- Fred H. Bowers, veteran Emporia plumber, died at 8 o'clock Sunday morning at his home, 514 Market, after being sick seven weeks. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 o'clock Wednesday morning at the Bowers home with Rev. J. H. J. Rice in charge of the services. Interment will be in the family lot in Maplewood cemetery.
Fred H. Bowers was born February 22, 1857, at Spring Grove, Del., near Philadelphia. He was the son of Randal and Sarah Jackson Bowers, who came to America from Manchester, England, in 1842. Fred Bowers grew up in Philadelphia and followed his parents and brothers and sisters to Kansas in 1880. He was the youngest and last survivor of the family of seven children. After the death of Mrs. Addie Ewing Bowers, mother of Fred Bowers, Jr., Mr. Bowers married Mrs. Mary Nation, whose death occurred February 10, 1919. In 1921 Mr. Bowers married Miss Blanche Edwards, who at the time was secretary of the Emporia Y. W. C. A. For more than 30 years the Bowers home has been at 514 Market.
For many years Mr. Bowers cared for an older brother, Randal Bowers, who was crippled from childhood, and for his only sister, Miss Hannah Bowers, until their deaths within the past five years.
Mr. Bowers learned the plumbing trade in Philadelphia in 1876-77. In 1880 he came to Kansas and for two years lived on a Lyon county farm. Later he moved to Emporia and started to work for the firm Osborn & Jeremy. The firm sold out to Griffith & Ewing and Mr. Bowers continued with the new company. In 1888 he went into business for himself. He was in business more than 40 years. He installed the first plumbing equipment in Emporia in a home which still is occupied by the family for which he did the work.
Mr. Bowers' first business house was on Commercial street where the Myser china store now is located. Later he moved to the building on East Sixth Avenue now occupied by the Seven-Oh grocery, then to the present quarter of the Bower-Jones company, 22 East Sixth. He installed the plumbing in hundreds of Emporia homes and business houses. George Burnap, W. E. Jones, the Kruger brothers, Roy Davis, Fred Nation and many others learned their trade with and worked for Mr. Bowers. W. E. Jones was employed by Mr. Bowers for more than 20 years before he became a member of the firm.
Mr. Bowers, a pioneer in his work, was a strong factor in teaching the people of the town, unaccustomed to the use of plumbing, the necessity of plumbing in the home. He was active in the State Plumbers' association during his entire business career and was treasurer of that organization for more than 30 years. He was a member of all the Masonic bodies, of the First Congregational church, of the Rotary club and of the Emporia Country club.
Mr. Bowers is survived by his widow, Mrs. Blanche Edwards Bowers, one son, Fred H. Bowers, Jr.: a granddaughter, Mary Janet Bowers; two nephews, one of Detroit and one of Philadelphia, and four nieces, all of Philadelphia.
Emporia Weekley Gazette
August 21, 1930
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1857 - 1930 (73 years)
[1] 
English
