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offices of the company, and soon there-
after became an official, proceeding
through the posts of treasurer and vice-
president to the presidency of the corpor-
ation, which he held from 1901 until his
death. He was a man of wide business
capabilities, a leader in several lines of
industry ; he was president of the Ansonia
Clock Company, which he organized in
1879 president of the Coronet Phosphate
;
Company, which he organized in 1908;
president of the Terra Ceia Estates, Inc.
vice-president of the American Brass
Company ; and president of the Birmingham
Water Company. In advisory capacity
he was associated with a number
of other corporations in widely separated
fields. Mr. Cowles was a member of the
Union League, Larchmont Yacht, Greenwich
Country, and Railroad clubs. His
residence was at "The Apthorp," New
York City, and he maintained his summer
home at Belle Haven. Mr. Cowles bore
an honorable reputation through a long
and active business career, and in the
course of his industrial and commercial
capacity bound to him a large number of
his associates with the ties of firm friend-
ship.
Mr. Cowles married, in 1871, Frances
Bailey, daughter of Edward Bailey, of
Devonshire, England, and Fanny (Kenyon)
Bailey, of Syracuse, New York.
They were the parents of: Russel Abernethy,
of whom further; and Frederick
Houghton, who married Maud Sherman.
Russel Abernethy Cowles was born in
Syracuse, New York, October 10, 1873.
He attended private school in New York
City, Stevens Preparatory .School, and
Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken.
At the age of nineteen he became
associated with his father in the Ansonia
Brass and Copper Company, and remained
in that service for twenty-two
years, until September i, 1915. In 1900
the American Brass Company succeeded
;
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
305
the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company,
and at the time of his resignation Mr.
Cowles was a vice-president of the American
Brass Company. He then became
vice-president of the BuflFalo Copper and
Brass Rolling Mills, and organized the
Metals Trading Corporation, of which he
is president at this time (1920). Among
the more important of Mr. Cowles' busi-
ness interests are the presidency of the
Ansonia Clock Company, the vice-presidency
of the Coronet Phosphate Company,
and the presidency of the New
England Motor Sales Company of Green-
wich. This last is one of several enter-
prises Mr. Cowles has founded in
Greenwich, which have become institu-
tions known far beyond the limits of the
town. The New England Motor Sales
Company operates a thoroughly modern
garage on the Boston Post Road, the
main artery of traffic between New York
and Boston, and a machine shop that is
probably the finest in the district. The
company has the agency for the Buick,
Franklin, and Owen Magnetic automo-
biles, and the White automobile truck.
This business, first planned on a scale
that to the average mind seemed to spell
failure, has developed steadily from the
time of its establishment, and residents
and tourists have found there the automobile
service and satisfaction that every
motorist craves.
In 1917 Mr. Cowles gave to Greenwich
another institution of which the town
had long been in need—The Pickwick Inn
-—recognized as one of the best inns in
the New York suburbs. Philip Gibbs,
the noted English war correspondent, was
so impressed by its attractive furnish-
ings and beautiful atmosphere, as well as
the superior quality of the food served,
that he devoted several pages in an issue
of "Harper's Magazine" to a description
of the inn, couched in the most complimentary
terms. Within a few months