William A. Bowles

Who was William A. Bowles?

William A. Bowles was a physician who held the rank of Major General in the OSL in Indiana in the early 1860s. The OSL was either an offshoot of, or front group for, the KGC. The KGC was an anti-Union paramilitary secret society, which began operating about 1854 and continued to operate for several years after the U. S. Civil War. In 1857 Bowles was one of the co-founders of the town of French Lick, Indiana located in Orange County, Indiana. In the mid-1830s he began a mineral springs resort at French Lick which exists to this day. William's parents were Isaac Bowles and Mary Bagford.