Bowerstown (Ghost Town)

Named after the Bowers family who settled this corner ca. 1861, Bowerstown was at one time a flourishing community and had a number of factories, stores, and other industries through the years. The land comprising Bowerstown was divided sometime between 1879 and 1895 according to various maps, but it was never formally platted according to deed descriptions. As you enter Bowerstown on Riverside Road, there is a Bison farm (501 E. Riverside Rd.)

According to Jean Gernand in an article for her "Township By Township" series:

In 1861, Daniel Bowers came with his family from Pennsylvania, and purchased four acres in the Little Turtle Reserve for $53. Other Bowers families located there, and the settlement became known as Bowerstown. [Note: The Bash history says the family came from Ohio, which is supported by census records.]

Old timers recall that Bowerstown once had a broom factory, sorghum mill, Blacksmith shop, variety and grocery stores, a lime kiln and two oil wells.

In 1916, two Bowers sons started a factory for making potato crates, and later they also produced four-poster beds, flower stands, hall trees and wooden lamps, which were shipped all over the country.

Bowerstown was also the home of Woody Call, champion threshing bundle pitcher, and Robert Stocksdale, a wood-lathe-turning champion. A favorite pastime of the residents was horseshoe pitching. [They even competed at the state level in late 1920s.]

F. S. Bash writes in his 1914 county history about Samuel H. Bowers:

Though still in his twenties, Mr. Bowers has made for himself a secure place in the business economy of Union township. He is proprietor of the Bowerstown feed mill and repair shop, located two and a half miles east of Huntington on the Ganesville Pike. His is an important local industry. The manufacture of vegetable crates is one of his most profitable products, and he also makes a specialty of the rebuilding and repairing of furniture and the manufacture of new furniture. In the repair shop he also does a great deal of work in the grinding of plow-points, and general repairing.

[Samuel was Daniel Bowers’ grandson through Jacob Bowers.]

The 1937 Map of Huntington county says that there were 50 people in 12 buildings, and 1 business as enumerated in the 1930 census.

1. History of Huntington County, Indiana: A Narrative Account. 1914. Frank Sumner Bash. Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., p840-841
2. Huntington County, Indiana History: Township by Township. 2004-2005. Jean Gernand.
3. Map of Huntington Co., Indiana. 1866. Warner, Hayes & Warner. Ligonier, Ind.: E.B. Gerber & C.S. Warner.
4. Combination Atlas Map of Huntington County, Indiana. 1879. Kingman Bros.
5. Huntington County, Indiana. 1903. Herman Taylor. Warsaw, Ind.: National Map Co.,. Rockford, Ill.: Hixson Map & Litho. Co.
6. 1937 Map of Huntington County as reproduced by the Census Bureau for the 1950 Census.