Some weeks ago, I attended a meet-and-greet here in Chariton for a potential presidential candidate who arrived in a motor home accompanied by a considerable entourage armed with the latest in communications technology.
By contrast, I offer you this morning the example of Emory Nelson Bowman (left) who, as a recently minted attorney and at the age of 22, decided in 1914 to seek the Republican nomination for Lucas County attorney armed only with his gift of gab, spare time and a horse that he had broken himself.
Emory's opponent for the nomination was Eli W. Drake, an established Chariton attorney some 30 years his senior who, not taking his opponent seriously, hardly campaigned at all. The incumbent, William Collinson, 37, a Democrat, was unopposed after three consecutive terms for his party's nomination and, it appeared, would be an easy winner.
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As it turned out, young Mr. Bowman's strategy of hard work on horseback paid off and he defeated Drake for the Republican nomination. The Chariton Leader of June 4, 1914, explained how he had managed it as follows:
"E.N. Bowman has won the Republican nomination for county attorney over E.W. Drake. He is a young man who recently graduated from the law department of the University at Iowa City and is a candidate for public favor, both in business and politics. Not long since he decided to make the race for the nomination for county attorney and knew that it must be vigorous as he was practically unknown to the larger portion of the voters of the county and he did not care to make a large expenditure of money on an uncertainty, aside from the fact that he had had not been endowed by any great portion of that which Uncle Andrew Carnegie endows libraries with.
"A friend offered him a wild horse to ride if he would break it. So the taming process of that steed commenced as a preliminary step to the coveted office. He saddled it, and straddled it, and visited all parts of the county, seeing the farmers, talking to them about law and lambs, the possibilities of the crops and law courts and as a result he comes through with a handsome majority --- not large, but ample.
"Thus it was profitable for him to trim up that horse's mane and take time by the forelock."
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Collinson, however, remained the favorite in this political horse race --- until the unthinkable happened. Acting upon rumors, The Chariton Herald-Patriot did some investigative reporting and determined that the incumbent county attorney was not, in fact, a U.S. citizen and, therefore, not even entitled to vote.
William had been born in England and brought to the United States as a child by his parents, John and Margaret Collinson. What emerged from The Herald-Patriot investigation was the fact that the elder Mr. Collinson, then farming near Russell, had failed to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, something that automatically at the time would have extended citizenship to his family.
As this new piece of information began to play out in the campaign, William Collinson --- apparently unaware of his father's status previously --- scrambled to put his own naturalization on a fast track, something that proved impossible to do. And he also made a variety of accusations against Emory Bowman, seemingly to implicate him in a smear campaign.
This tactic brought the Herald-Patriot to young Mr. Bowman's defense, and it published the following in its edition of Oct. 15, 1914:
"Mr. Bowman has declined, in a manly way, to engage in any appeal for sympathy as a means to gain votes, but it is not out of place for The Herald-Patriot to say that he has struggled hard to gain his present position in life. He was born in Monroe county, where his father died in 1896, leaving the mother with four small children and in straightened circumstances. Emory Bowman was the youngest of the family and every member was called to face a hard situation.
"The family moved to Lucas county about fourteen years ago and has since resided in this county For a number of years, Emory Bowman attended what was then known as Blackburn seminary, east of Chariton, working for Harry Lee and other neighbors, cutting brush at fifty cents per day, and making himself generally useful. He received a common school diploma at the age of twelve and graduated from the Chariton High School four years later.
"While attending school in Chariton he worked Saturdays and after school for different citizens, but found himself broke and with a serious siege of typhoid shortly after graduation here. As soon as possible after recovering from his illness Mr. Bowman went to Iowa City to the law school, though not before working out the debts caused by his sickness and expenses incurred while going through the high school.
"He landed at Iowa City with $36, a small sum indeed with which to go through college and one which was enlarged through taking odd jobs at waiting on tables, washing dishes, looking after furnaces for his room rent and pressing clothing for boys more fortunately situated financially than himself.
"He graduated at the age of 21 and had a mark of 92.5 when examined by the state board of law examiners, being considerably above the average in his studies and rank. He has been admitted to practice in the courts of Montana and the federal courts. The Herald-Patriot respectfully asks the voters if such a young man is not entitled to consideration at the polls November 3d, as against a man who has already held the office of county attorney six years?"
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In the end, Emory Bowman won the election --- but by the narrowest of margins, 1,443 votes to Collinson's 1,409, and went on to serve a full two-year term as county attorney.
William Collinson licked his wounds, became a naturalized citizen, grew in stature as an attorney while practicing in partnership with J. D. Threlkeld, and, in 1919, was named to the Iowa Highway Commission.
Sadly, he died of cancer at the age of 49, on April 20, 1926.
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No one doubted that Emory Bowman was both brilliant and highly motivated --- but he seems to have lacked the ability to settle down and always was rushing off to new adventures.
After serving out his term as county attorney, he headed west; served honorably in the U.S. Army during World War I and, on Aug. 23, 1919, in Denver, married Myrtle McFrye, some 11 years his senior and a veteran of two marriages who added a stepson, True Daniels, to the family mix.
Emory and Myrtle bounced around the country after that as he plied his profession in Wyoming, Texas, Florida, Los Angeles and perhaps elsewhere before finally coming to rest in 1929 in Rochester, Minn. By that time, he no longer was a practicing attorney, but was working as an electrician instead.
Less than 10 years later, on Nov. 20, 1938, he suffered a fatal stroke in Rochester at the age of 47 and his remains were returned to the family lot in the Chariton Cemetery for burial.
Myrtle continued to live in Rochester, with and near her son, until 1955 when she died at the age of 74 on March 10. Her remains were brought to Chariton for burial beside Emory.
Emory and Myrtle seem to have limited resources, so his tombstone on the family lot matches those of his siblings and perhaps was paid for by them. Myrtle's grave is not marked.
Others buried on the lot, just north of the Copeland mausoleum, include the family matriarch, Matilda (Prather) Bowman, 1852-1940; and Emory's two brothers, Guy (1881-1951) and Delbert (1882-1956). Their sister, Grace Edith (1888-1968, married to Herman L. Threlkeld) is buried elsewhere in the Chariton Cemetery. The family patriarch, Perry P. Bowman (1848-1896) is buried in Prather Pioneer Cemetery along U.S. Highway 34 a few miles west of Melrose.
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