The Bowens Make Their Mark

by Michael Bridgeman

James Barton Bowen, circa 1880 [1]

Madison got off to a slow start. It was a city on paper when selected as the territorial capital in 1836. Ten years later, when Madison received its village charter, there were only 626 residents. But soon, the boom began and Madison attracted entrepreneurs and hustlers, capitalist and swindlers, opportunists and optimists. When chartered as a city in 1856, the population was 6,863.

The Bowens Arrive

Among the newcomers were James and Susan Bowen, who arrived in 1852. Wisconsin had achieved statehood four years prior and state government occupied the inadequate territorial capitol building erected 15 years earlier. The University of Wisconsin opened North Hall in 1851 as its first and, at the time, only building. It would be two years before the first train arrived from Milwaukee. Nonetheless, Madison was an attractive destination for an ambitious physician, his wife, and their daughters Susan and Sarah. [a] And their presence can still be found here.

 

The Bowen House on Gorham Street, circa 1991 [2]

Their first house stands at 114 W. Gorham St. It’s a simple Greek Revival house, only a handful of which remain in Madison. When built in 1853, the brick residence included the two-story gabled section that faces the street and likely the one-and-a-half story ell to the left. The two-story wing to the right was added circa 1895. Typical of the style, the gabled façade is divided into three bays; the entry is not centered and was probably framed by panes of glass. The photo above shows the house before the brick and stone were painted.

 

Bowen House cornice return

 

The Bowen house was not fancy. It’s more vernacular than high style Greek Revival, with no portico, pedestals or pilasters. It does, however, have a pediment thanks to the cornice returns, a common element of classically inspired architecture. The slanted wooden cornice of the roof returns a bit at the bottom of the gable to create an “open” pediment.

Both James Barton Bowen and Susan Tucker Bowen were born in Connecticut in 1815. At the age of 11, James began worked for a cotton manufacturer, a business in which his fortunes waxed and waned before he completed his medical degree in 1848. Bowen is invariably noted as Madison’s first homeopathic physician. Homeopathy, which arose in the early 19th century, is a kind of “unorthodox medicine” that met resistance in Bowen’s time, and still does in some circles. In 1857, he was among three homeopaths in the city; there were 14 allopaths, those who practiced “mainstream medicine.” Bowen confidently set up his office in Bruen’s Block on Pinckney Street, “Madison’s most important office building from village days to the turn of the century.” [b] By all accounts he enjoyed considerable success as a physician.

Elm Side on Mills Street [5]

The Bowens Thrive

The most visible evidence of the Bowens’ success was the purchase of Elm Side (302 S. Mills St.). Completed in 1855, the imposing Italianate house was built for Seth and Harriet Van Bergen. Seth had settled in Madison in 1842 and developed the Greenbush Addition, an early suburban neighborhood that ran from Regent Street south to Erin Street between Mills Street and Monona Bay. Van Bergen reserved 60 acres west of Mills Street for his estate and sold it to the Bowens in 1859. It was their home until they died and is now known as the Bowen House.

The Bowen House is among the best Italianate houses that rose in Madison, though the architect or builder is unknown. The cubical form is topped by a hipped roof that rises to an elaborate, square cupola. The house is faced in local sandstone with raised mortar joints and the windows have projecting hoods with simple brackets. The generous wooden eaves are supported by carved brackets. At the turn of the 20th century, a veranda graced the east and south facades.

A boosterish publication in 1877 described the “substantial and elegant structure” as “finished in modern style, and supplied with modern conveniences.” The writer asked, “And who is better entitled to such a home than are Dr. Bowen and his estimable family?” The answer was not in doubt. “In his palatial residence he [Bowen] enjoys, in a high degree, the pleasures and sweets of substantial home comforts. He deserves them all.” [c]

Bowen’s Block on East Washington Avenue, circa 1900. [7]

Bowen’s entrepreneurial and civic ventures burnished his success as a physician. In 1867, he purchased a prime site on East Washington Avenue and erected Bowen’s Block, the three-story structure seen to the right of the water tower on the postcard above. Bowen, in practice with Lucian Ingman since 1861, moved his medical office to his new building, leaving the older Bruen’s Block, the corner of which is seen in the photo, next door to Bowen’s building. The “glass bank” on the square (US Bank) now occupies both sites.

