He was born in 1826 at Fairview Plantation in Collington, Maryland, the oldest son of Colonel William Duckett Bowie and Eliza Mary Oden.

At age twelve, he enrolled in St. Mary's Seminary and University and graduated in July 1845 as valedictorian of his class.

[6] Walter Bowie was a major advocate of expanding the railroad system into southern Maryland, and wrote articles lobbying for this under the pen name "Patuxent Planter".

Both Saratoga and the American Jockey Club made bids for the event, but Bowie pledged to build a grand racetrack in his home state if the race were to be run in Baltimore.

Charles Branch Clark wrote in 1946 in the Maryland Historical Magazine that 70 of Bowie's slaves enlisted in the Union Army.

Alice's mother was a descendant of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore the first colonial proprietor of the Province of Maryland.