augusta , Ga. In 1997, the Press & Dakotan entered a new age in communication by going online. _______________________ Hello, I found an old posting of yours about Wheeler S. Bowen. I wondered if you have gotte n any more information about him. My interest isn't in the Bowen family, but I ran across a n old journal of my grandmother's. She was in a movie in Huron made at the Lyric theater. Geo rge Bowen, who was the editor at the time of the Huronite newspaper, was the director. In m y grandmother's journal, she wrote the names of all the people in the movie. I doubt very muc h if there are any copies of the film today but I would very much love to see it if there is . My grandmother was only 18 at the time and had just given birth to my mother shortly befor e the movie was made. The movie was called, "Can You Beat It" and was shown at the Lyric thea ter Oct. 16, 17, and Nov. 2, 3, 4, and 5th of 1921. I have been able to verify that most of t he people listed in the journal lived in Huron at the time of the 1920 census. At any rate , I would like any information you might have about this movie. Thank you, Dona Moyer



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