J. Walton Bowman - Bowman's Field

Memorial Field was renamed Bowman Field on Wednesday June 26th, 1929.

The son of a successful lumber baron,  J. Walton Bowman, 1865-1931 known as "Walt"  was a successful businessman, active in, and generous to,  his community.  The  tower chimes and a four-manual organ to the First Presbyterian Church of Williamsport are just one of the many gifts he gave to the city.   An automobile enthusiast, he is reported as the first to own an automobile in Williamsport.  

 In the early 1920s, baseball in Williamsport was played at the Williamsport High School Athletic Field at the corner of West Third and Susquehanna Streets- today the location of Penn College.

"The origins of Bowman Field occurred at a meeting of Williamsport baseball officials and city officials at downtown Williamsport’s venerable Ross Club, late in the summer of 1924."

The Ross Club, West Fourth Street [Today the First Community Foundation Building]

Late in the summer of 1924, Williamsport baseball officials and city officials met at "Williamsport's venerable Ross Club" to discuss building a new ballpark,  In, at Memorial park, land owned by the Williamsport Water Company. Negotiations continued into 1925, when an agreement was reached. A field would be built at Memorial Park.

Memorial Park had been the  Max. M. Brown Memorial Park.   In 1921, Jacob C. Brown and his family, owners of Standard Wood Pipe Company, donated the land for the park to the city in memory of Jacob's brother Max. The new Memorial Park formerly opened  in 1924, and in addition to baseball fields it included playgrounds, a track, tennis and volleyball courts, bathing pools and beaches, a roller coaster, bumper cars, a dance hall,  a skating rink, and even a zoo.

 Prominent businessman and baseball booster, J. Walton Bowman was put in charge of fundraising efforts to finance the $75,000 needed to build the new baseball facility at the new Memorial park.

Bowman contributed a sizeable sum himself and also solicited donations from such businessmen and businesses as: Jim and Irv Gleason, Max Jaffe, Joe Mosser, J. Roman Way, Ralph "Pat" Thorne, the Reese-Sherriff Lumber Company and Harder's Sporting Goods.

A Statement of Principles by these investors that appeared in the Gazette and Bulletin at the time of the ballpark's opening explained their dual motives, "While the primary object of this movement is to provide the Williamsport Baseball Club a suitable playing field, the ultimate and more important aim is to give eventually to our home city a modern and public ballpark for the benefit and use of all its' people..."

Ground was broken for the ballpark in the fall of 1925. The facility was modeled after another ballpark located in Johnson City, New York.

Memorial Field, 1926

Bowman Field's original dimensions were described as "quite cavernous when compared to today's measurements."

 The Williamsport Gazette and Bulletin reported the following dimensions;

Home plate to right field- 367 feet

Home plate to centerfield- 450 feet

Home plate to left field- 400 feet.

"With its original outfield dimensions standing at 367 feet to left field, 400 feet to right field and 450 feet to dead center field, Bowman Field's measurements blew other ballparks out of the water.

The first game was played on the field on April 27th 1926.  Oscar Charleston hit a homerun that night, the first to be hit on that field.  

Memorial Field, 1930

Eight years later, in 1934," Bowman's outfield walls were pulled in after only 10 home runs had been hit during its first eight seasons. By 1961, the temporary outfield fences were removed and a much smaller diamond was made for the Williamsport club." 

Memorial Field was renamed Bowman Field on Wednesday June 26th, 1929.

The Williamsport Grit reported:

"Bowman Day" the annual booster occasion for the Williamsport Baseball Club, was observed Wednesday when the splendid baseball park at Memorial Field was named Bowman Field in honor of J. Walton Bowman, president of the Williamsport Grays, the individual to whom must be given the credit that Williamsport continued to enjoy organized baseball. The Imperial Teteques, the Masonic band which Mr. Bowman heads, provided music for the occasion, wearing crepe paper hats bearing the words "Walt's Band".  The band, the contending ball teams, and club officials marched  to the flagpole in center field and raised to position beneath the American Flag a pennant reading "Bowman Field".  Upon the return march to home plate, Tommy Richardson, acting for the local ball club, presented President Bowman a unique watch, resembling closely in appearance an old-fashioned pocket watch safe.  This case pulls apart in the middle to disclose the face of the watch.  The opening and closing of the outer case keeps the watch wound.  perhaps 3,000 fans attended the Bowman Day game, which was won by Williamsport from Wilkes Barre 4-0.

Manger Glenn Killinger, J. Walton Bowman, and J. Roy Clunk, April 13 1930

In this photo, taken July 1930, the Memorial Park Roller Coaster can still be seen behind the baseball stadium.

In 1934, after 8 years of "home runs being a lost art",  the outfield at Bowman Field was sized down.

