Baxter Bowman (before 1814 – December 13, 1853) was a businessman and political figure in

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

, who operated a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

and a number of

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

s on the du Lièvre. Bowman was a lumber merchant based in

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...

, Lower Canada who held cutting rights on the du Lièvre River and the upper

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

. At one time, the legendary French-Canadian lumberjack

Joseph Montferrand Joseph "Jos" Montferrand (; born Joseph Favre ; October 25, 1802 – October 4, 1864) was a French-Canadian logger, strongman, and folk hero of the working man and was the inspiration for the legendary Ottawa Valley figure Big Joe Mufferaw. L ...

worked for Bowman on the upper Ottawa. Bowman was a justice of the peace for the region and also served as a captain in the local militia. He was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada The Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada was the lower house of the bicameral structure of provincial government in Lower Canada until 1838. The legislative assembly was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. The lower house consisted of ele ...

in 1834 for Ottawa County. He died in Buckingham in 1853 and was buried at

Meredith, New Hampshire Meredith is a New England town, town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,662 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Meredith is situated in the state's Lakes Region (New Hamp ...

. His sawmills on the Lièvre were later purchased by

James Maclaren James Maclaren (March 19, 1818 – February 10, 1892) was an early settler and entrepreneur in western Quebec. Maclaren was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1818. He came to Richmond in Upper Canada with his family in 1822. The family then settl ...

and others in 1864. The municipality of Bowman on the du Lièvre River took its name from Baxter Bowman.

External links

References

1853 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada Canadian businesspeople in timber Year of birth uncertain Year of birth unknown {{Quebec-MNA-stub