Alfred Lowry

1849 - 1919

Goshen’s 15th Mayor

1904 - 1906

ALFRED LOWRY FORMER MAYOR

DIES SUDDENLY

HEART FAILURE BRINGS ON.

EXPECTED DEATH LAST

EVENING

Brought Here As Orphan, Mr. Lowry 

Became One of Goshen’s Foremost Citizens

Alfred Lowry, former mayor of Goshen, and for many years prominent as a manufacturer, banker and farmer, died suddenly at about one o’clock Wednesday morning, after an Illness of but several hours. Mr. Lowry’s death occurred at the home of Mrs. A. C. Foulks, 402 South Eighth Street, where he had gone to call on Miss Wilma Foulks. The two had gone to the Jefferson theatre earlier in the evening, and it was shortly after their returned to the Foulks home and while they were sitting on the porch that Mr. Lowry was suddenly taken ill. He suffered acute pain in the region of his heart, and Dr. S. A. Edmands and Chas. W. Foulks, a brother of Miss Foulks, were called. A few hours later he expired, his death having been caused by angina pectoris, an ailment of the heart. The suddenness and unexpectedness of Mr. Lowry’s death was accentuated by the fact that he had appeared in unusually good health and fine spirits earlier in the evening. He was about 65 years old.

The body was removed to the undertaking establishment of C. B. Stiver. Funeral arrangements have not yet been completed.

Came Here As Orphan

Mr. Lowry was brought to this county as an orphan when about six years old, and was taken into the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Platter, then living in Waterford. Mr. Lowry had been one of a number of fatherless and motherless children who were sent here by a charitable instruction in New York City, where Mr. Lowry was born.

Since that time he had made his home continuously with Mr. and Mrs. Platter until their death and since then had maintained his residence in the Platter home at 423 South Fifth Street with Mrs. Gertrude Vander Bogart, who was also a member of the Platter household. He had been a resident of Goshen since 1872.

The Waterford and Goshen schools gave Mr. Lowry his education, but he began in boyhood to earn his own way, and he was, in every sense a self-made man, whose achievements have been the result of his own energy and ambition rather than to any heritage of circumstances of fortune. His early years were spent on a farm and then he became an employee of the Goshen Pump Co. Having become familiar with pump-making in all its branches he became one of the organizers of the IXL Pump Co. and later of the IXL and Goshen Pump Co. and held the offices of president and treasurer,

In 1897 he withdrew from this enterprise and became assistant cashier of the State Bank of Goshen, which he helped to organize and in which he had been director since 1891. Mr. Lowry was also one of the founders of the Elkhart County Trust Co. and had been one of its directors since its organization. He also became interested to a. large extent in real estate transactions, and at the time of his death was, the owner of valuable farm property north of Goshen.

Mayor in 1904-08.

In politics Mr. Lowry was always a staunch Republican and for many years took active part in municipal and civic affairs. He served as a member of the city council from 1896 to 1898 and from 1900 to 1902, and in 1904 he, was elected mayor, serving four years.

He was a member of the Knights of Pythias for thirty-eight years, and was also a member of the local lodge of Elks.

Goshen Daily News~Times Wednesday September 17, 1919, page 1