Jay Bowerman

This article is about the politician Jay Bowerman; on the biathlete see Jay Bowerman (biathlete) .

Jay Bowerman

Jay Bowerman (born August 15, 1876 in Hesper , Winneshiek County , Iowa , † October 25, 1957 in Portland , Oregon ) was an American politician and from 1910 to 1911 the 13th governor of the state of Oregon.

Early years

Jay Bowerman attended local schools in his home country. In 1893 he came to Salem , Oregon with his family . There he studied law until 1896 at Willamette University . He was a soldier for a short time during the Spanish-American War . He then worked as a lawyer in Oregon.

Political career

Bowerman was a member of the Republican Party . In 1904 he was elected to the Oregon Senate, four years later he was re-elected to this body. From 1909 he was President of the Chamber of Parliament. In this capacity he became governor in June 1910. Re-elected in 1906, Governor George Earle Chamberlain had resigned in February 1909 to join Congress . Constitutional Secretary of State Frank W. Benson was his successor . When Benson resigned from office for health reasons in June 1910, the Senate President, Jay Bowerman, had to end the remaining term of office as governor.

Originally, Benson had planned to return after his recovery; but since this did not occur, Bowerman had to serve as governor until January 8, 1911. In these six months he was unable to set any major accents. He forbade the state's banks from risky speculation in stocks. In 1910, Bowerman ran for a regular term as governor. But he was defeated in the elections to the democrat Oswald West . A scandal over an affair with his secretary apparently also played a role.

Another résumé

After the end of his term of office he was a member of the State Senate until 1911. Then he moved to Portland where he worked as a lawyer. He then became an active lobbyist for various companies in the legislature and participated personally by buying government bonds for the expansion of the road network. Bowerman died in 1957. He was married twice and had a total of five children. His son Bill , born in 1911, became a successful athletics trainer and was a co-founder of the Nike company .

Web links

• Jay Bowerman in the National Governors Association (English)
• Oregon State Library ( Memento November 25, 2004 on the Internet Archive )