Will County IL Archives Biographies.....McCOWAN, WILLIAM 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Paula Winke-Martisek wranglerjack@comcast.net September 19, 2007, 6:29 pm

Author: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

WILLIAM McCOWAN.  In choosing the business of a contractor and builder Mr. 
McCowan selected an occupation for which his mental gifts, disposition to 
labor, his tastes and his previous opportunities admirably qualified him.  
Since 1882 he has made his home in Joliet, where he is known as a thorough 
master of his trade.  He has had the contracts for the erection of a number of 
substantial business houses and private residences in this city.  Realizing 
that "a man's house is his castle," it is his aim that this "castle" shall be 
solidly constructed so as to withstand the constant wear of wind and weather, 
and at the same time he endeavors to construct a building that will be pleasing 
in exterior appearance and convenient in interior appointments.
A member of an old Scotch-Presbyterian family, Mr. McCowan was born in 
Perthshire, Scotland, in May, 1860, a son of Alexander and Elizabeth (Drummond) 
McCowan, natives of the same shire.  His father, who is still living and is now 
(1899) eighty-five years of age, made weaving his trade through all his active 
life, and the same occupation was followed by his grandfather, Duncan McCowan.  
The wife and mother died at seventy-six years of age.  Of her eleven children 
all but two are living, three sons being in the United States.  William, who 
was seventh in order of birth, was reared in the parental home and attended the 
national schools.  From seventeen to twenty years of age he served an 
apprenticeship at the stone mason's trade, meantime gaining a thorough 
knowledge of stone-cutting and brick-laying.  Later he worked at his trade in 
Glasgow.  In the spring of 1882 he came to the United States, landing in New 
York and from there proceeding to Joliet, where he secured employment at his 
trade.  After some years he began in business for himself as a contractor and 
builder of stone and brick buildings.
Prior to leaving Scotland, Mr. McCowan married, in Glasgow, Miss Mary Mackey, a 
native of Edinburgh, and they have two children, Annie and William.  The family
attend and are connected with Central Presbyterian Church.  In his currency 
views Mr. McCowan is a believer in the free coinage of silver and is strongly 
opposed to monometallism, which, in his opinion, tends to benefit the few at 
the expense of the many.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/mccowan1743nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/

File size: 2.9 Kb