William Michael Cowley
HISTORY OF WILLIAM MICHAEL COWLEY
William Michael Cowley, second son of Charles Cowley and Ann Killip, was born October 29, 1836 at Lambsfield, Kirk German, Isle of Man, England. His parents were converted to the Mormon Church by missionaries, and the family came to America in 1842 when he was about five years old. The story of their conversion and subsequent journey to America is found in the History of Charles and Ann Killip Cowley.
They resided in Nauvoo and Macedonia, Illinois until the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith. After this tragic event, they moved to Council Bluffs and came to Utah in 1850. He was called Billy Cowley, “The Walking Dictionary”, because of his mother’s way of disciplining him by asking him to go to his room and take 50 words from the dictionary, spelling them correctly and defining them. He could not leave his room until this was done. The result of this type of disciplining was, no doubt, of great value to him in his career as a newspaper man.
William Michael entered the service of the Deseret News in the early fifties at the age of 15, when Willard Richards was still the Editor. The following account is taken from an old newspaper clipping: “This pioneer exponent of the ‘Art Preservative’ worked on the Deseret News in the early fifties, and on the Western Standard in San Francisco, California in 1857, when George Q. Cannon was the Editor. He also worked for the Salt Lake Herald in 1870, in company with William Dunbar, John T. Caine, and Edward L. Sloan, and set up the first forms. He worked on the Women’s Exponent for many years and other Salt Lake publications, as well as various other western papers, including the Richfield Reaper, and others outside the state. He was thus identified with the printing business in the intermountain area from the very beginning. He began his busy, useful and lengthy career as a compositor at an early age, in the exercise of which, he took more than one mission and made his residence in many different places. He was of a quiet, unassuming character, and though engaged in disseminating news to the public, he shrank from coming into the public himself. Nevertheless, he had a wide acquaintance and made friends wherever he went, who esteemed him highly as a steadfast and true man.”
He was called to San Francisco, California, to be a reporter for the Deseret News. He was also called on a mission to San Bernardino, with Willard Richards, one of the brethren who was in the Carthage Jail at the time of the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Returning from this mission in 1858, he was retained as one of the guards left in Salt Lake City at the advent of Johnston’s Army, with orders to fire the city if it became necessary through the non-compliance of the troops with the agreement which had been made.
At one time while traveling with some missionaries who were going to California and Hawaii, he was asked to help drive a herd of cattle and horses past the Indian camps for the late Charles Hooper, then of Salt Lake City. In the Goose Creek Mountains, the Shoshone Indians made a raid on the cattle and took 30 head. Captain William Smith strapped a pair of pistols on his saddle and, carrying a rifle, rode to the camp of the savages. He asked them what they wanted and they answered plainly that they wanted a heap of beef, flour, coffee, tobacco, etc. There was nothing to do but to give them what they wanted. While they were in the excitement of slaughtering the beef, making coffee and biscuits, the rest of the animals were rushed past them. They continued on their journey all night in order to keep a safe distance from the Indians.