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The Bowman family fortune was built on lumber manufacturing, banking, and other commercial endeavors.  

August 1899

1910

1911

In 1913, Bowman's car was struck by a trolley.

619 West 4th Street, Williamsport

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James Walton Bowman, vice-president of the Bowman-Foresman Company of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and also prominently identified with the ownership and management of various other important industrial and financial interests in that vicinity, is the youngest son of the late Benjamin Carleton and Eliza Ann (Buck) Bowman, and was born in Clearfield county, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1864.

He began his education in the private schools and became a student in Dickinson Seminary, finishing with a business course in Commercial College. Young Bowman was now well advanced in his studies, and capable of entering upon an active career, and he began work in the mill and shops of B. C. Bowman & Company, of which his father was the head and active manager. The other member of the firm, J. H. Rowland, of Port Deposit, Maryland, was associated with Mr. Bowman from the early fifties to the time of his (Mr. Bowman's) death. In 1898 the firm name was changed to that of the Bowman-Foresman Company, in which corporation James W. Bowman was appointed to the position of vice-president. He came to his duties with excellent preparation, being entirely familiar with every detail of the great business in which he had grown up, and with which his family name had been associated from the inception of the enterprise. In addition, Mr. Bowman has long been actively identified with various other manufacturing and financial institutions, some of which owed their founding in large part to the effort of his father. He is a director in the Bowman Lumber Company of St. Albans, West Virginia; secretary and treasurer of the Rowland Land Company of West Virginia; a stockholder in the Saluda River (South Carolina) Lumber Company; the Rishel Furniture Company of Williamsport, Pennsylvania; the McKean Chemical Company and the Lycoming Calcining Company; and is a director in the Susquehanna Trust and Safe Deposit Company. He takes an intelligent and active interest in the affairs of the community, and is particularly interested in educational concerns. At the present time (1905) he is serving his second term as a member of the board of school directors of the city of Williamsport. He is a warm advocate of the principles of the Democratic party. He has attained high rank in the Masonic fraternity.

Mr. Bowman was united in marriage on the 14th of October, 1886, with Miss Harriet Elizabeth Geiger, a native of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, daughter of Andrew and Mary Eva (Mott) Geiger.

Mr. and Mrs. James Walton Bowman are the parents of one child, Helen Eliza Bowman, born December 27, 1889, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

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J. Walton's Father - Benjamin C. Bowman - 

BENJAMIN C. BOWMAN was born in Chenango township, Broome county, New York, April 7, 1818, and is a son of Ebenezer and Sylvia P. (Barnaby) Bowman. His mother died when he was thirteen years of age, and his father, who was a native of Vermont, returned to that State. Our subject was reared near Binghamton, New York, and attended the public schools of that city. After his mother’s death he removed to Great Bond, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, where he was employed in working on a farm, until reaching his majority. He was married, January 8, 1840, to Eliza Ann Buck, of Susquehanna county, who has been a faithful helpmate for over fifty-two years. He rented a farm in that county, upon which he remained two years, and then removed to Centre county and engaged in the lumber business. He commenced by purchasing an old saw mill and a tract of timber land, which he cleared and manufactured into lumber, rafting the product down the Moshannon. He subsequently erected a steam mill near Phillipsburg, Centre county, and hauled his lumber on wagons to Clearfield creek, upon which he rafted it down to the river and thence to market, and he was one of the first men to float logs via the Susquehanna to Williamsport. From a small beginning Mr. Bowman became one of the most. extensive lumber operators in Centre and Clearfield counties.

Star Mills, Williamsport PA

 In June, 1864, he located in Williamsport and purchased the Star Mills, under the firm name of Barrows, Bowman & Company, which they operated for many years, the name of the firm having been changed in the meantime to Bowman, Foresman & Company. Mr. Bowman is a member of the firm of B. C. Bowman & Company, and Bowman, Foresman & Company, and is president of the Bowman Lumber Company of West Virginia. He is recognized as one of the most prominent lumber operators in the Susquehanna valley, and owes his success to his indomitable pluck, wonderful perseverance, and close attention to the details of his business.

 He has been connected with the Susquehanna Boom Company for many years, and is now president of the company. He has been president of the Lycoming Rubber Company since its, organization, was vice-president of the Lumberman’s National Bank, and is now vice-president of the Susquehanna Trust and Safe Deposit Company. He is a director in the Williamsport Gas Company, and is financially interested in other institutions. Mr. Bowman has always been a supporter of the Democratic party, and manifests an active interest in public affairs. 

He has two surviving children: Francis C., of the Lycoming Rubber Company, and James Walton, employed in his father’s office. He is president of the board of trustees of Grace Methodist Episcopal church, and is the steward of that organization. He is a trustee of Dickinson Seminary, also of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and gives liberally of his means to the support of religious, charitable, and educational institutions.