Heirology

Ancestors

James Martin Cowan

b. 1833 · Alabama
Born 1833, Alabama
Children include Jesse

James Martin Cowan was the husband of Tabitha Frances Mounts and the father of three children born in Newton County, Arkansas: Sarah Catherine in 1857, Jesse in 1859 and Absalom Riley in 1862. The gravestone of his son Absalom names the boy's parents as "James M. & Tabitha F. Mounts Cowan." When his son Jesse died in Louisiana in 1947, the death certificate gave Jesse's father as Martin Cowan, the name James seems to have gone by. Jesse passed the name on to his first son, Andrew Martin Cowan, born in 1877.

In 1860 the family was living in Boston Mountain Township, Newton County, in the Ozark mountains of northwest Arkansas. The census taker reached them on 13 July 1860. He wrote James as J. M. Cowan, 27, a farmer born in Alabama, with personal property of $300. With him were Tabitha, 24, born in Illinois, Sarah C., 3, and Jesse, 1, both born in Arkansas. The next house held Andrew Barber, a Tennessee farmer of 38, with his wife Tabitha and their children. Sixteen years later Jesse married a Martha Barber. His family remembered him as a man who died in the Civil War. His youngest son, Absalom, was born in April 1862, and Tabitha later married Thomas B. Patterson. No grave for James is known.

Children

Jesse Cowan (1859-1947)

Sources

Find a Grave, memorial 43615845, Absalom Riley Cowan, Hamilton Cemetery, Perry County, Arkansas, inscription.
United States Census, 1860, Newton County, Arkansas, Boston Mountain Township, page 82, NARA M653; FamilySearch, arks 61903/1:1:M87B-YQ7 and 61903/1:1:M87B-YQ4.
Louisiana, Deaths, 1850-1875, 1894-1960, certificate 16025, microfilm 1409050; FamilySearch, ark 61903/1:1:FS15-77P.
United States Census, 1860, Arkansas, Newton County, Boston Mountain Township, page 82, lines 31-40, NARA M653; FamilySearch, image 3:1:33S7-9YBK-R75, arks 61903/1:1:M87B-YQ7 and 61903/1:1:M87B-YQ4.
Gravestone of Absalom Riley Cowan, Hamilton Cemetery, Perry County, Arkansas: "Son of James M. & Tabitha F. Mounts Cowan" (Find a Grave memorial 43615845); Louisiana death certificate 16025 of Jesse Cowan, 1947, naming his father as Martin Cowan (FamilySearch Louisiana Deaths, ark 61903/1:1:FS15-77P); United States Census 1860, Newton County, Arkansas, Boston Mountain Township, page 82 (FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:M87B-YQ7); Find a Grave memorial 55717285 (Jesse Cowan, whose biography names his father as James Martin Cowan, died in the Civil War).

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Cite: Heirology, "James Martin Cowan (b. 1833)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/james-martin-cowan-1833-0e5d90.