Biography of Giles Bowers, Clay Co, AR

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From: 
The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of N. E. Ark.
Biographical Information.

Giles Bowers, carpenter and builder of Boydsville, and one of the successful
business men of that village, is a native of North Carolina, and remained in his
native State until twenty-seven years of age. He was engaged in gold mining
until the breaking out of the late war, when he enlisted in the Forty-ninth
North Carolina Infantry, in April, 1862, and served until the termination of
hostilities. He was in Gen. Lee's army, in Gen. Matt. W. Ransom's brigade, and
participated in the seven days' fight at Richmond, at Gen. McClellan's defeat,
and was in all the fights and campaigns before Richmond. He was at the second
battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and was captured at Five Forks and
placed on Johnson Island. Ohio, as a prisoner of war, being discharged there
from June 18, 1865. He then returned to North Carolina, remaining until the
spring of 1868, when he came to what is now Clay County, and, settling on a
farm, tilled the soil until 1879. He is the owner of 120 acres of land, with
about seventy acres under cultivation. In the last mentioned year he opened up a
carpenter shop, having learned the trade in previous years, and has erected the
principal part of the buildings in Boydsville. At one time he was a member of
the firm of Bowers & Toombs, and later of the firm of Bowers & Downs. Mr. Bowers
also manufactures seats and desks for church and school purposes. He has been
married twice: first, to Miss Elizabeth Almond, of North Carolina, who bore him
ten children, eight of whom survive and are named as follows: Josephine, wife of
James Mooning, and the mother of two children, is now living on a farm in Sharp
County; John W. is engaged in business in Boydsville; Flora J., married to C. M.
King, a farmer of Clay County, is the mother of three children; Nancy A. is at
home with her father; Kittie Belle, wife of James W. Dobbins, a farmer near
Boydsville; Frederick C., Giles L. and Brantly H. The mother of these children
died in September, 1885. For his second wife Mr. Bowers chose Miss Maggie J.
Matthews, who survived only seventeen months after marriage, and left a child,
which followed its mother to the grave but a month later. Mr. Bowers is a
Republican, and is somewhat active in politics, having done valiant work for
that party. Although not a member of any church, he works in harmony with all
good people for the benefit of the community and for his fellow men.