A Boy Named Otis

By Linda Mullen Clevenger

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Ten-year-old Otis spent his summer days like most boys did in Fulton County, Indiana, in 1928.

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He entered hogs and cows in 4-H contests and he played basketball with the barn as a backboard. He and his older sister, Esther, pulled a wagon door-to-door to sell milk in glass quart bottles for five cents to their neighbors.

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His family was poor then, but he did not know it. Otis thought his family had everything. When they needed something, they worked and earned money to buy it. Otis’s parents, Vernie and Pearl Bowen, worked hard so their family could enjoy life.

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The Bowen children learned when they tried hard, they had the most fun. Some people think it is not fun to work hard. Otis learned that if he learned all of his spelling words, it was fun to be in spelling contests. He practiced his piano lessons and learned the songs well, so he liked playing the piano. By shooting basketballs with his little brother at home, he became a better player at school.

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Otis tried not to show-off when he was good at something. When he started to feel like he was the best, he would quickly be reminded that he was not. One day, he was showing off in the barn, fell, and broke his arm. Another time, he told his family he was the best speller but then lost the spelling bee.

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Another time, he and his cousin, John, wanted to travel. They hitchhiked and then hid on a boxcar. They rode the train to Chicago. When they were spotted by railroad guards, they were sent home.

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In the 1920s, television and computers did not exist and the Bowens could not afford a radio. For fun, the family sang around the piano and played dominoes or card games like “Rook.” They did not have a pool but swam in the horse’s water tank. They also played croquet and pitched horseshoes.

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Otis liked playing baseball with his friends at a one-room school in Fulton County called “Dead Man’s College.” The school was on top of an old, abandoned cemetery at the intersection of 700N and 500 W. Students said one grave was under the front steps. Some of the old tombstones were scattered around the playground. Otis and his friends used them as bases.

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Otis loved basketball, too, and wished he could play some day at Indiana University (I.U.) He was not tall so he practiced hard at things that did not require long legs. He learned to steal the ball from others and improved his long shot. Otis was a good player in high school and tried out for the I.U. team. He was not picked. Just trying was fun.

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The Bowen family often visited relatives. Otis loved going to his grandparents’ house where he was born. He loved winding-up their Victrola and playing to records. His favorite song was “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

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Grandma Bowen played a fun game with her grandchildren. When they came, she would put a pie in the kitchen window to cool. She knew the boys would “steal” it. She pretended not to know they had eaten it. When it was gone, Grandma Bowen would say, “Did someone steal my pie again?” The children always laughed.

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On Mondays, the Bowen children helped their mother with laundry. They filled two washtubs with water. In one, they scrubbed clothes with lye soap. The soap was made by their grandparents. The other tub was used to for rinsing. After wringing the clothes, they hung the clothes outside to dry.

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In the summer, laundry was done in the yard so the sun would warm the water. Clothes were washed less often in the winter and were hung to dry in the kitchen. The Bowen children had only two or three outfits to wear. They were careful not to get them dirty and wore them longer between washings. Otis could fit all of his clothes into one small suitcase.

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Saturday was the day Otis took his weekly bath. Every Sunday, the family went to church together. The girls always wore dresses and the boys put on their nicest clothes. These outfits were called their “Sunday bests.”

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From 1929 until 1939, the United States was in a period called “The Great Depression.” Many people lost their jobs. Some families were very poor. The Bowen children sometimes worked with their parents to earn money to pay the rent and to buy food. When they worked together as a family, the money earned was used for the family.

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When he worked alone, Otis was permitted to keep the money he earned. He dreamed of being a doctor and knew he would be responsible for paying for college. He worked as much as he could to save. He milked cows, shocked wheat, mowed grass, and pumped gas. If he earned 50 cents a day, he felt like he was walking on clouds.

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Out of every dollar earned, Otis saved 75 cents. He put the money in the local bank so he would not spend it foolishly. He hoped to get a scholarship to help pay for college. He always made the honor roll in high school but he did not get a scholarship.

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School was very important to the Bowen family. They helped their father prepare for classes, attended classes and swept the gym after school. At home, they played make-believe school. Otis and Esther taught their younger brother Dick, and little sisters, Evelyn and Sarah Jane.

The Bowen children loved going to school. The school year ended in April and started in September to allow children help with farming. Sometimes, Vernie was the only teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, teaching grades one to eight.

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Every summer for 17 years, Vernie worked for his teaching license at Valparaiso University and Manchester College. His children saw him teaching long days and studying late into the night. Vernie also found jobs stacking straw, digging potatoes, and picking pickles. As the eldest son, Otis had more responsibilities when his father was away. He did more chores than the others did, and helped his mother with the younger children.

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Otis was a good student and was liked by his classmates. In high school, he was elected class president every year. He would later win 26 local and state elections, become governor of the State of Indiana, and a member of a president’s cabinet.

While Otis was a senior at Francesville High School, his Grandma and Grandpa Bowen died just a week apart. After graduating in 1935, Otis chose to attend I.U. in Bloomington. It was where he wanted to be but he almost quit because he was so homesick. He missed his family, especially his grandparents. When he went home for the fall break, Otis talked about quitting school.

