The Cowley family sailed to America in 1843 on the ship Swanton.

Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah (1913), p. 823, mistakenly places Cowley in the Andrew Perkins company. Cowley is listed in the handwritten roster in the Foote company journal as traveling with ten in his party in the 1st Ten (captained by Ute Perkins) in the 2nd Division in Warren Foote's company. The compilers or contributors evidently confused Ute Perkins with Andrew Perkins.

Charles was rebaptized in Salt Lake City on 30 April 1851.