Frank Bowen Biogrpahy


	This biography appears on pages 901-902 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	FRANK BOWEN. - The subject of this memoir was a young man of 
sterling character and marked business acumen, and had gained 
distinctive precedence in the commercial affairs of Minnehaha county, 
having been engaged in the grain business in the village of Benclare. 
His life was brought to a close by the hand of a dastardly assassin, 
and he thus passed away in the very prime of an honorable and useful 
manhood, while the crime which caused his death proved a shock to the 
people of the county in which he lived, while his loss was felt as a 
personal bereavement by his wide circle of loyal friends.  

	Mr. Bowen was born in Benton county, Iowa, on the 7th of 
February, 1865, being a son of Patrick and Catherine Bowen, and his 
father was a farmer by vocation, having been numbered among the early 
settlers of the Hawkeye state. The subject received his educational 
training in the public schools of his native county and remained on the 
parental homestead, assisting in the work and management of the farm, 
until he had attained the age of nineteen years, when he inaugurated 
his independent business career by going to Cherokee county, Iowa, 
where he was engaged in farming about three years, after which he 
followed the same line of enterprise for a time near Rock Valley, Sioux 
county, that state, and thereafter he was engaged in the real-estate 
business in the town mentioned and later in Latchwood, where he also 
conducted an insurance enterprise, remaining there three years, at the 
expiration of which in 1890, he came to South Dakota and took up his 
residence in the village of Benclare, Minnehaha county, where he 
purchased an established general merchandise business, in connection 
with the conducting of which he also became one of the leading grain 
and stock dealers of this section while he also handled lumber and coal 
and was the owner of the well equipped grain elevator in the town. He 
was an honored and progressive business man and did much to forward the 
industrial and civic advancement of the village, while he held the 
respect and confidence of all those who had an appreciation of his 
sterling worth of character. He was a staunch adherent of the Democrat 
party, but never sought the honors or emoluments of political office.  

	On the 23d of December, 1889, Mr. Bowen was united in marriage to 
Miss Kate E. Smith, who was born and reared in Benton county, Iowa, 
being a daughter of Thomas and Catherine (Melville) Smith, while her 
father is one of the prominent and influential farmers of that section. 
Mr. and Mrs. Bowen became the parents of seven children, all of whom 
are living except one, and all of whom remain with their widowed mother 
in the pleasant home in Benclare, their names, in order of birth, being 
as follows: Earl T., Teresa K., Francis S., Evaline A., Lorena M., 
Cecilia M. and Louella A., the last mentioned having died in infancy, 
on the 18th of September, 1903.  

	Mr. Bowen met his death on the 27th of February, 1904, and of the 
details of the tragedy we offer the following data, extracted from the 
current number of the Grain Dealers' Journal, published in the city of 
Chicago:  

	How hard it is to keep on friendly terms with the station agent 
who tries to enforce the unjust rules of the company, grain dealers 
know to their cost. In stirring up animosity, the matter of demurrage 
claimed on cars not unloaded promptly is most prolific. A life has been 
sacrificed to this creator of strife. Frank Bowen, a progressive and 
enterprising grain dealer of Benclare, South Dakota, has been shot down 
by the railroad station agent after a quarrel over demurrage. Mr. Bowen 
paid the demurrage and thought no more of the matter, but not so the 
station agent. When Bowen visited the station, the next day the agent 
called him to receipt for an express package. Bowen never finished 
writing his name. As he stood, pen in hand, the agent shot him in the 
head, and Bowen slipped to the floor, the pen making a scrawl after the 
letters "Fra-."  

	When the citizens, who highly esteemed Mr. Bowen for his 
integrity and fair dealing, learned of the agent's deed the latter was 
with difficulty protected from their vengeance. He has been lodged in 
jail, and the defense made by the railroad company will not avail, as 
the agent did not succeed in killing the only witness, Bowen's twelve-
year-old son, who will recover from a wound in the shoulder. The esteem 
in which Mr. Bowen was held by the commission merchants to whom he 
consigned grain is shown by their messages of sympathy and requests 
that the bereaved widow may draw on them for any money she may need.  

	At the trial, held at Sioux Falls the following May, the assassin 
was adjudged insane and was committed to the insane asylum at Yankton.