James Bowen was a busy man in the decade following the Civil War. He opened a furniture business in the Bowen Block (1869), expanded his commercial building (1871), became president of the new Park Savings Bank (1871), was elected to one term as mayor (1871), and helped establish the Union Congregational Church Society (1874).

James Barton Bowen died in 1881. A front-page story in the Wisconsin State Journal (Aug. 27, 1881) reported that he had gone to Boston for treatment for ills that had overcome him a few years earlier. The obituary declared that, “No more successful or popular physician ever resided in Dane County.” The lengthy salute noted that, even with his considerable success, “Bowen was a modest man.” His widow, Susan Tucker Bowen, died in 1893.

The Bowens’ Legacy

Ad for lots in Bowen’s Addition [8]

In Madison, the Bowen name is connected to two landmark houses, an early residential plat, a street, and (less evidently) to a Catholic Church. The two houses that James and Susan Bowen called home still stand. The Gorham Street house is a contributing resource in the National Register of Historic Places Mansion Hill Historic District, while the Mills Street house is individually listed on the National Register and is a designated Madison landmark. Both have been subdivided into apartments.

The estate on Mills Street was inherited by the Bowen’s elder daughter, Susan Bowen Ramsay, who had married Wayne Ramsay, cashier of the First National Bank. The Bowens’ younger daughter, Sarah, married Lucius Ingman, her father’s partner in medicine. They moved to Oak Park, Illinois, upon Dr. Bowen’s death.

Architectural drawing of St. James, 1923 [9]


In 1890, lots were made available in Bowen’s Addition, a new residential suburb planned for of the acreage that still surrounded the house on Mills Street. The Bowen house itself was offered for sale in 1895: “The stone house, barn and four lots, situated in Bowen’s addition, known as the former residence of the late Dr. Bowen. This is one of the finest locations in the suburbs of Madison, and is a rare bargain. Terms to suit purchaser.” [d] Nonetheless, the house remained in the family until at least 1919.

Susan Bowen Ramsay died in 1904 and made a deathbed wish that land be donated to a worthy religious cause. The pastor of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church approached the Ramsay family and they donated six lots for a new parish that was named St. James in honor of James Barton Bowen. Funds were quickly raised for a brick church that was replaced in 1923 by a large, Romanesque Revival edifice designed by Madison architect Ferdinand Kronenberg. That church, now 100 years old, faces St. James Court, two blocks south of Bowen Court.

 
 

The Bowen family gravesite

 

James Barton Bowen and Susan Tucker Bowen established a family burial plot at Madison’s Forest Hill Cemetery where they are buried along with their daughters, Susan Bowen Ramsay and Sarah Bowen Ingman, and their families. That includes James Bowen Ramsay, who was born in 1869 and founded the French Battery Company (later Ray-O-Vac) in 1906 and served as president until 1934. J. B. Ramsay died in 1952 — 100 years after his grandparents settled in a village of great promise.

. . .

[a] Mollenhoff, David V. Madison: A History of the Formative Years. Second Edition. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wis. 2003. p 45-46.

[b] Levitan, Stuart D. Madison: The Illustrated Sesquicentennial History, Volume 1. 1856-1931. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wis. 2006. p 25.

[c] Madison, Dane County and Surrounding Towns; Being a History and Guide. Wm. J. Park & Co., Madison, Wis. 1877. p 167-171.

[d] Wisconsin State Journal. August 18, 1895.

Image Credits

[1] History of Dane County, Wisconsin. Western Historical Company. Chicago, Ill. 1880.

[2] Wisconsin Historical Society Architecture & History Index. AHI #37099.

[3] Draper, Lyman C. Madison, the Capital of Wisconsin. Calkins & Proudfit, Madison, Wis. 1857. p 44.

[4] Period Paper. https://www.periodpaper.com/products/1854-wood-engraving-bruens-block-1-pinckney-street-madison-wi-museum-historic-238988-ygp4-039.

[5] Madison, Dane County and Surrounding Towns; Being a History and Guide. Wm. J. Park & Co., Madison, Wis. 1877. p. 169.

[6] Wisconsin Historical Society Architecture & History Index. AHI #16065.

[7] Postcard, undated. Author’s collection. The Bowen Block was demolished in 1909, Bruen’s Block in 1920, and the Water Tower in 1921.

[8] Wisconsin State Journal. May 3, 1890.

[9] Ferdinand L. Kronenberg Collection, Otto Schroeder Archives and Records Center, Dane County Historical Society.

All other photos by Michael Bridgeman.

Madison Trust