Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1889

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 362
TRUMAN COWELL, proprietor of the Muscatine Gas and Electric Light Company, and contractor and builder of waterworks, has been engaged in construction of the latter since 1872. He was born in Auburn, Cayuga Co., N. Y., Oct. 31, 1840, and is a son of Nathan and Betsy ( Scofield ) Cowell. His father was born in New York City in 1797, and was descended from an old New England family. His mother's family was also of New England origin. Our subject was reared and educated in Auburn, N. Y., and when he arrived at man's estate engaged in the produce and commission business in his native city, continuing in that line until 1870, when he located at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he embarked in his present business. During his residence in Cincinnati he constructed the waterworks at Martinsburg, W. Va., Owensboro, Ky., and at Portsmouth, Ironton and Kenton Ohio. In the year 1873, he removed to Clinton, Iowa, where he resided for two years, and while there he built the waterworks at that city and at Anamosa and Lyons, Iowa. In 1875, our subject located at Muscatine, and has ever since made this city his headquarters. His first work after coming here was the construction of the Muscatine waterworks, after which he built the waterworks at Oskaloosa, Keokuk. Atlantic, Iowa City, Independence and West Liberty, in Iowa, and at St. Joseph Mo. For the past two years Mr. G. B. Denison, of the banking-house of G. A. Garrettson & Co., of Muscatine , has been associated with him as a partner, during which time they have constructed waterworks at Jamestown, N. Y., and Waterloo and Vinton, Iowa. Messrs. Cowell and Denison are sole owners of the Iowa City and Waterloo Works, which they now operate, having branch offices in both cities. As will be seen from the above, Mr. Cowell's operations have extended to a number of different States, and it is due to him to say that his works have proved entirely satisfactory in every instance, and that his proficiency in this important industry is fast winning for him a national reputation. He became interested in the Gas Company in 1879, and has since been sole proprietor. He erected the electric light plant, of which he is also proprietor, in 1887.

Our subject is an admirer of good horses, and finds time, and has devoted considerable means, to the gratification of his taste in this direction, more as a source of pleasure and recreation then from the profits accruing from his investments. He is at present the owner of a number of promising standard-bred horses, from such celebrated sires as " Wapsie," "Dauntless, " and others of like prominence.

Mr. Cowell is an active, energetic business man, as his record shows, and the list of sixteen cities where he has erected waterworks suggests the extent and importance of his operations. He is independent in politics, and has declined to serve in public office. Prompt, public-spirited and liberal in his views, he is such a man as every healthy and thriving community is proud to welcome as a permanent citizen.

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