Rowe and Warren Sadler started a business in Baltimore publishing a practical accounting text in workbook format.
He also owned a large frame house on Johnnycake Road in Catonsville, that burned down on March 23, 1912, but was well insured.
[4] Rowe was an executive of the American Automobile Association, becoming its president from 1916 to 1918 promoting road construction to Congress.
Rowe partnered with A.T. Carozza on lucrative road building and public works contracts in Maryland, forming Carozza-Rowe Construction.
The same year, Rowe's son killed his father with a crowbar, stabbed his sister, pushed his mother into a fire, and was found dead in the Severn River soon afterward.