Capt. John Marshall Bowyer    

CAPT. JOHN MARSHALL BOWYER was born in Indiana. Being appointed from Iowa, he entered the Naval Academy, September 28, 1870, and graduated in 1874; he was promoted as follows: ensign, July 17, 1875; master, May 28, 1881; lieutenant (Junior grade) March 3, 1883; and lieutenant, May 26, 1887. He was on the “Powhatan,” in 1874: the “Franklin,” “Juniata” and “Alaska,” European Station, 1875-6; training ship “Monongahela,” 1877; “Michigan,” of the Northwestern Lakes, 1877-80; receiving ship “Independence,” 1880-81; “Wachuset,” Pacific Station, 1881-4; “Michigan” Northwestern Lakes, 1884-87. Capt. Bowyer gave instruction in torpedo service, during 1887-88; was then assigned to the “Omaha,” Asiatic Station, and was with this ship from 1888 to June, 1891; he was in the naval academy from September, 1891 to 1894; on the practice ship “Constellation” during the summer cruise of 1893; “Detroit” and “Raleigh” and the ill-fated “Maine,” North Atlantic Station, from July, 1894 to July, 1897: The captain was with the bureau of ordnance and did ordnance duty at Washington Navy yard from July, 1897, until the beginning of the war with Spain. April, 1898, and then went to the “Princeton” as executive officer, May 2, 1898. He was given patrol duty about the west end of Cuba during the latter part of Spanish-American war, from there he was sent to the Philippines via Suez Canal, sailing from New York, January 11, 1899. He was promoted to lieutenant commander, March 3, 1899, detached from “Princeton” to “Yorktown,” January 1, 1900; participated in the suppression of the Philippine insurrection and the boxer troubles in North China ; was detached from “Yorktown” to flagship “Brooklyn,” as executive, September 3, 1900, and detached from the “Brooklyn” to home, April 4, 1901. Captain Bowyer did duty at Naval Gun Factory, Navy Yards, Washington, D. C., as assistant superintendent of the Gun Factory and head of the department yards and docks, from July 16, 1901 to July 8, 1905. He was promoted to commander on March .21, 1903, and sent to command the U. S. S. “Columbia” on special duty, July 10, 1905 ; he was senior officer present in command of “Columbia” at Colon, and tile “Marblehead” at Panama when six hundred marines went ashore on the Isthmus of Panama, during elections in June, 1 906 ; he was senior officer present, Havana, commanding United ‘States naval force assigned to special duty in Cuban waters from November 2, 1906, to March 26, 1907, then detached to duty as aid to the assistant secretary of the navy; promoted captain, November 8, 1907; assumed command of the battleship “Illinois,” United States Atlantic Fleet, November 25, 1907, and made cruise with that fleet to the Pacific, Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, U. S. N., being Commander-in-Chief, and thence around the world to the westward, Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry, U. S. N., being Commander-in-Chief, arriving at Hampton Roads, February 22, 1909. Detached from “Illinois” to command “Connecticut” flagship of the fleet, April 20, 1909; and detached from “Connecticut to U. S. Naval Academy as superintendent, June 10, 1909.

A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1909, pages 456-457. More Erie County History Books   Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.