Thomas M. Bowen (October 26, 1835-December 30, 1906) was a United States Senator from Colorado, born near the present site of Burlington, Iowa. He attended the public schools and the academy at Mount Pleasant, Iowa and studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1853 and practiced. He moved to Wayne County, Iowa, in 1856 and was a member of the Iowa house of representatives in 1856. He moved to Kansas in 1858, and during the Civil War served in the Union Army from 1861-1865, as captain, then as a colonel. He was brevetted a brigadier general. After the war, Bowen located in Arkansas, and was a member and president of the constitutional convention of Arkansas, 1866; he was also a justice of the supreme court of Arkansas 1867-1871.
Bowen was appointed governor of Idaho Territory by President Ulysses Grant in 1871, but resigned and returned to Arkansas after only one week in office. He moved to Colorado Territory in 1875 and resumed the practice of law.
Upon Colorado's statehood a year later, Bowen was elected judge of the fourth judicial district and served from 1876-1880. He was a member, State house of representatives 1882 and resigned, having been elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, and served from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1889. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Mining (in the Forty-eighth Congress), Committee on Enrolled Bills (Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses). He engaged in mining in Colorado and resided in Pueblo, where he died. His interment was in Roselawn Cemetery.
Preceded by: Horace A. W. Tabor U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Colorado 1883-1889 Served alongside: Nathaniel P. Hill, Henry M. Teller Succeeded by: Edward O. Wolcott Governors of Idaho Territory Wallace • Lyon • Ballard • Bowen • Bennett • Thompson • Brayman • Neil • Irwin • Bunn • Stevenson • Shoup
