 His great-grandfather, Richard Mowry, was a nodal point in his boyhood at Uxbridge; William Augustus wrote a book about the older man's life, his ancestors and his descendants.The family history of the Mowry family authored by William Augustus mentions Roger Williams, John Brown, and other prominent Rhode Islanders of Colonial times related in some way to the early Mowry settlement in the Rhode Island Colony.The family was prominent in Northern Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts from the 17th century onward.