Cowls: Same location since 1741

By Cinda Jones

Jonathan Cowls moved from Hatfield to Amherst in 1731. The family thinks he lived in what is now the back portion of the Black Walnut Inn in North Amherst. In 1741 Jonathan bought the home farm - the land on which the Jones family's homestead, building supply store, sawmill and auction barn now sit (bisected by Route 116).  In 1768 he built the house that remains to this day Cowls Companies headquarters.  Cinda and Evan Jones are the 9th generation to run their family farming and lumber business.

Silas fought in the Revolutionary war and returned home to start the 2nd church which started out on the east street common and then moved to the current Jewish Community Center building. 

Silas was a revolutionary in every way.  He wanted independence from the Church of England and his family.

He changed his name to Cowles - with an "e."  

Silas then moved to Hadley and became a very successful farmer.  His descendent is Homer Cowles of South Amherst.

Silas' brother, Jonathan, also a successful farmer, was a member of the First Church - which started out in Amherst College's octagon house before it moved to its current location on Main Street.  Johnathan later started the North Church in North Amherst.

Jonathan had a son (named Jonathan!) and he married Sarah Dickinson in 1851.

W.D. Cowls was their son. 

Walter Dickinson Cowls bought most of the timberland the Cowls Companies owns today. WD Cowls graduated from Mass Aggie and is credited with building many of the area's early roads. He also helped create the Amherst/Sunderland branch of the Holyoke Street Railway.  His woodlots supplied the railroad ties and poles as well as the timbers for bridges the railway crossed. The Amherst/Sunderland section of the street railway eventually connected with the Holyoke Street Railway at the Notch - where WDC established the rock crusher still at the Notch, now belonging to Lane Construction. 

Because of limitations of transportation and electricity, WD used mini sawmills out in the woods to cut logs into lumber.   

WD's daughter, Sarah Cowls, married Gerald Jones who came to school in Amherst at Mass Aggie from Nova Scotia. Upon graduating he started work at Cowls and married the boss' daughter.   Sarah Cowls Jones ran the family dairy and onion farm and Gerald Jones was a state representative and eventually took over the lumber business.

Electricity and logging truck advances made it possible for their son, Walter Cowls Jones, to start bringing logs to a centrally located sawmill which he installed on the home farm site in North Amherst in the 1940s. 

In the early 1980s, my father, Paul Jones, opened a retail store at the lumber yard, and since then Cowls Building Supply has become the most successful part of the corporation.  My aunt Gert and brother Evan run that retail store today.

My job at Cowls is to manage the company's timberland, sawmill, and real estate operations.  I am working to keep unrestricted access to our timberland and am fighting two separate federal government take over attempts; I'm working with Evan to rebuild out sawmill that burned to the ground in July of last year; and I'm trying to improve the accountability and profitability of our rentals. 

Today the Cowls sawmill gets about 50% of its logs from sustainably and selectively harvesting its own timberland. Cowls buys the remainder of the logs it needs from landowners and other companies.  

About half of what the mill saws is sold through Cowls Building Supply, and the rest is sold to timber framers and to other wholesale and retail markets. 

Cowls manages its timberland in order to optimize wood generated, enhance wildlife, provide public recreation opportunities, and assure abundant clean water supplies.  Some of the animals that can be found on Cowls timberland are deer, moose, bear, beaver, grouse, ducks, and song birds.

Cowls has 11 acres of Christmas Trees that are sold locally by the boy scouts.

Cowls over the generations has had a consistant policy of buying timberland with the view of holding onto it for the long term.  The long term for us is for hundreds of years!  Although we do sometimes sell property, our basic policy is to buy more than we sell.  If you know any reasonably priced timberland for sale, please let us know.

Something else of potential interest to you is that we sometimes help area landowners gain lower tax rates and periodic income by managing their forest land free of charge in exchange for the opportunity to buy their timber rights.  Beyond income, this relationship gives people who own more than ten acres of forest land, -healthier forests, -better wildlife habitat, greater oxegyn generation, and property tax rates of about 10% the norm.

Thanks again for asking me to come in and speak with you about the Cowls family and company history. I'd be happy to try to answer any questions you may have.