Oscar Simeon Bowen

Riverman Drowns--- Oscar S. Bowen,who worked on the Ohio River for 30 years,drowned yesterday when he fell from a barge at Twentieth Street.

was a fireman on the steamboats- died by drowning; however, it is also said that he died in the penitentiary for running moonshine.

According to Moonshine: Illicit Spirits in the Appalachian Hills of Rural Southern Ohio he was written about in the Ironton Tribune in 1932 for the manufacturing of illicit spirits

http://lawrencecountyohio.com/townships/proctorville/stories/bootle... The Chesapeake – Proctorville – Huntington liquor ring, which is reputed to have done business in a big way, has gained wide publicity by reason of the alleged connections held by the officers and for which they were indicted.

The matter first came to the attention of the public when Stanford Smith and aides were arrested in Louisville, Ky., while delivering a load of liquor into a trap set by federal officers. Unbeknown to the alleged big league bootleggers the truck load of stuff was delivered to a federal agent’s home.

The existence of the ring is reported to have been discovered by U. S. department of justice inspectors who worked their way into the confidence of certain of the gang and became members.

(Oscar "Sim"'s great uncle, John A. Bowen, was mayor of Proctorville at the time and a long time fierce supporter of the Prohibition, and, therefore, enemy of many bootleggers. When Sim and many local officers were arrested for the distribution of liquor, John A., the mayor, was not informed. It was feared that it would be too distressful for him as he was elderly, though still the mayor.)