Multnomah-Coos County OR Archives Biographies.....Cowdin, C. E. April 14, 1883 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 16, 2009, 2:15 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     C. E. COWDIN, president and general manager of the Nicolai-Neppach 
Company, of Portland, is one of the most prominent figures in the industrial 
circles of the Columbia River valley, the concern of which he is the head 
being the oldest and most important in its line in this section of the 
country. The business was first established in 1866 by Lewis, Adolph and 
Theodore Nicolai, under the name of Nicolai Brothers Company, and has always 
been at the same location. At first they confined their operations to making 
mouldings, to which were later added sash and doors, and eventually they took 
up cabinet and interior finish work of all kinds. Starting in a modest way, 
they added to their equipment and erected buildings as needed, until today 
they have a large and pretentious plant, equipped in every respect for the 
highest type of production in their lines. On March 1, 1877, A. Neppach came 
to the Nicolai Company as bookkeeper and on the reorganization and 
incorporation of the business in 1887 he was made general manager of the 
concern, in which capacity he served continuously until 1919, when he retired. 
In 1890 the firm name was changed to that of Nicolai-Neppach Company which 
name is still carried. In 1914 Louis Nicolai and A. Neppach bought the 
interest of Theodore Nicolai, and in 1919 E. E. Hall, C. J. Neppach and C. E. 
Cowdin bought the stock of A. Neppach and Louis Nicolai and William Nicolai 
who at that time owned the business. The present officers of the company are 
C. E. Cowdin, president and general manager; E. E. Hall, vice president, and 
Carl J. Neppach, secretary-treasurer and cashier. In 1926 the company added to 
their already extensive plant by building a two-story building, sixty by one 
hundred feet, and in 1927 erected a two-story concrete building, a quarter of 
a block in size. The factory now covers an entire city block, another block 
being used for yards and storage, and an additional quarter of a block of 
space is leased. The company is largely engaged in the manufacturing of 
woodwork for high class residences and office buildings, and has gained a wide 
reputation, some of the notable examples of its work being found in the Julius 
Meyer and Harry Green residences, the Public Service building, the woodwork of 
which cost over one hundred thousand dollars, the Masonic Temple, the United 
States National Bank building, the Bank of California building, the new Temple 
Beth Israel and countless others throughout the Pacific northwest. The company 
also does the installation work, for which it has an adequate force of 
experienced and highly skilled workmen. During the World war it equipped many 
of the best boats built on the coast, installing fine woodwork, for which 
purpose it shipped in over ninety carloads of hardwood in a single year. It 
imports its wood and lumber from all parts of the world, and employs one 
hundred and twenty-five skilled workmen. It sells largely to contractors and 
builders, and practically all of its work is done to order, according to 
specifications, and its line of production also includes fine furniture, a 
number of expert designers being employed.

     The company, during the years of its existence, has done much valuable 
and interesting experimenting in various woods for its special purposes. Prior 
to its establishment all the doors and sash required in Portland were brought 
from San Francisco, the Nicolai Brothers Company being the pioneers in the 
planing-mill business in this city. In their early days here they ran a 
sawmill at Cedar Landing, back of Ranier, and, after trying out the various 
woods of Oregon, decided that cedar was the best for inside finish and it was 
used extensively for some time. In 1900 they experimented with fir, which 
since that time has been used extensively for interior finish. In 1887 they 
imported a schooner load of Sitka cedar from Alaska, from which they made the 
interior finish of the Bacon & Sherlock building, at the corner of Second and 
Oak streets, and throughout the coast region there stand many monuments to the 
high-grade work which this company has turned out and installed. The inside 
finish of St. Vincent's Hospital, many state buildings at Salem and the post 
office building at Sacramento, California, are made of larch manufactured by 
the Nicolai-Neppach Company, as is also the old capitol building at Olympia, 
Washington. The Nicolai-Neppach Company takes a jusifiable pride in its 
splendid business record, having maintained the highest standard of efficiency 
in both manufacture and installation, and without question it is the leading 
concern in its line in the Pacific northwest.

     C. E. Cowdin, the president of this company, was born in Oxford, Oakland 
county, Michigan, on the 14th of April, 1883, and is a son of George D. and 
Martha Cowdin, of whom the former was a farmer and both are now deceased. He 
received his early education in the public schools and also attended Michigan 
State College. He came to Portland, Oregon, in 1905, but soon afterward went 
to Coos Bay, where he entered the employ of the Simson Lumber Company, makers 
of sash and doors. In 1908 he became foreman for the Pacific Coast Door 
Company at Portland, and in the following year joined the Nicolai-Neppach 
Company as foreman of its sash and door factory. Later he became general 
superintendent, and in 1919 became one of the owners of the business and was 
made president and general manager, which position he still holds. He has 
devoted himself closely to the business, in the management of which he has 
shown sound judgment and progressive ideas, and has gained a reputation as a 
competent, careful and successful business man. He is president of the Oregon 
Planing Mills Company and president of the Norwesco Investment Company.

     In 1906 Mr. Cowdin was united in marriage to Miss Carolyn Jenkins, a 
daughter of Frank E. and Elizabeth (Miles) Jenkins, of Oxford, Michigan, and 
they are the parents a daughter, Edith.

     Mr. Cowdin is past president of the Pacific Northwest Mill-Work 
Association, first vice president of the Mill-Work Cost Bureau, an 
international organization. For a number of years he has taken an active part 
in the advancement of various subsidiaries pertaining to his present industry. 
He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Benevolent 
Protective Order of Elks, the Ad Club, the Knights of the Round Table and the 
Chamber of Commerce. He is a stanch republican in his political alignment and 
has shown a constant interest in the progress and welfare of his city and 
county. Personally he is a man of straightforward and agreeable manner, has a 
wide circle of friends and is regarded as one of the representative men of his 
community.

Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 718-719

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