Bowers was born in the Maine, NY, in 1847. He attended Lowell Commercial College, Binghamton, NY in 1866 and in 1867 he became a traveling salesman for Ford and Meagley, Binghamton soap manufacturers. In 1868, Bowers bought Ford out of the business for $500, and became a partner of Meagley and Bowers. In 1871, after a major fire that consumed the soap business, Bowers sold his interest in the company and became a partner in M.A. Sheak and Co., a Binghamton wholesale grocery business.

In 1872, Bowers married Fanny Gray of Maine, New York and they had their son, Franck Taylor Bowers, in 1875. In 1878, Bowers left the grocery business when his ill health forced the family to move to Omaha, Nebraska, where he formed a real estate business, Bemis and Bowers, with George Pickering Bemis. In 1879, he formed a second partnership, Parker and Bowers, Omaha, state agents for several farm implement manufacturers.

In 1883, Bowers returned to Binghamton and spent the next 10 years in semi-retirement while investing in several local businesses and working on inventions. It was during this period that the family welcomed a second son, Clement Gray Bowers, in 1893.

In 1895, Bowers began his long association with John D. Rockefeller when he was appointed as Manager of the Rockefeller-owned Bessemer Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio. During his time as manager, Bowers also designed a new type of anchor and formed his own anchor company, L.M. Bowers & Co.

While he continued working at the steamship and anchor businesses, Bowers began representing Rockefeller in other business ventures as well. In 1904, he supervised the building of the 17-story Rockefeller Building, in Cleveland, OH. In 1907-1915, Bowers served as Chairman of the Board of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. In 1909, Bowers’ first wife died. In 1911, he married his second wife, Frances Irene Gere of Montrose, PA.

It was during his time as Chairman of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in 1914 that Bowers became involved in the most historically consequential event of his life, the Ludlow Massacre. On April 20, 1914, members of the Rockefeller-funded Colorado National Guard opened fire on a group of armed coal miners and set fire to a makeshift settlement in Ludlow, Colorado, where more than a thousand striking workers and their families were camped out. The Massacre shocked the public and shifted the way that people saw workers rights. As a high ranking executive of the company, Bowers had known about the poor working conditions of the mines and had refused to negotiate with the union. He stated in personal correspondence, and later in official hearings about the Massacre, that the union strike was the interference of foreign anarchists looking to attack American freedom and progress.

In 1915, Bowers returned to Binghamton where he maintained interest in local affairs and remained a representative of Rockefeller interests on several directorates. In 1921, Bowers officially retired once again from the Rockefeller Foundation and all of its enterprises. He journeyed to Cleveland every month until he was well over 80 to attend directors meetings of the American Shipbuilding Co. and the Great Lakes Towing Co.

Bowers died in 1941 in Binghamton, New York.