Individual Details

After his marriage in 1841, Wilson settled in New York, engaged in the mercantile trade. He moved to Cincinnati, OH, where he studied medicine at the Eclectic Institute of Medicine, and was graduated in 1845. He practiced medicine in Fairfield, IN, for about seven years. In 1852, he purchased a prairie outfit and spent six months on the Oregon Trail, arriving in Portland late in 1852. In the spring of 1853, he purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land in South Tualatin (now Cornelius) and became a farmer as well as a doctor. There were only two other doctors in the vicinity at that time. In 1860, he set up practice in Forest Grove while still retaining his farm. His practice extended over the present county of Washington, which he traveled by horseback. In 1875, he added to his medical practice in the purchase of a drug store in Forest Grove. Dr. Bowlby was a member of the last Oregon State Senate, and served as president of that body. During the Civil War, Dr. Bowlby was appointed Examining Surgeon of the Army by President Lincoln. He was Republican elector for Oregon in the first election of President Grant. In 1871, President Grant appointed him Collector of Internal Revenue in Portland, a position he held until 1874. Dr. Bowlby practiced medicine until a year before his death in 1895. He was described as the leading citizen of Washington Co. for 40 years, and his life was rated as one of the most memorable of the pioneers of Oregon.

Oregon Republican League:

Republican League Register of Oregon, The Register Publishing Company, 1896, page 184.
BOWLBY, DR. WILSON, of Forest Grove, was born in Fairfield, New Jersey, in 1818. In 1852 he came to Oregon and settled in Washington County in the practice of medicine. He has been an active Republican from the foundation of the party. He was a member of the state conventions of 1860, 1862 and 1864, and was a member of both the house and the senate of the state legislature for several terms, being one pf the first Republicans to sit in that body.

WILSON BOWLBY, M.D. (11) [Samuel (8)] was born in New Jersey in 1820, married Lydia B. Jones, was engaged in trade and commerce in New York City for a while, and then moved with his family to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he studied medicine at the Eclectic Institute of Medicine. After graduating from medical school, Dr. Wilson and his growing family moved to Fairfield, Franklin County, Indiana. After practicing medicine in Fairfield for about seven years, Dr. Wilson and his family traveled by covered wagon along the Oregon Trail in 1852 to Washington County, Oregon, where he continued practicing medicine, farmed, owned a pharmacy, and served in the last territorial and first state legislature.

• 

Birth	4 JUL 1818	New Hampton, Hunterdon Co., NJ
Baptism	23 MAR 1820	New Hampton, Hunterdon Co., NJ
Marriage	4 JUL 1841	Newark, Essex Co., NJ - Lydia B. JONES
Graduation	1845	Eclectic Institute of Medicine, Cincinnati, Hamilton Co., OH
Marriage	ABT 1885	Ellen L. BURLINGAME
Death	15 JAN 1895	Forest Grove, Washington Co., OR
Burial		Forest View Memorial Gardens, Forest Grove, Washington Co., OR

Spouse	Lydia B. JONES (1811 - 1883)
Child	John Quincy Adams BOWLBY (1843 - )
Child	Theodore F. BOWLBY (1845 - 1899)
Child	Sarah W. BOWLBY (1847 - )
Child	Emily M. BOWLBY ( - )

Spouse

Ellen L. BURLINGAME (1845 - 1894)

Father	Joseph Lanning BOWLBY (1787 - 1873)
Mother	Sarah M. PHERSON/MCPHERSON (1795 - 1881)
Sibling	Sylvester BOWLBY (1811 - 1887)
Sibling	Alexander Hamilton "Alex" BOWLBY (1813 - 1896)
Sibling	Euphemia BOWLBY (1816 - 1886)
Sibling	Mary Robins BOWLBY (1820 - )
Sibling	Elizabeth BOWLBY (1822 - )
Sibling	Sarah S. BOWLBY (1824 - )
Sibling	George Washington BOWLBY (1828 - 1902)
Sibling	Randolph N. BOWLBY (1829 - )
Sibling	Emilie Marie BOWLBY (1830 - )
Sibling	John McPherson/MacPherson BOWLBY (1831 - 1855)