Bowley was born December 19, 1851, in New York City. He had training to be a butcher, and after buying land in Long Island City, New York (state) in 1887, he proceeded to operate butcher shops there and in the Queens County towns of Astoria and Flushing.[1]
He participated prominently in the formation of "the Queens County Democracy" by Democrats in Queens, to oppose Cassidy's re-election campaign in 1903.[4]