Henry Chandler Bowen

Henry Chandler Bowen (September 11, 1813 – February 24, 1896) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and publisher. He was an influential member of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, where he resided much of his life, and the founder of the New York-based newspaper The Independent. He built a Gothic-style summer home named Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, Connecticut, his place of birth. Early life and education Henry Chandler Bowen was born on September 11, 1813, in Woodstock, the son of George Bowen and Lydia Wolcott Bowen (née Eaton). He was educated at Woodstock Academy and Dudley Academy. Career He moved to New York City and joined a dry-goods company owned by the abolitionist Arthur Tappan. Later he would open his own company Bowen and McNamee, specializing in silks. He opened a store on 112-114 Broadway, an Italian Marble building designed by English architect Joseph C. Wells, an architect he would work with later. The company was renamed Bowen, Holmes and Company in 1859. In 1848, Bowen founded The Independent, a weekly congregationalist newspaper that was closely associated with Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, of which he was a founding member. Plymouth's minister, Henry Ward Beecher, was the editor from 1861 to 1863 and a frequent contributor. The paper was strongly pro-abolitionist and pro-women's suffrage. Bowen served as the newspaper's chief financier and publisher, and from 1870 until his death he was the editor as well. The paper has a circulation of 70,000 in 1870.