Private, Company L, Massachusetts 1st and 4th Cavalry, Union Army, 12/04/1861-12/04/1864; Civil War records indicated that he worked as a farmer in 1861; Carpenter, Lyman B. Cowles, Denver, CO, c. 1880; Principal, Lyman B. Cowles, Building Contractor, Pomona, CA, c. 1900-1916;

Born in MA, Cowles lived in Ware, MA in 1850, with his mother and her eight children, but had moved to Gloucester, MA, by 1860, where he worked as a day laborer. In the 1869-1870 City Directory of Haverhill, MA, Cowles worked as a carpenter and operated a boarding house on Locust Street near Winter Street. His brother, Newman, also a carpenter, lived with Lyman here. Cowles had traveled west to Denver, CO, by 1880, where he, his wife and son lived in a multi-family dwelling at 535 Stout Street. Lyman moved on to Southern CA at some point between 1880-1900, perhaps during the region's building boom in the 1880s. In 1900, he and his wife lived at 291 South Rebecca Street in Pomona, CA. They continued to live at this address ten years later.

His father was born in VT, his mother, Mary B. Cowles, (born c. 1805 in either NH or MA). Lyman's father was not listed in the 1850 US Census.

Lyman Cowles married his wife, Priscilla (born 01/1844 in MA), in about c. 1870. According to the 1910 US Census, her father was born in ME, her mother, MA; the 1900 US Census indicated that her father was from MA.

Lyman and Priscilla Cowles had three children (according to the US Census of 1900, four if you trust the 1910 US Census), only one of whom was alive in 1910, a son, Charles S. Cowles (born c. 1876 in MA), who was also a carpenter at that time.