Idaho Falls Businessman and Booster Frank C. Bowman [otd 01/20]

Idaho Falls businessman and civic leader Frank C. Bowman was born January 20, 1870 in Morgan County, Utah, fifteen to twenty miles southeast of Ogden. Frank started farm work at an early age, but around 1881 the family moved to Salt Lake City.

Two years later, Frank took a job as a “cash boy” at a large dry goods and millinery store. (The cash boy ran money received from a customer by a salesman to the main – often the only – cashier and returned with the proper change.) Starting with that as a base, young Frank advanced in the mercantile world, mostly in Salt Lake but also in Denver and St. Louis.

Then, in 1902, Bowman moved to Idaho Falls to manage the accounting department of the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company. Created by the merger of two pioneer wagon, machine and implements companies, it became one of the largest of its kind in the Mountain West.

Idaho Falls, ca. 1909. Library of Congress.

Bowman took an immediate interest in his new home town. In 1905, he was elected to the Idaho Falls City Council, where he became known as an advocate for many civic improvements. He would serve on the Council again in 1911.

He resigned his accounting position in the spring of 1907 and became the local agent for a national insurance firm. And his other activities took off. That year, he was probably a founding member of the Chamber of Commerce and definitely a Charter Member of the Idaho Falls Elks lodge, established in early 1908. He was also a member of the Masonic Order, serving as Master of the Idaho Falls Lodge and, in 1911, being elected Grand Master for the state.

In 1910, Bowman founded his own insurance and loan business. But even that wasn’t enough. He had also apparently invested widely in the agricultural sector. Thus, in March of that year, he was identified as Secretary of the Bingham County Wool Growers Association. He was also associated with the “Dry Farming Congress.” Along with that, he was an officer of the Conant Valley Land and Live Stock Company.

In 1911, Bowman helped organize the Bingham County Grazing Corporation. He also acted as Secretary for the Idaho Honey-Producers’ Association and as Secretary-Treasurer of the Idaho Irrigation District. All of that still wasn’t enough, apparently, because he served as Secretary for the Bonneville County Fair Association.

In 1912, Bowman chaired the organizing committee of the Idaho Falls Interurban Electric Railway Company. Along with everything else, Bowman was President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1916-1917. That was enough for awhile, but in late 1917, he chaired the Executive Committee for a Joint Conference of Agricultural, Livestock, and Irrigation Societies, held in Idaho Falls.

Frank Bowman. [French]

Finally, in the spring of 1919, the Idaho Falls newspaper noted that Bowman had sold off his business interests and planned to take a “needed” vacation. He purchased a new business quite soon, but it was several months before he began advertising the South Side Garage, which offered a service station, machine shop, and repair facilities.

Then, in the spring of 1922, Bowman again sold off his Idaho Falls business, and he and his wife moved to Portland, Oregon. There, Frank soon established himself as a manager for automotive-related firms. He apparently tried retirement in the Thirties, but soon went back into management.

After Bowman’s wife died, in the summer of 1946, he finally retired for good. He then returned to live in Idaho Falls, where his son Earl managed a furniture store. He passed away in November of 1960.
                                                                                 

References: [French]

“[Bowman News],” Times-Register, Idaho Falls; Idaho Statesman, Boise; Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah (April 1901 – November 1960).

“Golden Jubilee Edition, 1884–1934,” Post-Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho (September 10, 1934).