BIO: James Edward McDOWELL, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 922 & 923.
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  JAMES EDWARD McDOWELL, who has been postmaster at Irvona, Clearfield county, 
Pa., since September, 1897, is a hardware merchant at this place and a 
representative and reputable citizen.  He was born December 23, 1853, at 
Newberry, in Lycoming county, Pa., and is a son of George McClelland and 
Elizabeth Rosanna (Kyle) McDowell.
  George McClelland McDowell was born in Mifflin county, Pa., in 1820, a son of 
John McDowell, who was born in Ireland but died in Mifflin county.  In 1854 
George M. McDowell moved to Millhall, in Clinton county, where he engaged in 
merchandising, later becoming a farmer.  He died in 1885, aged sixty-five years.  
He married Elizabeth Hosanna Kyle who was also born in Mifflin county and died 
in 1872, at the age of forty-nine years.  Her father, Joseph Kyle, came from 
Scotland.  To George McC. McDowell and wife the following children were born:  
Joseph and Samuel, both of whom are deceased; Margaret Jane, who married James 
Flynn, of Charleton, W. Va.; James Edward; Mary Catherine, who is the wife of 
James T. Shillingford, of Osceola Mills; John Ralph, who is a hardware and 
lumber merchant of Pitcairn, Pa.; and Rosanna, who is the wife of Dr. Herbert 
Hogue, of Altoona, Pa.
  James E. McDowell was educated in the public schools at Millhall, to which 
place his parents moved when he was a babe, and later at the Pennsylvania State 
College.  In 1860 he moved to Nittany Valley and carried on farming there until 
1885, when he came to Irvona and in 1887 embarked in the hardware business.  In 
1897 he had been so recognized as a prominent citizen that he was appointed 
postmaster during the first administration of President McKinley and has 
continued in the office until the present.  He is the oldest merchant in the 
place from a business standpoint and is interested in a number of business 
enterprises that have served to build up the place.  He was a member of the 
first borough council.
  In 1881, Mr. McDowell was married to Miss Anna M. Heard, a daughter of John P 
and Mary Jane (McGhee) Heard, the former of whom was a farmer and merchant.  
They have one son, Winfield Heard McDowell, who was born in 1882 and is a 
resident of Uniontown, Fayette county, Pa., being connected with the engineering 
department of the H. C. Frick Company.  He was graduated in 1905 at Pennsylvania 
State College and spent two years in the West with his present company.  Mr. 
McDowell and son are Republicans.  He belongs to Coalport Lodge, F. & A. M., No. 
574; Clearfield Chapter, No. 228; Moshannon Commandery, No. 74; Scottish Rite 
(Valley) Williamsport, and Jaffa Temple, Mystic Shrine, at Altoona.  Mr. 
McDowell is a member and liberal supporter of the Methodist Episcopal church at 
Irvona.