Born on January 25, 1803, in Farmington, Franklin County, Maine. He moved to Iowa from Ohio in 1841. He was a community leader in Cedar County, Iowa from the 1840s through the 1870s. Mr. Gower was a farmer by trade. He platted the village of Cedar Bluffs in 1851, helped establish the Cedar River Bridge Company in 1852, served on the county board of supervisors in the 1860’s, and was a member of Iowa’s State Constitutional Convention of 1857. Gower Township in Cedar County was named for this pioneer settler. He was a Republican in politics. He died April 2, 1874, in Cedar Bluff, Cedar, Iowa.