Bio: J. H. Cowley, Desoto Parish Louisiana
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890
Submitted by Gaytha Carver Thompson




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J. H. Cowley, is deserving the success which has attended his efforts
throughout life, for it has en his aim to be honest and upright, and he has
wronged no one but aided many. He has always been industrious and thrifty,
and is acknowledged be a representative of the wealthy agriculturists of this
parish, for he is the owner of an immense amount of real estate, a
considerable portion of which is under cultivation, being devoted to the
culture of cotton, of which he is a very successful raiser. In every branch
of his business he has shown himself to be shrewd and far seeing, and a
manager he has not his superior throughout this section. A native of Pickens
County, Ala.,born in the month of October, 1834, he is a son of James and
Susan (Russell) Cowley, who were born on Blue Grass soil in South Carolina,
respectively, their emigration to Louisiana taking place in December, 1847.
They located near the present site of Grand Cane, where the father purchased a
large tract of unimproved land, building thereon a primitive log cabin of that
day. On this farm he made his home, being actively engaged in clearing the
same of forest trees and cane brake, til his death, which occurred in April,
1888, his widow and four children still surviving him, J. H. Cowley being
one of the latter. He was but a small boy upon his removal to this State, but
he well remembers many interesting incidents connected with their journey and
the appearance of this country during many of the first years of settlement
here. Although be had acquired considerable knowledge of the three R's, prior
to leaving Alabama, be attended school after coming to this State, and
while aiding and assisting his father on the home plantation he acquired a
fund of useful knowledge, connected with work which afterward stood him in
good stead. In March, 1862, he enlisted in Creole In and served until the
final surrender, after which he returned to his plantation. He was married in
1857 to Sarah Saunders, and she as himself has been a member of the Baptist
Church since 1854