1859–1944

Introduction

portrait

Born: June 11, 1859, near Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia.

Died: 1944, Rock­ing­ham Coun­ty, Vir­gin­ia.

Buried: Day­ton Ce­me­te­ry, Day­ton, Vir­gin­ia.

Biography

John was the son of Jo­seph Bow­man and Sar­ah J. Flo­ry, and hus­band of Ma­ry E. Stov­er.

He be­gan stu­dy­ing mu­sic at an ear­ly age, and age 18, at­tend­ed his first nor­mal at New Mar­ket, Vir­gin­ia, con­duct­ed by Ben­ja­min Un­seld and P. J. Mer­ges.

He lat­er at­tend­ed other nor­mals and stu­died with ma­ny of Am­er­ica’s fore­most teach­ers, in­clud­ing An­tho­ny Sho­wal­ter. It was from Sho­wal­ter’s Sou­thern Nor­mal Mu­sic­al In­sti­tute (SNMI) in Dal­ton, Geor­gia, that Bow­man re­ceived his di­plo­ma.

Bowman was an as­sist­ant teach­er at the SNMI, and lat­er op­ened his own Am­er­ican Nor­mal School of Music. As of 1904, he was liv­ing in Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia, and was a stock­hold­er in the A. J. Sho­wal­ter Com­pa­ny, a Gos­pel mu­sic pub­lish­er.

Works

Sources

Lyrics

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