Prominent among the pioneer residents of Pomona Valley, where he has resided for the past thirty-four years, is Frederick W. Bowen, who was born near Buffalo, Erie County, N. Y., September 1, 1849. At the age of twelve he removed with his father's family to Cerro Gordo County and three years later to Humboldt County, Iowa, where he was brought up on a farm. In 1869, soon after the continental railroad was completed, he came to California on one of the first trains across the continent, and after remaining one year on the Pacific Coast he drove a horse and buggy north, from Sacramento, Cal., to Albany, Ore., and returned to Iowa, where he resumed the occupation of farming. In 1885 he came back to California to make a permanent home and spend the remainder of his days. He settled in Pomona Valley, where he purchased the place where he now lives, which lies west on Holt Avenue, near Huntington Drive. He planted the land, which was a barley field at the time he purchased it, to orange and apricot trees, and sold four acres of it. The remaining four he still possesses. It is planted to budded Navel and seedling oranges, and some apricots.
Before the days of the packing house he sold his fruit to commission men in Pomona. The average yield for five years on one acre of apricots was ten tons a year—a fine record. Nearly all the apricot trees were taken out and orange trees planted. The grounds around his home contain many beautiful and rare shrubs and plants. There are two rose bushes that are thirty-four years old, and he has the tallest apricot trees in the state on his place. There are also apple trees, vines, pepper trees, etc. The soil is very rich and productive. He has made all the improvements on the place himself, even to finishing the interior work on his house.
Mr. Bowen has been very active in water development in the Valley. He is president of the Currier Tract Water Company and also of the Irrigation Association of Pomona. The latter system serves about 2,000 acres of fruit land east and south of Pomona. The water formerly came from artesian wells, but an air-compresor pumping plant is now used. The Currier Tract Water Company serves over 100 acres of land north of Pomona and owns two water rights; the water is pumped by electric power.
In his domestic relations Mr. Bowen married Miss Sara Wickes, a native of the state of New York. A son was born to them, who died in infancy. They then took a niece of Mrs. Bowen's, Cornelia Lorbeer, who took the name of Bowen and who was a school teacher in Los Angeles County for several years. She died in 1903.
Mrs. Bowen, who has been a teacher in the First Presbyterian Sunday School for the past thirty years, has heard all of the ministers who have preached in that church during that time. She is very active in the missionary society of the church and also in Red Cross work, and is an active member of the W. C. T. U. When she first came to Pomona there were only 500 inhabitants in the place, which supported seventeen saloons. She and seven other ladies banded together, and through their efforts in the cause of temperance the saloons were banished from Pomona.
Mr. Bowen is a deacon in the First Presbyterian Church, and is also very active in temperance work, and with his wife shares in the esteem and affectionate regard of the community.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 10/28/08, Pages 632-633
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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