GEORGE K. BOWER, ENS, USN

George Bower '68

Date of birth: April 10, 1848

Age: 21

Naval Academy Register

George Kremer Bower was admitted to the Naval Academy from Pennsylvania on September 26, 1864 at age 16 years 5 months.

Loss

George was lost on January 24, 1870 when USS Oneida was sunk following a collision with a British merchant steamer while departing Yokohama harbor, Japan. One hundred twenty-four other officers and men were also lost.

A detailed account of the event is available here.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

George's family lived in the Old Bower mansion, one of the earliest homes in Swineford. It had a mill that operated for 100 years. A portrait of George hung in the house.
At the Naval Academy, George received the following demerits: In 1864 for throwing bread and in November and December 16 infractions for raising hand at roll call, went to head without permission, and snapping fingers at hammock formation. In 1865 for skylarking. In 1867 left gas burning in his room several times, two days in a row throwing snowballs, returning library books late, and whistling.
George's father Thomas was a member of the General Assembly and chairman of the Banking and Currency Commission. His mother was Catharine (Kremer.) His grandfather was Congressman George Kremer who was buried across from the Old Bower mansion in the Swineford Cemetery. The seven graves including Kremer, the Schweinfords, and others were later reinterred in the Glendale Cemetery in Middleburg.
George's brothers were Charles, Edwin, Frederick, and William Harvey. Edwin and William were successful businessmen in the coal industry in West Virginia. Edwin's son Thomas became an engineer for the merchant marine. He later lived in the Old Bower Mansion, and his son Thomas Hervey Bower inherited the mansion. He died in 1947.

He has a memory marker in Pennsylvania and is listed on the USS Oneida memorial at the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery in Japan.

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 28 September, 1864. Graduated 2 June, 1868. Lost on board the Oneida, 24 January, 1870.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.