He was president of the Toronto and Guelph Railway and also served on the board of directors of several other companies.

[3] In 1853 George Taylor Denison II, and several other alderman, resigned mid-term to protest what they described as Bowes corruption.

Bowes and Francis Hincks had benefitted from a bailout of the Toronto, Simcoe & Lake Huron Union Railroad (later the Northern Railway.

Hincks, in his capacity as the Province of Canada's Inspector General (effectively Finance Minister), had sponsored legislation to issue bonds to pay back the railway's investors, without revealing that he and Bowes had bought out a large block of the stock, at a discounted value.

Although he was cleared of any charges, Bowes was forced to pay the profit that he had made to the city.