Biography

James Bowen was born in New York City at 1808 and died in 1886 at Hastings-on-the-Hudson. He had several wives, the first two whom he outlived: Eliza Livingston, Josephine Oothout, and Athenia Livingston. The third wife was a cousin of the first. Bowen was a close friend of William Henry Seward and the newspaper, the Herald, referred to him as being part of Seward's clique: "We will not mention their names but their initials are Draper, Blatchford, and Bowen." He was also a general during the Civil War.