James E. Lowery
Hon. James E. Lowery, general agent of the Union Central Life Insurance Company at Lima, and president of the National Oil Company of this city, is a native of Richland County, Ohio, where he was born in 1847. He is a son of Williamson B. Lowery, who was a prominent farmer of Richland County, Ohio, and whose death occurred in 1850.
Mr. Lowery attended school at Mansfield, Ohio, until he was 16 years old, when he became a telegraph operator on the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1866 he was appointed agent at Ada, Ohio, and remained there until December, 1871, when ill health necessitated his retirement. He then took up the work of the Union Central Lfe Insurance Company, and became their special agent in the home office at Cincinnati. Later he was appointed superintendent of agents, with headquarters at Cincinnati, where he remained until 1881, when he severed his connection with the company to assume the office of probate judge of Hardin County, to which he had been elected. He was re-elected to this office in 1884, serving in all six years. In January, 1888, he was elected clerk of the Ohio Senate and acted in that capacity two years, when he again became associated with the Union Central Life and was transferred to Washington, D. C., where he remained three years. At the expiration of that period, he was advanced to the general agency of that company at Lima, having the supervision of the work in Auglaize, Allen and Hancock counties, Ohio. He took charge of the offices here in 1894, but did not bring his family to the city until some three years later. In 1902 he became a stockholder of the National Oil Company, being now its president and treasurer.
In 1868 Judge Lowery cast his first vote for Gen. U. S. Grant, and has always been allied with the Republican Party. He was a member of the Republican State Central Committee from 1882 to 1892, its chairman in 1885-86, and the following three years served on the executive committee. He was identified with the Sherman wing of the party during the life of that statesman, and had the honor of being a close friend of Maj. William McKinley during the latter's congressional, senatorial and presidential careers, but never would accept office from Major McKinley, although the proffer was urgently made.
Judge Lowery was married, in 1868, to Linda Bushnell, a daughter of Thomas Bushnell, of Ashland County, Ohio. Their children are: Daisy, wife of Frank Horner, of the Piper Grocery Company, of Lima, and William B., who resides on a farm on the outskirts of Ada, Ohio. Judge Lowery took his first degree as a Mason in 1868, and in 1874 he was exalted to the rank of noble in Shawnee Commandery. He is also a prominent Elk.