Eddie Bowles & James Hearst

In the 1981 book, Time Like a Furrow, the Cedar Falls farmer-poet (and namesake of the Hearst Center for the Arts) James Hearst wrote about his experiences growing up on a local farm before the era of industrial agriculture. In one chapter, he writes of his memories of meeting Eddie Bowles for the first time more than fifty years earlier.

James Hearst and James McAlvin, courtesy of Special Collections & University Archives James Hearst Collection

Hearst first met Bowles sometime between 1914 to 1918. Bowles was introduced to Hearst in late February or early March between those years thanks to Hearst's father, who needed Bowles' saw to cut logs to heat the house. Bowles' saw was placed and transported on the back of his truck while he was helping the Hearst's cut the logs. Young Hearst was fascinated and impressed by the machine.

James Hearst noted that Eddie Bowles was the first black man he had ever met, and as noted in the Cedar Falls as a Sundown Town page, there were reasons why that may have been the case. But what was the most memorable to Hearst and his siblings was hearing Eddie tell stories about his time in New Orleans. Like many Cedar Falls resident whose paths crossed Eddie Bowles, James Hearst came away with fond memories half a century later.