Tulare County Biographies

WILLIAM PORTER BOWEN, M. D.

Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


Dr. William Porter Bowen, physician and surgery of Lindsay, California, was born 
near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1887, a son of Marshall Polk and Eudora (Conyers) 
Bowen, and grew to manhood on his father�s farm.  After attending the local 
public schools and the high school, he spent two years as a student in the 
United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.  Returning to Nashville, he 
continued his studies for two years in the University of Nashville, then entered 
the medical department of Vanderbilt University, from which he graduated with 
the class of 1915.
 
During the two years following his graduation, Dr. Bowen served as an interne in 
the Mount Zion and French hospitals of San Francisco, and in the New York 
Nursery and Children�s Hospital, New York city.  In March, 1917, he enlisted as 
a first lieutenant in the British Red Cross and was stationed at the Bristol 
Royal Infirmary, England, until after the United States declared war against the 
imperial government of Germany.  He then joined the American forces, but was 
loaned to the British because they were short of doctors, and served at the 
front until after the signing of the armistice in November, 1918.  On November 
8, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of captain.  Then, attached to the 
Fifty-ninth British Division (of Bristol), he entered Germany with the Army of 
Occupation and remained there until July 19, 1919, when with other American 
troops he was ordered back to the Untied States and was mustered out at Atlanta, 
Georgia, on September 19, 1919.
 
Upon receiving his discharge from the military service, Dr. Bowen practiced for 
about a year in Nashville.  At the end of that time he came to California and 
located in Visalia, where he was associated with Dr. White until he came to 
Lindsay in 1921.  His thorough training in school, as in interne in some of the 
country�s leading hospitals, and his work as an army surgeon, have given him a 
broad and comprehensive view of his profession.  The result is that he has taken 
a high rank as a physician and surgeon, enjoying alike the confidence of his 
fellow practitioners and the general public.
 
On October 7, 1923, Dr. Bowen was united in marriage to Miss Veronica Wiemals of 
North Dakota, and they have one son:  William Porter.  They are members of the 
Presbyterian church.  Dr. Bowen is a member of the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce, 
and of the Tulare county Golf and Country Club, where he finds the greater part 
of his recreation.
 
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen Edwards Small & 
J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 
378