Thomas Bowman (Methodist Episcopal bishop)

Born July 15, 1817 in Berwick, Pennsylvania, Bowman earned his B.A. degree from Dickinson College in 1837. Two years later he entered the traveling ministry of the Baltimore Annual Conference of the M.E. Church. He was ordained (deacon and elder) by Bishop Waugh.

Bowman taught in the grammar-school of Dickinson College (1840–43), and five years later founded Dickinson Seminary in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (of which he was president until 1858). Bowman was then chosen as president (1858–1872) and later chancellor (1884–99) of Indiana Asbury College, later DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana. He also was the chaplain of the United States Senate from May 1864 until March 1865.

During his time at DePauw, Bowman presided over such significant events as the first admissions of women students and of the initial planning (and laying of the cornerstone) of East College. He also served on the university's board of trustees (1887–95), including a term as president.

Upon his election to the episcopacy, Bowman resigned the Asbury presidency. As a bishop he officially visited all M.E. conferences in the U.S., Europe, India, China, Japan and Mexico.

Bowman died at the age of 96 in Orange, New Jersey on March 3, 1914. His remains were interred at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Greencastle, Indiana.

• List of bishops of the United Methodist Church

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1891). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. Missing or empty |title= (help)
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. Missing or empty |title= (help)

• https://web.archive.org/web/20100603074655/http://www.depauw.edu/univ/president/history.asp
• at www.depauw.edu