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Bowers, Reuben
| Last Name: | Bowers |
|---|---|
| First Name: | Reuben |
| Dates: |
1877 (Date of Birth)
23.6.1912 (Date of Death)
|
| Biography/History: | Reuben Bowers was the first child born to farmer Adam Bowers of Pennsylvania (1850-1921) and Mary Ann Hollis of Virginia (1852-1908), in Irving, Lane County, Oregon in 1877. Reuben’s three siblings, Barbara, John, and Kate, were subsequently born in Oregon, before the family moved to Spokane County, where they appear in the Washington Territorial Census in 1887. By 1900, the family has settled on a farm near Harrington, Lincoln County, Washington. In 1904, Reuben Bowers married Washington native Ida Rankin (1876-1938) in Spokane. The couple had one daughter, Sybil Gena, born c. 1906. Reuben and Ida settled on the family wheat farm in Mohler, Washington, southwest of Harrington. Reuben was also a blacksmith and in 1910, he was working at a sawmill in Stevens County, Washington. In 1911, Reuben Bowers developed an interest in aviation and built two biplanes. He is credited with being the first to build and fly a plane in the Inland Empire. Reuben flew exhibition and test flights around the region. Max Mecklenberg, a farmer and rancher in Lincoln County, served as Reuben’s manager. Reuben Bowers met an untimely death following an appendectomy at age 35 on 23 June 1912 in the Harrington Hospital. Following his death, his plane was stored in a shed on the old Bowers farm near Harrington. It was removed later and shipped to California. Its fate is unknown, with the exception of one of the propellers that was donated to the Grace Campbell Museum in Spokane. Sources include records available on Ancestry.com including U. S. Census records, Washington Territorial Census records, birth, marriage, and death records, and newspaper articles available on Newspapers.com. Prepared by Mella Rothwell Harmon, volunteer, 16 June 2020 |