WARREN O.
BOWERS
Statisticians
tell us that ninety percent of business undertakings are failures, either
partial or total. This is often due to the fact that the line of business
chosen is not adapted to the particular ability of the man, or else he fails to
recognize the fact that the present and not the future holds his opportunities.
Many there are who, dazzled by alluring promises of the future, forget
the duties of the moment, and the advantages that are accorded them are
therefore lost. The greatest English poet that the world has ever known
wrote : "There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at its flood,
leads on to fortune;" but few realize when this favorable moment has come.
Warren O. Bowers, however, is one who entered upon a business especially
adapted to his temperament and capability, and as a hotel man he is widely
known on the Pacific coast, and his friends are found throughout the
Union. He has so guided and directed his business interests that today he
is numbered among the wealthy residents of the capital city, and if indolence
and idleness were not so utterly foreign to his nature, it would be possible
for him to put aside business cares and rest in the enjoyment of the fruits of
his former toil.
Mr. Bowers was born in New Hampshire, April 26, 1838,
and is a son of Thomas and Betsey (Conery) Bowers. His father died in
October, 1857, and his mother passed away in 1895. Their son Warren spent
his boyhood in his native town of Nashua, New Hampshire, and to its public
schools was indebted for his early educational privileges which he received.
At the age of sixteen he went to Northfield, Vermont, and entered the
railroad shops of the Vermont Central Railroad as an apprentice. On the
completion of his term he removed to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he made
his home during the war, engaged in railroading . When the strife between
the north and south was ended, he was commissioned to go abroad, having in
charge the supervision of steamboat work in Europe for over a year, returning
to New York in 1867.
Mr. Bowers then came to the Pacific coast and
entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and at a later
date he engaged in steamboating, spending three years in that way. When
that period had passed he returned to the Southern Pacific Company and
continued with them until 1878, when he removed to Sacramento, and became the
proprietor of the Union Hotel, on the corner of Second and K streets.
His extensive acquaintance and his excellent business qualifications soon
secured him a fair share of public patronage. He was also connected with
other business interests, having become a half owner of the Capital Ale Vaults
on J street, between Third and Fourth streets. For about four years he
continued that enterprise, and then entered the hotel business. For five
years he was the proprietor of the Union Hotel, after which he rented the
Golden Eagle and for many years conducted there one of the finest hotels on the
Pacific coast. It stands at the corner of Seventh and K streets, and
since the founding of the city has been the site of one of Sacramento's hotels.
In 1851 Dan Callahan erected there a lodging house, making an annex of canvas,
and upon the flaps of the tent a man of jocular qualities, with a piece of
charcoal, drew the figure of an eagle with outspread wings and serious mien,
and dubbed the place the Golden Eagle Hotel, a name which has since been
retained. It was Mr. Bowers, however, that brought the hotel up to a high
standard of excellence. Progress and improvement are salient elements in
his character and he is not content with stagnation in any business project
with which he is connected. He began the task of improving the Golden
Eagle, and soon it became the leading hotel of Sacramento. Although of
extensive proportions it was found incapable of entertaining the guests who
applied for admission. The business and social qualities of Mr. Bowers
rendered him very popular with the traveling public, and he conducted the hotel
with marked success until at length he determined to retire from business.
As a man of leisure, however, he is not a success and after a period of
idleness, which grew very burdensome to him, he leased the Capital Hotel, in
August, 1899, and has since refitted it and has raised it to a high standard,
even superior to that of the old Golden Eagle Hotel.
His name is known to the traveling public
throughout this western section of the United States, and those who seek
first-class entertainment always give their patronage to him on visiting Sacramento.
Combined with sound judgment, indefatigable energy and resolute purpose,
he displays charming social qualities and a sincere interest in the welfare and
comfort of his guests, and to these qualities may be attributed his marked
prosperity.
Source: “A Volume Of
Memoirs And Genealogy of Representative Citizens Of Northern California”
Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. Chicago. 1901. Page 156-158.
Submitted by: Betty Tartas.
© 2002 Betty Tartas.