It was the ultimate power walk.

Joshua Cowell — the Father of Manteca — arrived on the sandy plains in 1863 on foot.

Cowell had literally walked across the Sierra Nevada to what is now modern-day Manteca from the Carson Valley in Nevada.

Originally from Tioga, N.Y., Cowell’s family migrated to Grant County, Wisconsin. It was from there where other Manteca pioneer families including the Salmons, Reynolds, Castles and Graves among others.

Cowell headed west with his brothers in 1861. His brothers went directly to California while Cowell opted to linger two years in the Carson Valley.

Cowell arrived here in January 1863 and immediately purchased the ranch he lived on until his death in 1925. It was a ranch that contains most of present day Manteca.

His ranch house, built roughly where the Bank of America branch now stands today on the southeast corner of Yosemite Avenue and Main Street some 161 years  later, was the epicenter of the community.

It was from here that his grand vision for a town and vibrant farming district blossomed.

Cowell was the first to push for an elaborate irrigation system.

Other farmers just laughed.

He tried to dig a 45-mile ditch from Knights Ferry to Manteca but farmers refused to cooperate.

Charles Tulloch took over the project while Cowell simply contracted to build the ditches.

Cowell Station is what the stop on the tracks became when he successfully lobbied the railroad for a creamery stop to ship dairy products to San Francisco.

It was later changed to Manteca after the railroad said it conflicted with an already existing railroad stop further down the San Joaquin Valley.

Cowell served as president of the Cowell Station Creamery for five years.

After helping lead the community’s first enterprise, Cowell ventured into other businesses and eventually was director of the First National Bank of Manteca.

Cowell wasn’t always successful. During the 1870s he unsuccessfully tried to return 640 acres to the bank for a mortgage of $4 an acre.

He later owned 1,000 acres in Manteca and rented another 1,000.

An article in the Manteca Bulletin on his 83rd birthday said Cowell was still farming what is now downtown Manteca as late as 1910.

Manteca incorporated in 1918 and Cowell was selected as the city’s first mayor.

Cowell married Vienetta R. Graves, born in Grant County, Wisconsin, and the daughter of another early pioneer.

They were the parents of six children; Elida, married James Salmon, Mary E. married Charles Salmon, Clara C. wed Clifford Wiggin, Otis, and two children who died in childhood.

Pen Pictures from the Garden of the World, 1890, tells us his first home was moved to the ranch and it was in this home that all of his children were born.

In September 1884, after the death of his first wife he married Emily Sanders and they had one daughter, Hattie.

Branches out

into business

As Manteca began to grow, Cowell hired Dan Baysinger to construct some of his buildings.

 Cowell built the building which housed the first Central Drug on the southwest corner of Yosemite Avenue and Main Street, and the building across the street on the northeast corner. He also built a building which was torn down on the northwest corner of that intersection.

Cowell became director of a number of establishments in the new city.

 He took over the Manteca Rochdale store when it was about to go under. For a while it also served as the post office.

For five years he was president of the Cowell Station Creamery, Manteca’s first enterprise.

He was director of the First National Bank of Manteca and the Bulletin article tells how the bank was draped with flags for his 83rd birthday.

In 1904 the old home was torn down and a new one was constructed. His granddaughter, Norma Hodson, remembers the home as having six bedrooms, a dining room, living room, two baths, one upstairs, and a parlor. The parlor was sometimes used for funerals as at that time Manteca did not have a funeral parlor.

Hodson also remembers that in the back yard up on a pole was the fire bell. When a fire was reported the bell would ring, bringing residents from the community to the Cowell home to get the pumper.

They would then pull the pumper to the fire.

All hands would pump for all they were worth until either the fire was extinguished or had burned itself out. With the wooden buildings and the lack of communication it is a miracle they ever saved anything.

Cowell elected

first mayor in 1918

In 1918 when Manteca was incorporated as a city Joshua Cowell was elected as its first mayor, and he was the honored guest at the laying of the cornerstone for the new City Hall in 1923.

Two years later Joshua Cowell died at home in his eighty-fourth year. The Manteca Bulletin, May 29, 1925 tells us he died the 20th and the funeral was held at the Brethren Church on the corner of Veach and Highway 120.

 The “Father of Manteca” was laid to rest at East Union Cemetery 52 years after coming to the South County.

Few people in Manteca today likely know that three-block Cowell Avenue in Powers Tract was named for one of its most industrious and respected citizens.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, e-mail dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com