Putnam patriot., 1908-12-25
Henry C. Bowen.
sY WILLIAM AAsEs WARD.

initiative and courage. He was taken into the employ of the dry goods firm of the famous Tappan brothers, Arthur and Lewis, and he subsequently, mar Tied the daughter of Lewis Tappan the distinguished Abolitionist. He con nected himself with Dr. Cox's Presby- terian Church, and was soon active in its religious work It was not long be- lore he was conducting neighborhood prayer meeting, but he was rebuked for 1t and told that he had no right to do 1t, as he had not been ordained an elder or evangelist. Just as he was disturbed about his duty in this matter, MT. Hi ram Bingham, one of the first mission aries 10 the Sandwich Islands, had re- turned to this country and visited New aork. To him MT. Bowen told his trouble, when the missionary put his hand on the youths head, saying: Il ordain you young man, 10 do all the good you can, wherever in the provi- dence of God you may be called to la bor. Amen.n That he continued, lis as good an ordination as any one can giye.o
 1 Two of the Tappan Brothers clerks soon withdrew to found a wholesale dry goods house under the name of Bowen X McNamee, which continued in prosperous business until the crash of 1857, when it succumbed. He after- wards founded the silk house of Bow ,en, Holmes X Co.,, which failed in the loss of payments from Southern custo- mers in the civil war.
 MT. Bowen was one of the founders of Dr. Storr's Church of the Pile rims, the first Congregational church of | Brooklyn, and afterwards he was the most active of the founders of Ply l mouth Church and brought MT. Beech CT from Indiana to Brooklyn. He was the munifieent helper i'll founding ] multitude of churches in his own city and through the Western country, and l it was his insistenee which developed l the Congregational Union, A social or ganization, into the first church build- | ing societry.
 This passion for progress and reform made him one of the early adherents of the unpopular anti.slavery reform, | and when, in 1s4s, Dr. Bacon Thomp- son and Storrs were willing to edit an s,f raf.N of logical and ecclesiastical liberty, MT. Bowen was ready to find four young men who, with himself, should back | the enterprise with their money. To l its business management he had given very little attention, although he had | given it standing in the commercial l world by collecting and publishing Il | weekly list of business failures, which he kept up until obliged to include his own in the list. 1t was after his se- cond failure, at the opening of the civil | war, l think that he told me his liabil- i ties were sl ,SO0.o00 and the credits due l him s, 3,000, ,000-but collections from the South were impossible. Some years | later he settled all his outlawed debts, and his creditors, in recognition ot his honesty gave him n handsome silver | service.
 1t was after this second failure in business that he determined to put all his business energy on the develop ment of "The Independent" The con ditions, unfsvorable for .re-Opening the silk business. were favorable for such journal as this, a journal in the very flush of it's victory against slavery and repesenting also the progressive en- thusiasm of the Church. And it had no competitor, kar it had heen the one earnest anti-slauery, undenomination- al Christian paper. MT. BoMenpushed the premium system beyond anything previously known, offering prizes for large lists of new subscribers, and this he kept up for many years, while he was no less ambitious to secure at any price the most distinguished con- tributors. Longfellow, Lowell, Whit tier. Browning, Tennysen, to speak of poets only, were of those who answer ed his call, and Presidents and Sena- tors came a little later, after tae war was oyer. to be his guests on the 4th oa July, at Woodstock, and their address es filled double numbers of 1.-The lnde- nendent.r In those days the woods were not full of competing magazines. Thus far "The Independent" had the field to itself, and had an enormous circulation.
 Those of the present generation can- not conceive the shock given 10 the country when Mir. Hilton presented ms charges against MT. Beecher. The lat ter was the nations idol, the most dis tinguished preacher in the world, the very genius of American sentiments. The long and terrible ecclesiasticai ana | legal conflict split churches and fami- lies. and absobed the attention oi the country, into that conflict MT. Bowen was brought against his will. Although now no partisan of Mr. Triton, who was no longer editing either "The lnde- nendentu or the Brooklyn "tnion,
 Mr. Bowen could not and did not sup nort MT. Beecher, and when certain nr;xate utterances of his were reported ha was charged with islander and ex- communicated from Plymouth church
 He immediately was received ihto membership of the church in " ood' , stock. where he was born and haa lons
 horne and he became