Bowersville was first surveyed in April of 1848 and had twenty-six lots. The village was named for its first business man, Peter Bowermaster. Bowermaster had a store located here before it was surveyed and he also served as the postmaster. When railroads began making big inroads throughout Ohio, it was believed a new railroad was going to be built running from Cincinnati to Columbus and it would have a stop in Bowersville. When that particular railroad route was built, it did not pass through Bowersville.
Later in the 1870s a narrow-gauge railroad connecting Sedalia in Madison County with Kingman in Clinton County, did pass through Bowersville. That railroad increased business development in the village including the construction of several grain elevators. In time, that narrow gauge railroad was replaced with a modern railway that was part of a line connecting Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis.
NORMAN VINCENT PEALE
Norman Vincent Peale, a spiritual world leader in the mid 1950s, was born in Bowersville in 1898. Although his time in Bowersville was limited (his father was a Methodist Minister who frequently moved from one community to another as needs required). One of his books epitomized his life The Power of Positive Thinking which remained on the New York Times best seller list for 186 consecutive weeks.
Norman Peale graduated from high school in Bellefontaine, Ohio (by this time he had lived in 7 different communities throughout the state). He earned his degree from Ohio Wesleyan University
in Delaware.
Bowersville's Centrallized School Built in 1915 - 1916