Clay County, SD Biographies.....Bower, William G. January 11, 1842 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 8, 2022, 4:59 pm

Source: MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF Turner, Lincoln, Union and Clay Counties, South Dakota. (1897)
Author: Geo. Ogle & Co.

WILLIAM G. BOWER. Among the business enterprises that contribute to the welfare of
the city of Vermillion, the brick works of which Mr. Bower is proprietor are
certainly deserving of mention. This manufacturing establishment turns out a large
number of brick per annum and furnishes employment to a number of workman as well as
increasing the circulation of our medium of trade in other ways. The establishment
is one whose work is considered reliable and whose proprietor enjoys the confidence
and esteem of the people among whom he has made his home.

Mr. Bower first saw the light of day in Orange county, N. Y., January 11, 1842. When
he was seven years old he came with his parents to Dane county, Wis., where the
family settled on a farm, and there our subject was educated in the common schools
of the district, and grew to manhood. He was still a member of the parental
household, when the first assault on the national honor was made, and April 12,
1861, he offered his services as a soldier and was accepted and enrolled as a
private in company A, Seventh Wisconsin regiment, infantry. He took part with his
regiment in the battles of Gainesville, Va., South Mountain, Antietam,
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. He was slightly wounded in the foot at the
engagement at Gainesville, and after faithful service of three and a half years, was
mustered out and discharged at Madison, Wis.

On returning again to civil life our subject engaged in farming in Dane county,
Wis., until the spring of 1869, at which time he started for Dakota territory. April
17th he arrived at Vermillion and after homesteading 160 acres, he also purchased a
claim of the same number of acres in Spirit Mound township, and on this property, he
continued to reside until 1873, coming at that time to Vermillion to engage in the
meat business as well as flour, feed and produce. This latter enterprise he
conducted until the flood of 1881, when he built the kiln which he now operates in
the manufacture of brick. His process is what is known as the semi-dry, which
produces brick of a superior quality, and his establishment has a capacity of 25,000
per lay. He owns fifteen acres of land all located within the limits of Vermillion,
and from this he gets the raw material for his manufactory.

Mr. Bower and Miss Julia M. Morrow were united in marriage in Lodi, Columbia Co.,
Wis., April 3, 1866. Mrs. Bower is a native of Bellville, Ohio, born March 16, 1844,
and by her union with our subject has become the mother of three children, viz.:
Lizzie M., the wife of Charles Brinstad; Frank W. and Grace M. Mr. Bower takes quite
an interest in temperance work and is a member of the civic federation which
organization is doing some effective work against the prevalent curse of the age.
Religiously he belongs to the Congregational church, of which he has been a member
with his wife since coming to Dakota, and socially he holds membership in Miner post
No. 8, G. A. R.


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