San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ARTHUR W. COWELL
The advancement of San Joaquin
County and the upbuilding of the city of Stockton have a progressive promoter
in the person of Arthur W. Cowell, the energetic brick and concrete contractor,
who has a record of erecting one business block each month for a year. He was born near Richmond, Virginia, on
August 16, 1870. His father, Adelbert M. Cowell, was born in Auburn, New York, in 1834,
and learned the stone and brick mason’s trade; and upon his removed to
Washington, D. C., he engaged in the contracting business. Later he did construction work for several
railroads in the east. In 1886 he
arrived in California and located at San Diego, where he worked for the San
Diego Flume Company. The following year
he located in Stockton, and here has been actively engaged in construction work
of various kinds. He married Miss Sarah
Hollingsworth, and they are the parents of ten children, nine of whom are
living. Mr. and Mrs. Cowell reside in
one of the residences he erected on North Stanislaus Street.
Arthur W. Cowell, the oldest of his
parents’ living children, came to California with the family when sixteen years
of age and took up the trade of brick mason with his father; and within four
years he was able to start in business for himself. Following is a partial list of the buildings
he has erected since 1900: the main high
school building, the San Joaquin Valley Bank (now the Bank of Italy) on Hunter
Street, the Elks building, the Y. M. C. A. building, the Stockton Savings &
Loan Bank, the Wilhoit building, the Lincoln Hotel, the Clark Hotel, the Henry
Apartments, the Home Apartments, and Hotel Philson. He also remodeled the Commercial Hotel and
built the Smith & Lang building on South San Joaquin Street, the Salvation
Army Hotel, and the Oullahan & Littlehale block on Weber Avenue. Then there is the Belding block, Hotel
Marion, the Sanguinetti block on Market Street, the Solari block, Steed Brothers’ Garage, the Flannigan block,
the Turner block, the Russell block on California Street, the Stockton Ice
& Fuel Building, the Ruhl building, and the Gnekow
block. He erected the entire block of
brick buildings on the south side of Main Street between Stanislaus and
American Avenue, which includes the five-story Bronx Hotel, and also the Crane
block of buildings on South San Joaquin Street, which includes the Hotel Dale;
as well as the Presbyterian Church at the corner of El Dorado & Vince, and
the new five-story Levy Building at the corner of Main and Hunter. His building operations extend throughout the
entire county, and he has erected many substantial and imposing buildings
outside of his home city, among them being the Lodi National Bank and the
Farmers & Merchants Bank building at Lodi.
The marriage of Mr. Cowell united
him with Miss Margaret Willis, a native of England, and they are the parents of
three children: Margaret, William A.,
and Arthur W., Jr. During the late war,
William A. Cowell served as sergeant of Company L, 363rd Infantry,
at Camp Lewis, and later was commissioned lieutenant; however, he was not sent
overseas. Fraternally Mr. Cowell is a
member of Lodge No. 218 B. P. O. E., and Charity Lodge No. 6, I. O. O. F.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1069-1070. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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