Columbia County PA Archives Biographies.....BOWER, Isaiah 1829 - living in 1899
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  File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
  Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 2, 2005, 2:32 pm
  
  Author: Biographical Publishing Co.
  
  ISAIAH BOWER, one of the oldest and most prominent merchants of Columbia County,
  Pa., whose portrait is shown on the opposite page, has been a resident of
  Berwick for many years, and it is owing to the efforts of such men as he that
  the borough, as a business center and manufacturing point, leads all other
  boroughs of equal size in the state of Pennsylvania. When quite young he engaged
  in business there and in a short time was at the head of a large industry, which
  added wealth to the town and aided in its growth, as the success of his
  undertaking served as an inducement for other enterprises to locate there.
  Berwick steadily grew in size, and we find that Mr. Bower, from the time of
  making his home there, has been foremost in promoting its interests and has
  erected more residences and business houses than any other man. A gentleman in
  whom the people have always reposed the greatest confidence, we find in his
  advanced age a large retinue of acquaintances throughout the county who are
  pleased to be called his friends. He was born at Evansville, Briarcreek
  township, Columbia County, March 19, 1829, and is a son of Michael and Mary
  (Zahner) Bower.
  
    Our subject's grandfather, George Michael Bower, was born in Germany and came
  to this country at the age of thirteen years, taking up the occupation of a
  farmer. He first purchased a farm in the Lehigh Valley, but later settled in
  Columbia County where he purchased a partially-improved farm in Briarcreek
  township of a Mr. Disserand, a Frenchman. At the time, prior to the Nineteenth
  Century, that section was sparsely settled and there was but a single house
  where Berwick is now located. Mr. Bower cleared some one hundred and twenty
  acres, which land is now owned by Mr. John Fester, and there resided the
  remainder of his life. His wife's maiden name was Hill, and their union resulted
  in the following offspring: Jacob; Michael; Solomon; Daniel; Phelina; and
  Catharine.
  
    Michael Bower, the father of our subject, as a youth was extremely precocious
  and although little opportunity in the way of schooling offered, he acquired a
  good education as a result of his individual efforts and became a teacher, a
  position for which he proved well qualified, teaching in his own home and in
  those of his neighbors. He learned to weave wool and flax, and followed weaving
  for some time, weaving for many families in his locality. He came into
  possession of a portion of the old home estate on which he erected a log house,
  and there he followed farming and reared a large family of children. He was
  united in matrimonial bonds with Mary Zahner, a daughter of George Zahner, who
  was also an early settler in Briarcreek township, and they had the following
  children: Sarah, the wife of William Whitmire; Isaac; Reuben; Samuel C.; Daniel;
  Hannah, wife of Henry Martz; George, who lives in Briarcreek township;
  Catharine, the wife of Charles Whitmire, who lives in Center township; Enos, who
  died young; and Isaiah, the subject of this personal history. Mrs. Bower died at
  the age of sixty-eight years, and her husband died six years later, in December,
  1862, at the age of eighty-two years, six months, both being buried at Evansville.
  
    Isaiah Bower early in life learned the trades of carpenter and machinist,
  following the former occupation but one year, when he became a machinist at the
  plant of The Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company at Berwick. After continuing
  in that capacity for two and one-half years, he rented the plant and
  manufactured plows with much success, making the Bull plow, the Walker plow, and
  the Bower plow, which he patterned himself. The building in which his
  establishment was located was situated where the casting and pipe factory of the
  Jackson & Woodin company is now located, but has since been burned to the
  ground. In 1864, in association with Mr. M. E. Jackson and Mr. H. R. Bower, and
  under the firm name of I. & H. R. Bower, he established a general merchandise
  store at the corner of Front and Mulberry streets. In 1870 Mr. Jackson disposed
  of his interest to the other members of the firm, who conducted it with the best
  results and also bought the Voke & Michael Agriculture Works, which they
  conducted until 1880. In that year they divided their business, H. R. Bower
  taking the store and our subject the manufacturing plant which he operated until
  1884. In 1883 he built his present store, with dwelling attached, located on the
  corner of Pine and East Second streets, and since 1884 has given his attention
  mainly to that business. He has a fine store and enjoys a large patronage. He is
  a man of great enterprise and good judgment and the success which he has
  attained is due solely to his own efforts. He owns fifty-six acres of the
  original family homestead on which he has erected substantial buildings; a farm
  of ninety-two acres which he bought from his brother; the Layman Morse farm of
  one hundred and twenty acres; and the Morteller farm. He has greatly improved
  all the farms and hires men to cultivate them, being a wonderfully busy man for
  his years. He has over twenty tenement houses in Berwick and Nescopeck.
  
    In 1850 Mr. Bower married Hannah Hagenbach, a daughter of Simeon Hagenbach of
  Center township. They are faithful members of the United Evangelical Church, in
  which Mr. Bower has held a number of offices. He has always lived an upright,
  honest, and temperate life, being a strong advocate of temperance. He has
  sympathy for the deserving and is very liberal in his charity. In political
  belief he was originally a Democrat, but for some years has been a
  Prohibitionist; he has served in official capacity as burgess of the borough,
  and has held numerous minor offices.
  
  
  Additional Comments:
  Extracted from:
  
  Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District
  Published by 
  Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)
  
  
  
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