Thomas M. Bowen

Thomas Mead Bowen (October 26, 1835 – December 30, 1906) was a United States Senator from Colorado.

Biography

Bowen was born near the present site of Burlington, Iowa, in what was then Michigan Territory. He attended the public schools and the academy at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1853 and began practicing law. He was married to Margaretta T. Bowen.

Career

Bowen moved to Wayne County, Iowa, in 1856 and was a member of the Iowa House of Representatives that year. In 1858, he moved to Kansas. During the Civil War served in the Union Army from 1861–1865, as captain, then as a colonel. He was brevetted a brigadier general.

After the war, Bowen found himself in Arkansas and decided to stay there. He was a member and president of the constitutional convention of Arkansas in 1866; he was also a Reconstruction era justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court from 1867 to 1871.

Bowen, who made a large fortune in business, was appointed governor of Idaho Territory by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871, but resigned and returned to Arkansas after only one week in office. He moved to Colorado Territory in 1875 and resumed the practice of law.