[Illustration: The Dr. Bowen home
628 S. Twelfth Street]
Two Fort Dodge physicians and surgeons who practiced together for 24
years also lived in the same South Twelfth Street neighborhood. They
were Dr. W. W. Bowen, whose home at 628 S. 12th St. is pictured above,
and Dr. Robert Evans who resided at 530 S. 12th St.
Both residences are of brick construction, fronting east on Twelfth
Street, and were built about the same time in 1913. Dr. Bowen purchased
his lot in 1912 and erected the house a year later.
The Bowen residence is now owned and occupied by another physician and
his wife—Dr. and Mrs. Walter E. Gower—who acquired the property in 1946.
The house has one unique feature—lightning rods on the roof.
The home has five rooms and a half bath on the first floor, four
bedrooms and bath on the second floor and two finished rooms on the
third floor. There is a butler’s pantry and a second pantry on the first
floor, both with their original cupboards. In the butler’s pantry is a
small heating element to keep dishes warm during the winter months.
Woodwork in the house has the original finish and has never been redone.
The Gowers have been told that the excellent varnish finish is the same
as used on the early-day Pullman railroad cars.
Dr. Bowen was born in Marion, Ill., in 1869 and as a youth of 15 moved
with his parents to Kossuth County where the family settled near Algona.
He attended the Algona public schools and later Northern Illinois Normal
School in Dixon, Ill. In 1895 he graduated from the University of Iowa
Medical college and began the practice of medicine at Whittemore. After
five years he sold his practice and went to Berlin, Germany, for a year.
Returning to the United States in 1901 he came to Fort Dodge where he
was a prominent physician and surgeon until 1940 when he retired. He and
Dr. Evans practiced together for 24 years.
Dr. Bowen was active in medical societies and served as president of the
Iowa Medical Society. He was a charter Fellow of the American College of
Surgeons which was organized in 1913.
In 1895 Dr. Bowen was married to Miss May King and they were parents of
a son, Harold, and a daughter, Lydia. Dr. Bowen died in Fort Dodge in
1944 at age 75.