Union County, SD Biographies.....Cowell, Jonathan 1839 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 20, 2022, 3:21 am

Source: MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF Turner, Lincoln, Union and Clay Counties, South Dakota. (1897)
Author: Geo. Ogle & Co.

JONATHAN COWELL, a well-to-do and popular citizen of Civil Bend township. Union
county, engaged in the pursuit of agriculture in section 10, first saw the light in
Fayette county, Pa., in 1839. On his father’s farm he spent his boyhood and grew to
maturity, receiving what education he could in the schools then in vogue, which was
sufficient for practical purposes. In the spring of 1863, when he was twenty-four
years of age, he left the parental roof and started west. He stopped first in La
Salle county, Ill., where he was employed on a farm by a Mr. Dunnaway till the 4th
of July, then he went to Boone county, Ill., and stayed with an uncle, and worked
for James Alexander till fall, when he made his way to Stevens Point, Wis.

January 5, 1864, Mr. Cowell decided he would go to Dakota, and accordingly started,
in regular emigrant style, for that state. He traveled the first two days of his
journey in snow waist deep, and made about sixteen miles progress a day, and the
night he arrived at his destination, February 2, he slept on the bank of the
Missouri river, just east of McCook, and almost froze to death. His first employment
was in assisting Paul Packett in operating a ferry across the Big Sioux river. He
tired of this, however, and, after eighteen days with Mr. Packet, he helped haul
logs for Chris Maloney, at which work he continued six days more. His next employer
was Jeff Cleveland, for whom he worked two months and a half. Mr. Cowell at this
time possessed two small steers, and these he was induced to trade for 160 acres of
land where he now lives, making the bargain with Ezra Carpenter. When he took up his
residence on the farm it had been improved with a small hewed-log shanty, and three
acres had been brushed, ready for breaking. He “bached,” doing his own cooking, and
as he grew to be quite an expert hunter had no difficulty in trapping rabbits,
coons, etc., on which he had daily “feasts.” He has lived on this property
continuously, and, as Mr. Cowell says, “was always here, except when at a dance or
on a visit to my future wife.” His present farm consists of 360 acres, 144 of which
are under cultivation. He farms exclusively, raising corn principally. He has been
identified with the locality as long as anyone now residing in the vicinity, and
withstood the grasshopper times and the overflows of the Missouri river. He was a
member of the first grand jury in Elk Point, and has served on the school board. He
is now a justice of the peace, having previously served four years as constable. In
politics he formerly affiliated with the Democratic party, but at present is
independent.

Mrs. Cowell, whose maiden name was Sarah McWilliams, was born in Ohio in 1852, and
is a daughter of Andrew McWilliams, who settled and died in Allamakee county, Iowa.
She came to Union county in 1866. Mr. and Mrs. Cowell’s wedding took place in 1870,
and this union has been blessed with an interesting family of eleven living
children, viz.:	Isaac, Frank, Jeff, Charles, Annie (now the wife of J. M. Davis, of
this county), Mary, Harry, John, Louis, Andrew and Almira. The deceased is George.

Mr. Cowell is a son of Isaac and Sarah (Hill) Cowell, both natives of Fayette
county, Pa., where they were reared, married and died. Mr. Cowell was born on the
farm where his demise occurred, the property having passed from one descendant to
another for a period of almost a hundred years. The family consisted of the
following children: Mathias (deceased), Jonathan, Neri, Peter, James (deceased),
John (deceased), Mary, Jane Ann, and Amanda (deceased).


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