James D. Bowman, a farmer and stockman of excellent standing and blessed with good success in his labors, and one of the builders of the reservation country where he has wisely bestowed his labors since it opened for settlement, was born in Salem, Oregon, on August 19, 1852, being a son of Joshua and Emmeline (Loveland) Bowman, natives respectively of Ohio and New York. The father was born in 1808 and died in 1877. He came to Salem in 1851, and then moved to Clackamas County, where he took a half section of land.
Our subject was brought up and educated in Oregon City and remained there until he was twenty-one. At that time he came to eastern Oregon and engaged in the cattle business. He made several trips back and forth across the mountains, and in 1877 came to the Palouse country near Genesee. There he farmed and freighted until 1895, when he came to the opening reservation and took his present place, a little southeast from Dublin, where he does general farming and raises hogs and cattle.
On February 28, 1883, Mr. Bowman married Miss Nettie, daughter of John A. and Harriet (Mosier) Stanton. The father was born January 17, 1823, farmed in Missouri and came as a pioneer to Oregon in the early fifties. He settled to farming on a donation claim near Silverton, Oregon, and was prominent in political matters, holding the County offices frequently.
Mrs. Bowman was born in Marion County, Oregon, on May 23. 1866 and has the following brothers and sisters: Isabella Murray, Josephine Thomas, Jennie, deceased, Frank, Jasper N., Benjamin, John, Willard, Amanda Woodcock, Blufford, Mary Allen, deceased. Mr. Bowman has brothers and sisters named as follows: Joseph, Charles, Mary Smith, Ann Markham, Margaret Jones. Seven children have been born to this household. Pearl, Clyde Herman, Charles W., John E., Mamie E., Nellie M.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903