The Valley of Heart's Delight
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NICHOLAS BOWDEN

BIO- Pen Pictures
SURNAMES:  TRIMBLE

attorney at law, of the firm of Archer & Bowden, rooms 1, 2 and 3 Archer Building, San Jose, was born in the County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1851.  In 1853 his parents removed to America, settling in Cooperstown, Otsego County, New York, where he attended the public schools up to the age of fifteen years.  He then entered a general merchandise store, the largest in that county, going through all the gradations from errand boy to head salesman and assistant bookkeeper, for four years.  In 1869 he came West, and, after a short residence in St. Louis, Missouri, located at Evansville, Indiana.  Here he remained seven years, engaging first as bookkeeper in a mercantile establishment.  In 1874 he took charge of the Evansville Daily and Weekly Courier, one of the principal Democratic newspapers in the State of Indiana.  This paper he successfully managed for three years, always taking an active interest in politics, although never accepting nomination or appointment to office.  He was a member of the State Convention which nominated “Blue Jean” Williams for the governorship of Indiana in the campaign of 1876, which ticket, as well as the national Democratic ticket, were successful in that State after a very exciting campaign.  He was one of the Democrats who went South to watch the visiting statesmen, as the gentlemen of both parties were called who went to Louisiana in that year to watch the returning Board, and see that each received a fair count of the votes cast.  He was also endeavoring to recuperate his health, which had become impaired by too close attention to business.  Returning to Evansville in March, 1877, and having another attack of typhoid pneumonia, he resigned his newspaper management, intending to pass a year in California.  Finding his health improved, and liking the climate and people, he decided to remain.

            In the fall of 1877 he took the management of the San Jose Daily Herald, which he retained until June, 1880.  While the current of events had up to this time kept him in other business channels, his inclinations and ambitions had always tended towards the study of law, which he engaged in regularly in the fall of 1880, in the office of Archer & Lovell, for two years.  In the fall of 1882 he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court en banc, after the usual examination, and became a law partner of Judge Lawrence Archer, in the place of Mr. Lovell, who had retired, this association continuing to this time.  He was married on October 4, 1883, to Miss Sallie Trimble, a native of San Jose, the eldest daughter of John Trimble, lately deceased, one of the early pioneers of California and a veteran of the Mexican War.  They have one child, Lawrence Archer Bowden, now about one year old. 

            Mr. Bowden has always been actively and earnestly interested in the political questions of the day, and while not devoting time belonging to his profession, to active politics, he has always given a warm support to the Democratic party, and has been prominent in its councils.  In recognition of his position and disinterested party service, he has been nominated by the Democratic State Convention, recently held at Los Angeles, as one of the Cleveland and Thurman presidential electors for California.

Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888. p. 97-98

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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SANTA CLARA COUNTY-The Valley of Heart's Delight