Jackson County AlArchives Biographies.....Cowan, James Harrison 1837 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 8, 2011, 7:21 pm Source: See below Author: Smith & De Land, publishers JAMES HARRISON COWAN, of Princeton, Jackson County, son of Samuel M. Cowan, was born near Stevenson, this county, March 17, 1837. His father, Samuel M. Cowan, was born in Kentucky in 1798; came to Jackson County in 1824, and settled at Bolivar, two miles north of Stevenson. He served as captain in the Florida War, in 1837. In 1819, he was married in Franklin County, Tenn., to Elizabeth Caperton, from Virginia. He was one of a family of eight children, four boys and four girls, and was father of twelve children. Of these, Eleanor married T. Boyd Foster, a prominent man, who has been County Surveyor of Jackson for forty years, and was in the Florida War; Jane married Dr. Wm. Mason, who was a major in the Florida War and afterwards a member of the Legislature—he was a cousin of Gen. Winfield Scott; Hugh C. was a lawyer, a member of the Legislature in 1852, a delegate to the National Convention which nominated Jas. Buchanan, and an elector of the college which elected him—he died in 1860; John F. was a lawyer, well educated and brilliant, but died of consumption in his early manhood; Samuel C. was one of the first merchants in Stevenson—he died in 1858; Geo. E. went into the Confederate Army in 1861 as lieutenant, and became a major in the Thirty-third Alabama Regiment. Mr. Cowan's grandfather was an Irishman; served in the War of 1812, and in most of the Indian wars: was a major under General Jackson, and died in Franklin County, Tenn. James H. Cowan attended Burritt College in Van Buren County, Tenn., and was a merchant before the war. He entered the army in 1861 and served one year as commissary with the rank of captain. He was captured at the battle of Fort Donelson in 1862, and confined in prison at Camp Chase and Johnson's Island for several months. After his exchange, he served as captain of infantry in the Fifty-sixth Alabama Regiment until the close of the war. He was in battle at Baker's Creek, Port Hudson, Jackson, Miss., and all of the Georgia campaign from Resaca to Peach Tree Creek. He was wounded three times at the latter battle, and incapacitated for further service thereby. In 1870, J. H. Cowan was elected to the Legislature, re-elected in 1872, and served until 1873; since that time he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits. His wife was Miss Sophia E. Taliaferro, daughter of Richard H. Taliaferro, a minister of some note in the Missionary Baptist Church, at Princeton. Mr. Cowan has six children: Geo. W., Elizabeth, Sophronia, Angie, Sophie T., and Samuel C. Mr. and Mrs. Cowan are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and he is a Freemason. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land 1888 PART III. HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE. CEREAL BELT. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/jackson/bios/cowan859gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 3.5 Kb