Service is a Family Tradition

5 Generations of Cawleys

W.H. Cawley started the family business after returning home from the Civil War. Serving as an infantryman with the 15th NJ Volunteer Regt. of the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, W.H. fought in almost every major engagement of the war, including Antietam, the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Gettysburg. W.H. opened the Somerset Hotel in Somerville, NJ, which he ran until 1887, when he started the W.H. Cawley Co. in Somerville. The W.H. Cawley company bottled and distributed soda and beer over much of New Jersey, and was handed down to W.H.’s son Chester, and later to Chester’s son Richard.

W.H. Cawley’s Army Discharge Paper, dated June 22, 1865

R.C. Cawley at Pearl Harbor during WWII.

After graduating from Wharton, Richard C. Cawley served as a Naval Officer at Pearl Harbor, where he worked for Capt. Joseph Rochefort in the cryptanalysis bunker. After the war, Richard ran the W.H Cawley Company for many years. When Richard sold the beer business, as well as the name W.H. Cawley Co., to 7up, his son Jonathan changed the focus to construction and registered the company as Cawley Contracting Company in 1985. Cawley Contracting Company and the family moved to rural North Carolina in 1998.

R.C. Cawley, 1942

Jonathan’s wife Wendy has a love for all things organic, so when Jonathan’s son Daniel had a vision to start a landscaping company, the family decided to concentrate on Organic Lawn Care. Jonathan attended North Carolina State University to study Turf Management, and Daniel attended the NC State College of Management. Thus Carolina Organic Lawns was born, and is registered in Pittsboro, Chatham County, North Carolina.

JC Cawley Studying Turf

Daniel Cawley spreading Screamin’ Green

In 2011, Jonathan and Daniel saw a need for organics in Mosquito Control, because of the issues surrounding pesticides and pollinators, especially bees. They tested several organic mosquito control systems over the next year and a half, and ultimately settled on Mosquito Barrier, because it is the only mosquito control that is completely non-toxic to bees, and it actually works.

Jessica Cawley joined the Organic Mosquito crew in 2017. She is currently studying Wildlife Biology and hopes to graduate from NC State in 2019.

Jonathan Cawley

Jessica Cawley

Jonathan, Daniel, and Jessica Cawley are proud to continue the family tradition of service that started in 1887 with the creation of the W.H. Cawley Co. by William H. Cawley, five generations ago.

We hope you will become one of our family of customers.