Bowersock, Justin DeWitt, 1842-1922.

Dates:

Birth 1842

Death 1922

Biographical notes:

Justin DeWitt Bowersock was born in Columbiana County, Ohio on September 19, 1842 to Israel and Adaline (McDonald) Bowersock. By age twenty-two, he was engaged in general merchandising and in the grain business at Iowa City, Iowa. On September 5, 1866, he married Mary C. Gower, daughter of James H. and Barradella Gower of Iowa City.

In 1877 the Bowersocks and the Gowers moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where Bowersock acquired the dam over the Kansas River, harnessing its energy for electrical power. He founded the Douglas County Bank (later the Lawrence National Bank), the Kansas Water Power Company, the Griffin Ice Company, and the Lawrence Iron Works. In 1890, he purchased Lawrence's Liberty Hall, converting it into the Bowersock Opera House. Bowersock was mayor of Lawrence from 1881-1885, was elected to the Kansas legislature in 1887, to the Kansas Senate in 1895, and was the 2nd District's Representative to Congress from 1899-1907. He died on October 27, 1922.

From the guide to the J.D. Bowersock account statement, 1871-1872, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Kansas Collection)