William Miller Bowen

{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = William Miller Bowen | image = William Miller Bowen, 1932.jpg | alt =  | caption = Bowen in 1932 | birth_date = {{birth date|1862|01|16}} | birth_place = Lowell, Indiana | death_date = {{death date and age|1937|12|22|1892|01|16}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California | other_names = | occupation = Lawyer and civic leader | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | office = Member of the Los Angeles City Council from the 5th ward | term_start = December 12, 1900 | term_end = December 8, 1904 | predecessor = Charles Hulbert Toll | successor = George A. Smith | party = Republican }}

'''William Miller Bowen''' (January 16, 1862 – December 22, 1937)<ref name="history">''California, History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California, 1909'', p. 134</ref> was an American lawyer and civic leader in Los Angeles. He was a member of the Los Angeles City Council is known as the "Father of Exposition Park."<ref name=TimesObit>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/164784777 "Death Takes W.M. Bowen: Father of Exposition Park Victim of Stroke and Pneumonia," ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 23, 1937, pages 1 and 2]</ref><ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/159907290 "All Honor to Bowen," ''Los Angeles Times,'' April 12, 1913, page II-1]</ref><ref name=TimesEditorial>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/164790122 "William M. Bowen, ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 23, 1937, page A-4]</ref>

==Biography== thumb|left|Bowen in 1902 as a City Councilman. Bowen was born on a farm in Lowell, Indiana during the American Civil War. He graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa in 1894 and was admitted to the bar in both Iowa and California that year.<ref name="history"/> He also farmed in Oklahoma before moving to California.<ref name=TimesEditorial/>

Bowen was a member of the City Council in 1900-04, and as acting mayor in 1904 he vetoed a council resolution that would have placed a bond issue of $250,000 to build a new city library in Central Park, today's Pershing Square. The library was later built on the site of the Los Angeles State Normal School on Fifth Street.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/164202043 "Library Bonds Vetoed," ''Los Angeles Times,'' February 27, 1904, page 6]</ref><ref>''Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials 1850–1938,'' Municipal Reference Library, March 1938, reprinted 1946</ref>

<blockquote>Almost from the time he landed here he became interested in the tract which he afterward dedicated as Exposition Park. At that early day the place was known as Agricultural Park. . . . On it were a race track, a rabbit chasing course, a clubhouse and two saloons which formed a hangout for race-track touts and gamblers.<ref name=TimesObit/></blockquote>

One day he found some of his Sunday-school pupils visiting the race track and rabbit course, and that impelled him to help organize a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and he "fostered measures which outlawed gambling in the community and ended coursing and racing" in the park.<ref name=TimesObit/>

In the 1910s, he was active in keeping the land on which Exposition Park is now built from being developed by private interests, arguing successfully in state courts for public ownership.<ref name=TimesEditorial/> He was a member of the park's Board of Governors, resigning in 1936. A bronze tablet was dedicated in his honor in the State Building within the park, and an oak tree was given his name.<ref name=TimesObit/>

In 1914 he was chairman of the Los Angeles Republican Central Committee.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/160132260 "Fifty-Six Thousand Is Bowen's Estimate," ''Los Angeles Times,'' November 1, 1914, page 16]</ref>

In December 1918, as park commissioner, he made a proposal on behalf of Mayor Frederic T. Woodman that a "gigantic monument," 250 feet high, be erected in Exposition Park in honor of military and naval troops who had fought in the World War just ended and that it be surmounted by a "victory" figure, nine feet high, to rest on a bronze ball four feet in diameter. Access would be provided by a passenger elevator.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/160597570 "Would Erect a Great Obelisk," ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 20, 1918, page II-1]</ref>

He was the attorney for and a member of the Board of Regents of the University of California.<ref name=TimesObit/>

==Death== Bowen died at his home on December 22, 1937, "the victim of choking on a fruit loop which followed a paralytic stroke." He was survived by his wife, Louise, and a daughter, Mrs. Mary Lorenzen.<ref name=TimesObit/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * [https://www.newspapers.com/image/380213132/?terms=Bowen%2BWins%2Bfor%2BPeople%3A%2BBig%2BAgricultural%2BPark%2BSuit%2BIs%2BDecided%3B%2BProperty%2BPasses%2Bto%2BDistrict%2BAssociation%3B%2BOver%2BHalf-Million%2BDollars%2BSaved%2Bto%2BPublic "Bowen Wins for People: Big Agricultural Park Suit Is Decided; Property Passes to District Association; Over Half-Million Dollars Saved to Public"] (September 18, 1906) ''Los Angeles Times,'' page II-3

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, William Miller}} Category:1862 births Category:1937 deaths Category:People from Lowell, Indiana Category:Los Angeles City Council members Category:Deaths from pneumonia in California Category:Lawyers from Los Angeles Category:Indiana lawyers Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:California Republicans