Bridgeport, Baker County, Oregon
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Christian Church for John T. Bowers of Bidgeport, who died Monday evening in St. Elizabeth hospital after an extended illness.
A native of Jasper County, Missouri, Bowers was the son of Samuel and Anna Bowers. He came to Eastern Oregon between 1905 and 1910 and moved to Baker County in 1930 where he had lived the rest of his life.
Bowers was a machinist by trade and worked on the railroads for a time. He worked on locomotives for the Union Pacific Railroad and was an engineer on the branch line from La Grande to Wallowa on logging trains.
He was also a shovel operator on several highway jobs in this area; did many machine jobs on the old logging Shay engine; worked with T.W. Nelson surveying much of the Clarke Creek and Burnt River mining area; did most of the surveying and engineering of the Burnt River Road; after that he acquired mining property on Burnt River where he spent the rest of his life.
His late wife, Verda Graham Bowers died in 1961, shortly after the couple had celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Bowers is survived by one sister, Mrs. Jessie Horton of Columbia, Missouri, and several nieces and nephews.
The Rev. Orville Mick of the Christian Church will officiate at the services. Neither the body or the casket will be on display at the services. Friends wishing to view the body may do so at Grays West & Co. Pioneer Chapel.
Graveside services will be held Monday at 2 p.m. in the Graham family plot in the Elgin Cemetery under the direction of Grays West & Co. Pioneer Chapel.
Source: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, February 27, 1970, page 2
Contributed by: Sue Wells