Accomack County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Bowdoin, John William 1855 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 22, 2008, 6:32 am Author: Leonard Wilson (1916) JOHN WILLIAM BOWDOIN THE Bowdoin family in the United States has the peculiar distinction, that every member of the family, wherever found, is descended from Pierre Baudouin, the French Huguenot who, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, escaped with his life and some property from France, and coming to America settled first at Falmouth (now Portland), on Casco Bay, Maine, where he arrived in April, 1687. He had been two years on the road, having stopped.for a time in Ireland. He was a physician by profession, and a man of means. He acquired a large estate in Maine, but in 1690 removed to Boston. His removal was timely, for it is said that the Indians destroyed the town in which he had lived the day after his departure. Dr. Pierre Baudouin promptly became anglicised into Peter Bowdoin. There has never been a better stock in any country than this French Huguenot blood. Careful students of history say that France never recovered the blow to both its material and moral prosperity inflicted by this exodus of more than one hundred thousand of its best citizens. The Huguenots were to France what the Puritans were to England, with the difference that they lacked the hardness of the English Puritans. They practiced the same stern morality, were almost ascetic in their lives, but the element of harshness was lacking in their composition, and wherever they went they speedily made friends of the people with whom their lot was thrown. Whether in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia or South Carolina, everywhere they promptly took rank as among the best citizens of the country. The Bowdoins were not an exception. Peter Bowdoin came to America with four children. Two of these, James and John, survived him. James became an eminent merchant in Boston and accumulated a large estate. John moved South to Virginia about 1700, settling where Eastville, Northampton County, is now located, and became the founder of the Virginia family. James, the Boston merchant, was the father of another James, born August 8, 1727, who became one of the most distinguished citizens of Massachusetts, holding many positions of honor and trust among the people of the State. He was a man of great learning, and a generous friend to all institutions of an educational character. He died in 1790. Bowdoin College in Maine, then (1794) just incorporated, was remembered generously in the will of James Bowdoin 3, who also endowed it with a large landed estate. This is the oldest college in the State of Maine. He had much the same character as his father, being a learned man of most philanthropic disposition, and served our country as its Minister to Spain. In addition to Bowdoin College in Maine, Bowdoin Square in Boston, the site of which is said to have been donated to the city by the Bowdoin family, also keeps the name fresh in the memory of the people of Massachusetts. The Bowdoin family has not multiplied as numerously as some others, but through all its generations has maintained the high character of its founders. The Northern line is represented at the present moment by George Sullivan Bowdoin, of New York, a member of the great banking Arm of J. P. Morgan and Company, and by William Goodrich Bowdoin, a literary man who, for a number of years has been connected in an editorial way with the "Independent." in the Virginia line we have Dr. John William Bowdoin, of Bloxoin, Accomac County, Virginia, who is the subject of this sketch. Dr. Bowdoin was born in the village where he now lives, on March 30, 1855, son of Dr. John Robert and Amanda (Hinman) Bowdoin. His academic and medical training was obtained from Richmond College, the University of Virginia, the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, and the University of New York. His life work has been that of a physician in active practice, one year of which was spent in Texas and the remainder at his present location. It seems logical that at least one branch of the family should maintain its medical traditions, for Dr. Peter Bowdoin, the founder of this American family, had the reputation in France, a country noted for the learning and skill of its physicians, of being a practitioner of marked ability. Dr. Bowdoin has been very active in other directions, and no interest of his community, whether in a moral or a material way, but has had his cordial and efficient support. A lifetime Democrat, he has been for twenty-five years Chairman of the County Committee. In 1912 he was a delegate to the Baltimore Convention which nominated Woodrow Wilson. This greatly gratified Dr. Bowdoin as he had throughout consistently advocated Mr. Wilson's election. For eight years he served as Commissioner of Fisheries. He is at the present time Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Accomac County. He is President of Eastern Shore Game Protective Association, was at one time member of the Federal Pension Examining Board, from which position he voluntarily retired. He is surgeon of the N. Y. P. and N. Railroad, is a member of the State Medical Association, of the Seaboard Medical Association, and the County Medical Society. He gives strong and hearty support to the church. His business ability is of a high order. He organized the Accomac Banking Company, which has had a remarkably successful career, and of which he is at this time the President. He was one of the chief organizers of the Eastern Shore Fire Insurance Company, and of the Eastern Shore Produce Exchange. Always an ardent sportsman and an earnest game protectionist, he was organizer of the Eastern Shore Game Protective Association, to which he has given liberally of both his time and money, and is now the President, as before stated. In all civic affairs of his community', he has been both progressive and aggressive, and no man of his section more thoroughly commands the confidence of the people. Dr. Bowdoin has been twice married: first, at St. James, La., on June 2, 1885, to Flora Himel, daughter of Clerville and Lavinia Barton Himel. The second marriage was at Newport News, Virginia, on September 22, 1904, to Mrs. N. D. Pitman, of Richmond, daughter of Loften Dabney and Anne (Fisher) Allen. His only child is Margaret, a graduate of Chatham Episcopal Seminary, who married Dr. Bupert Colmore, of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dr. Bowdoin is a fine example of the good American, of that type which does the day's work faithfully and well, which seeks not its own aggrandizement, but is ever ready to contribute time, labor and money to the betterment of his community, and to the upbuilding of the nation. It is such men who have made this Republic. It is such men who will maintain it in the future and who will triumph over the difficulties which will of necessity arise, and from which no nation can escape. Men of the type of Dr. Bowdoin are doing great service to humanity in extending the influence for good of this great Republic, and to them we owe honor, respect, confidence and esteem more than to many others whose claims to recognition possess less of sterling worth and value. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MAKERS OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE VOLUME II By LEONARD WILSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS Illustrated with many full page engravings B. F. JOHNSON, INC. CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A. 1916 Copyright, 1916 by B. F. Johnson, Inc. 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