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Vernie Bowen talked Otis into returning to school so he could become a doctor. Vernie and Pearl knew that a college education would lead their children to better lives.

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College was not always easy for Otis but he was happy he did not quit. Once he got a “smoke-up” in zoology, warning him that he may fail. He wanted to study humans, not animals. He improved the zoology grade to a B+ by studying harder.

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To pay for college, Otis worked many jobs. He was a waiter, typed papers for other students, and helped an English teacher do research. In the summers, he milked cows, plowed fields, and painted houses. One time, he cut up a pair of blue jeans to make a carrier for his heavy medical books. Other students liked the carrier so much that Otis asked his mother to make more. He sold them for $1.50.

His most unusual job was “cadaver boy.” Sometimes when people died, their families donated the bodies to the I.U. School of Medicine. His job was taking care of the bodies and taking them to classrooms for students to study.

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While Otis was in college, his parents moved to Crown Point so Vernie could teach at a high school. The principal of the school invited Otis to his house for dinner. At that dinner, Otis met a young woman named Elizabeth Steinmann and they played a game of “Pick-up Sticks.”

The two started dating and five weeks later, Otis asked Elizabeth to marry him. He called her “Beth” and she called him “Otie.” They could not afford to get married because his college cost so much. For the second time, Otis thought about quitting school. He was out of money and wanted to get a job so they could be married sooner.

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Beth was angry about this. She told Otis, “I want to marry a doctor.” Beth inherited some money from her father and insisted that Otis use it for school.

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On February 25, 1939, the day before his 21st birthday and about eight months after he proposed, Otis married Beth. He returned to college the next day and graduated with honors later that spring. He went home to see Beth for the summer, but he still faced three years of medical school.

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They spent the summers of 1939 and 1940 together but lived apart for most of the first two years of their marriage. During this time, he hitchhiked home every two months to see his wife.

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World War II began by 1940. President Franklin D. Roosevelt required all young men in America to register with the new Selective Service System. From that list of names, men were drafted to the armed forces to protect the country. Otis did not wait to be drafted. He joined the Army.

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The Army wanted Otis to finish medical school before reporting to duty. Doctors were always needed to treat injured soldiers in battle. His internship at Epworth Hospital (now called Memorial Hospital) in South Bend lasted two more years. Other interns called him, “Buzz.” His Army buddies called him “Doc,” a nickname he kept for the rest of his life.

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On June 3, 1943, Doc received his medical degree, and became a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. The Army moved him often, first to Pennsylvania, then California, Texas, Washington and Hawaii.

Beth moved with him whenever she could. While living in Texas, Doc and Beth learned she was pregnant with their first child. At about the same time, the Army sent Doc to the state of Washington and then to Hawaii for jungle training to prepare for duty in Okinawa, Japan.

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Beth returned home to Crown Point. On August 19, 1944, Doc received a telegram announcing his son’s birth. Beth sent him pictures in the many letters she wrote, but Doc did not meet his son until Rick was almost two years old!

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World War II ended in 1945 and Doc was discharged from the Army in 1946. He and Beth wanted to live in Indiana. They looked at many cities but chose to live in Bremen. They liked the town and the town needed doctors.

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Doc and Beth moved first to a small house at 110 South Montgomery Street in Bremen but quickly outgrew it.

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By 1952, the Bowens had four children: Rick, Judy, Tim, and Rob, and moved to a very large house at 304 North Center Street. Today, people call that house, “The Bowen Mansion.” It has five floors: The basement, the main floor, a second floor, a third-floor ballroom, and an attic.

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Doc and Dr. Earl Cripe both arrived in Bremen on the same day in 1946. The nearest hospitals were more than fifteen miles away in Mishawaka or Plymouth. The doctors quickly realized a hospital was needed in Bremen. A year later, the Brethren Church converted a nursing home into a hospital and Doctors Bowen and Cripe were the first doctors. That hospital later became Community Hospital of Bremen.

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Doctors often treated patients in their own homes at this time.

Women sometimes gave birth at home, calling for a doctor only if they were having trouble. One Amish woman called Doc every time she was pregnant: Seventeen times! When they could not pay Doc, they took him a living chicken. He was not home when they arrived so they put the chicken in a gunnysack and left it near the garage.

When Doc arrived home, he accidentally ran over the chicken!

Many of Doc’s patients were from the Amish community. When they came to his office, Beth spoke with them in German. They felt comfortable with her and this made Doc very popular with them.

At this time, Marshall County doctors took turns serving as the coroner to investigate deaths. Six years after moving to Bremen, Doc was asked by the Marshall County Medical Society to run for this position.

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Doc was elected as Marshall County coroner in 1952. He was paid just $600 a year. Doc discovered he liked being in public office.

After being coroner for four years, Doc decided to run for the office of state representative. He loved the State of Indiana and he learned this was a way to help many people at the same time. He chose to be a Republican earlier when he disagreed with some of the views of President Roosevelt, a Democrat.

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A representative is elected to go to Indianapolis several months each year to make laws for the people of Indiana. Doc believed a good representative of the people should listen carefully to citizens before making decisions for them.