Jay Bowerman

Jay Bowerman (August 15, 1876 – October 25, 1957) was an American politician, a Republican, who served most notably as the 13th Governor of Oregon.

Bowerman was born in Hesper, Iowa, the son of Daniel and Lydia (Battey) Bowerman. His siblings were named Ralph, Martha and Mary.

He received his early education in public schools of Hesper, then moved to Salem, Oregon in 1893. He entered Willamette University that same year and graduated with a law degree in 1896 at the age of twenty. He was admitted to the Oregon Bar the following year, practicing law in Salem until 1899. He then moved to Condon, in Gilliam County, Oregon, where he lived for the next twelve years. There he became a law partner of H. H. Henricks. Bowerman's service in the Spanish-American War briefly interrupted his practice of the law.

He married Elizabeth Hoover in 1903 and together they had three children: William, Daniel and Elizabeth. However, the couple divorced and Bowerman married Wayfe Hockett in 1914; this marriage produced two further children, Sally and Jayne.

He was elected to the Oregon State Senate from Gilliam County in 1904 and was reelected four years later. He served as president of that body from 1909 to 1911. When Governor Frank W. Benson was incapacitated by ill health in June 1910, he asked Bowerman. as President of the Senate, to assume gubernatorial responsibilities. On June 16, 1910, at age thirty-three, Bowerman became Acting Governor.

Mindful of bureaucratic economy, Bowerman advocated establishment of a Board of Control to administer the state institutions, which would permit fiscal savings by combined purchasing for state institutions through the office of a single purchasing agent. However, the Board of Control was not established until the administration of his successor. He acted to reduce the risk of loss through bank failure by prohibiting Oregon bankers from the use of speculative stock as assets if they had actively promoted that stock. In 1904 the citizens of Oregon adopted a direct primary law prohibiting party nominating conventions. But establishment Republicans, unwilling to relinquish party control over nominations, held an "assembly" in 1910 at which they nominated Bowerman as their candidate for governor. He was therefore cast in the role of opponent of the "Oregon System" of direct government by his Democratic gubernatorial rival, Oswald West. Bowerman campaigned on a platform supporting modernized highway systems, increased economies in the administration of government, and continued tight control of state land management. West defeated him, however, 54,853 votes to 48,751.

After leaving the office of governor on January 8, 1911, Bowerman moved to Portland, where he resumed the practice of law. He was reelected President of the State Senate but retired following the 1911 session. As a private citizen he actively supported Oregon's first statewide bond issue for highway construction, a $6,000,000 proposal. He also served as an active lobbyist for years at the State Legislature. He died in Portland in 1957.

Preceded by Frank W. Benson

Governor of Oregon 1910-1911

Succeeded by Oswald West