Washington County PA Archives History .....The Cowden Family of Mt. Pleasant Township

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gary L. Caldwell, caldwell.gary@gmail.com December 28, 2014

The Cowden Family
Cowden is the family name of a great many residents of Mount Pleasant Township. Originally, 
as the name indicates, the Cowdens were farmers. The first ancestor known to us went to 
Ireland from Scotland about 1620, and when Matthew Cowden emigrated to Paxtang, Pennsylvania 
in 1728 or 1729, ha became the ancestor of the Mount Pleasant Cowdens.
 
Matthew's son, John I left Paxtang in search for fertile farming lands near the Ohio River. 
However, he died in 1776 near Cumberland, Maryland, having journeyed half-way to his planned 
destination. His son, John II was the first to come to western Pennsylvania and he settled with 
his widowed mother, Mary Reynolds Cowden on Hornhead Farm. This pioneer woman, Mary Cowden lived 
in a log cabin on Hornhead Farm on a branch of Chartiers Creek, and she received the patent for 
the farm on January 24, 1787. (This is believed to be the only tract of land in Mount Pleasant 
still in the name of the original patentee.)
 
Later in her life, Mary Cowden became blind but she attended to her household duties as usual, 
but she did rely on a grandson to watch for snakes when she washed in the stream in front of her 
cabin the wool which she had spun into yarn. Her son, John Cowden II in 1802 bought a farm of 140 
acres about two miles from Hornhead. This land had been a part of the tract of 281) acres which 
as elsewhere noted had been patented to George Washington. After Washington's visit here in 1784 
when he attempted to evict the families who had settled upon his land, his holdings were bought 
by Matthew Ritchie and it was broken up into smaller tracts and sold, some to the original squatters 
on the land, and this tract of 1.40 acres to John Cowden.
 
The name, John Cowden carried down to another generation and John III who remained upon his father's 
land, was the father of three sons who were the direct forebears of the present Mount Pleasant Cowden 
Families, and also there was a sister who became Mary Cowden Welch. Of these sons, Joseph, the oldest, 
born in 1825 lived on a farm on Miller's Run below Cecil. George R. Cowden, a great-grandson still 
farms his ancestral farm at the corner of Route 50 and Hornhead Road. Also, Edwin Cowden of the fourth 
generation of this family still owns and farms the ancestral Lee Cowden farm in Cherry Valley. Another 
scion of this branch of the family is Thomas W. Cowden, son of the late J. Ard Cowden, in his life 
time one of the largest land-owners in Mount Pleasant.
 
Mark Cowden, born in 1827 owned property in Cecil Township and his grandson, C. V. Cowden together with 
his sons owns a large farm in Cross Creek Township, where they have lived for the past twenty years or 
more. Robert Sloan Cowden, the third brother, born in 1835 always lived on and farmed the original Hornhead 
Farm on Hornhead. Road near Westland. His son, Don Cowden and now his grandson, Robert H. Cowden still own 
and farm the upper portion of this land.
 
This excellent sketch of the Cowden Family has been prepared by Miss Elsie Cowden, who, with her brother 
Robert VI. Cowden occupy the residence on the part of the original Hornhead Farm, which is still in the 
family name. Miss Cowden is a retired teacher, having been instructor in the English Department of Mount 
Pleasant Township High School and later in Fort Cherry High School until her retirement. Miss Cowden is a
ctive in church and civic circles in her native Township and is presently serving as President of the Mount 
Pleasant Township Society of Farm Women. 

Much of the information on the Cowden Family has been secured from a Books The Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden 
and Welch Families by Rev, James Marcus Welch of Indiana, Pa.and dated 1904, with up-dating by Miss Cowden.

SOURCE: History of Mt. Pleasant Township
AUTHOR: Alvin D. (AD) White