Isaac M. Bowers, a prominent merchant and tobacco dealer of Charlotte, is a native of Wilson County, Tenn., of which county his father, William W., was also a native. The mother was a native of Christian County, Ky., where the father married her. They settled in Wilson County and lived there till 1848, when they removed to Davidson County. In 1851 they made their home in Hopkins County, Ky., where the mother died in 1880 and the father in 1883. The subject of this sketch was born May 27, 1835, and was reared on a farm and secured a limited country school education. At the age of eighteen he went to Nashville, and for ten years clerked in a hotel. He then ran a billiard hall for three years. In 1861 he enlisted in Company K, First Kentucky Cavalry, in which he served one year, and then served in another company one year. After this he was one of the scouts for Gen. Forrest’s command. Coming from the war he clerked in a hotel one year, then married and settled to farming in Kentucky for one year. In 1866 he went to Alabama and engaged in merchandising for three years. In 1869 he settled in Charlotte, where he has ever since run a general mercantile trade. He opened the tobacco trade in 1874; he was married, November 1, 1865, to Mrs. Mary C. Cayce, a daughter of Thomas McNeilly, of Charlotte. Five living children now bless this union: Maud, Julia, Horace J., Paul R. and Mary. He and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Politically he is a Democrat. He is highly respected as a valuable citizen of Dickson County.