J.D. Bowersock and the Development of Lawrence Manufacturing

In the year 1872, the destiny of Lawrence might have been decided. A man by the name of Gower was killed by a Pawnee raiding party. James Gower, brother of the man who was killed, went looking for his brother. His search brought him to Lawrence, Kansas, where he sadly learned of his brother's death. His quest now over, Gower took a close look at the sleepy town along the Kaw River. Lawrence, ever since the fateful raid of William Quantrill and his men in 1863, had not improved very much from her earlier days. Both the city and county governments were deeply in debt, property values were falling, and four of Lawrence's five banks were failing. It seemed as though each and every scheme dreamed up by Lawrence to entice industry and manufacturing was backfiring.

The financial crisis of 1873 and the ensuing depression was a landmark time in national history. Lawrence had been a part of the national railroad boom which characterized the expansion years before 1873, but was already regretting her extravagant spending as bonds issued to build railroads had, in many cases, proved to be very disappointing.

But by far Lawrence's greatest problem in the 1870's was that Orlando Darling, pioneering businessman, had failed to build a dam across the Kaw River that could operate for more than a few months without being swept away. Said the Weekly Tribune, "We always notice that it cheers up the laborers when there is dam building going on. They are the only class as yet that have got much out of the dam and some of them have made a pretty good thing of it." Adding insult to injury, neighboring towns joked that Lawrence was just not worth a dam. Further compounding the distressing failure of the dam was the knowledge that Orlando Darling had fled to California after his creditors rioted in the street near his office.

Seeing his opportunity, Mr. James Gower obtained control of the dam and accompanying land on July 16, 1874 by purchasing the Lawrence Land and Water Power Company from Mr. Darling. Gower, who went back home to tend to his ill wife, appointed his sons, Charles and John, to run the business.

Justin DeWitt Bowersock was born September 19, 1842 in Columbiana County, near New Alexander, OH. Young Justin completed his formal education in Wood County, going only through the sixth grade. His family lived on a farm, but his dad, Israel Bowersock, owned a general store where Justin worked and learned the basics of business. Later, in about 1857, the family moved to Iowa City, where Israel ran a mercantile business. Just a few years later, at about age 21 or 22, Justin went into the mercantile business too. Then on September 5, 1866 he married the beautiful daughter of James Gower, Mary Cordelia Gower. It was here, in Iowa City, where Bowersock earned his reputation as a successful businessman and a community leader. Then, after the death of Borredell (James Gower's wife and Bowersock's Mother-in-law) in 1876, the Gower and Bowersock family moved to Lawrence and arrived here on Friday, May 18, 1877.

Before moving however, James Gower had been growing unhappy with the way his sons were running the Lawrence Land and Water Power Company. Because of this, he appointed J. D. Bowersock to run the company. Yet only five days after the Gower and Bowersock family had first arrived in Lawrence, the worst flood since 1844 swept most of Gower's dam across the Kaw.

Then, after years of complex legal negotiations and some lawsuits, Bowersock won judgment for more than $21,000, and the assets of the Lawrence Land and Water Power Company were auctioned off by the sheriff on the steps of the Douglas County Courthouse on January 9, 1879. The high bidder was James Gower, the former owner. His $22,005 bid was paid by the estate of his late wife Borredell Gower. The title of the property was put into the name of J.D. Bowersock, who also collected his $21,000 judgement from the proceeds of the sale.

Bowersock asserted immediately that he would make the dam safe if it took all the stone in Wakarusa to do it. Having invested a considerable amount of money in making extensive repairs, Bowersock remained diligent, even when there were still more disastrous breaks in the dam in 1885 and again in 1888. Still more problematic was that the frequently dry Kansas weather would lower the level of water in the river, causing the water level to drop so low that machinery connected to and dependent on the dam could not operate. Consequently, many of the manufacturers using the dam's power found it necessary to have a steam engine as a backup for situations when the dam was damaged and could not operate, or when the water was too low and the dam could not operate.

In addition to his critical role in rebuilding and developing Lawrence's dam, J.D. Bowersock also took control of a failing bank, and turned it into what was known as the Lawrence National Bank. But by no means were Bowersock's interests limited to the dam and Lawrence National Bank. He was also director and vice-president of the Consolidated Barb Wire Company; was director of the Leis Chemical Manufacturing Company; was director in the Himoe patent medicine concern; director of the Lawrence National Gas and Coal Mining Company; owned the Bowersock Opera House; was proprietor of the Lawrence Paper Company; owned the Pacific Mills; purchased the Kimball Foundry; was director of the Kansas Tanning and Shoe Company; acted as treasurer of the Sutton Manufacturing Company; and was also director in the Griffin Ice Company. But still he did more, serving as Mayor of Lawrence for two terms, and also serving from 1898 to 1906 as Representative of the second Kansas district in the United States Congress. His political efforts saw him receive $400,000 for the Quantrill's Raid widows and other deserving victims. And while mayor, he persuaded the state to assume a $100,000 debt incurred by Lawrence in the building of Kansas University. Among all his interests however, the nucleus of his power was always the dam and the Douglas County Mills. The revenue he derived from water-power gave him a much greater interest in Lawrence industry than the above list would otherwise indicate.

In spite of his best efforts, however, disaster came again to the dam in 1903. A great flood entirely wiped out the Douglas County Mills and destroyed the power plant. Never one to let adversity get the better of him, Bowersock, whose losses were estimated at over $100,000 and were also uninsured, rebuilt a larger mill and easily one of the best power plants in the West. But again in 1911, Lawrence's major manufacturing district, made up of the paper mill, iron works, ice plant, and flour mills, suffered substantial tornado damage. Once more, all were rebuilt better than before at Bowersock's directing. Further, in the same year, 1911, his opera house, the Bowersock Opera House, was destroyed by fire and true to form, was immediately rebuilt better than it had been before.

But Bowersock should also be remembered for his overwhelming spirit of humanity and generosity. He took great pride in knowing that in all his enterprises, each and every one of his employees were always paid on time. A fine example of his sense of benevolence came during his time in Congress. He secured an appropriation to build a new post office in Lawrence to replace the building that the old post office had been renting from a local businessman. The town loved the idea, but it would be a safe guess to say that the Lawrence businessman and landlord responsible for the property would be upset at losing such a reliable tenant. The landlord in question, however, was Bowersock himself.

Sadly, there is no monument to Bowersock in Lawrence; there is no building bearing his name, no statue of him in any park. His legacy is not represented in one single place in Lawrence, indeed, his legacy is Lawrence.