Col. Wheeler S. Bowen Biography

	This biography appears on page 25 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				COLONEL WHEELER S. BOWEN.  

	During practically the entire period of his active life Colonel 
Wheeler S. Bowen has been identified with the newspaper business and 
since 1909 has been editor of the Huronite, published at Huron. As such 
he has exerted a great influence over the development of the city along 
many lines and his work has won him an important place among the men of 
ability and worth in the community. Colonel Bowen is a veteran of the 
Civil war, having served as a member of the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery. 
He was born in Ohio, April 8, 1843, and is a son of Hiram and Martha 
(Wheeler) Bowen, who moved to Wisconsin in 1849, settling at 
Janesville. The father conducted a newspaper there for many years 
having previously been in the newspaper business at Akron, Ohio, as 
founder and editor of the Summit County Beacon. Hiram Bowen edited the 
Janesville Gazette and later the Milwaukee Sentinel. He came to South 
Dakota in 1876 and moved from this state to California, where his death 
occurred.  

	Colonel Wheeler S. Bowen acquired his education in the public 
schools of Janesville In 1862 he enlisted in the Twelfth Wisconsin 
Battery and served in the army until the close of the Civil war. 
Following his honorable discharge he returned to Janesville, where he 
became connected with the newspaper business, editing the Gazette until 
1873. In that year he moved to Yankton, this state, and bought the 
Press and the Dakotan, starting the first daily in the Dakotas. Colonel 
Bowen moved to Sioux Falls in 1901 and edited the Press there until 
1907, after which he spent one year in Boise City, Idaho. In 1909 he 
located in Huron and bought the Huronite and the State Spirit which he 
merged under one management with the former name. Since that time he 
has edited the paper, making it one of the leading influences for 
progress in the community. It has become an excellent news and 
advertising medium and its popularity is evident in a large and growing 
circulation.  

	In 1874 Colonel Bowen was united in marriage to Miss Ella Davis 
of Janesville, Wisconsin, and they have become the parents of a son, 
George H., who is in business with his father. Colonel Bowen is well 
known in the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic and in this 
way keeps in touch with his comrades of fifty years ago. He is 
progressive and public-spirited in matters of citizenship and has held 
a number of offices of public trust and responsibility, serving as 
postmaster of Yankton under Presidents Arthur and Harrison and as clerk 
of the senate committee on Indian affairs in Washington under 
Pettigrew. Since taking up his residence in Huron his influence has 
been a tangible force for good in the community and he is held in high 
honor and esteem wherever he is known.