Deed from Drewey W. GOLLAHER of Sebastian Co., AR for $50 to John S. COWAN of
Pike Co, AR. Land in Clark County, AR: NE quarter of the NE quarter of D#17
Twp 810 R 22 W, 40 acres. Signed by his mark
Marriage license in file
Letter from a son of William Charles COWAN: "2 Feb 1962. To Daniel Emerson my
grandson,
A brief sketch of the COWAN family's history as clearly as I have been
informed and can remember.
The first of our family of COWANS was a John COWAN, who came from Ireland
in, I think, 1780 or thereabout.
He was the father of my great, great, great grandfather who settled in
Tennessee and owned lots of land. How or when I don't know.
However, when my great grandfather migrated from Tennessee to Arkansas, he
gave him a deed to one league of land. But in crossing the Mississippi Riber
on a ferry boat, the water was rough and one of their trunks tipped off the
stack of belongings and was lost. It had all of his papers and the deeds in
it. Land was so cheap in those days they didn't bother about it.
All of this I was told by my grandmother. So they settled near Ft. Smith,
Arkansas. They had a few slaves and raised four boys and two girls, of which
my grandfather was one. I don't know the names of but 2 of the others. One
boy was Jeff and one girl was Frances.
Grandpa married Jane Golahar. She was 7/8 black Dutch and 1/8 Choctaw
Indian. Grandpa was Irish.
To them was born Bill, George, Sol, Pat, and Mary.
Bill was my father. His full name was William Charles. He married
Josephine Smith.
To them was born George Henry, Ethel May, and Willie Bell.
Let's say we are Americans from white forebears (ancestors). Kindly proud
of my offspring.
Your Grandmother's heritage was about the same as mine. Don't know, Dan,
but hope what little I have been able to write you will be of some help.
Love, Grandpa
My grandfather, Clyde Solomon Cowan, said of his grandfather, who he lived
with for awhile, that he came from Arkansas with his brother-in-law Charles
GOLLIHAR. They split up; he went to the piney woods of Texas and worked in a
saw mill, and the brother-in-law went to Corpus Christi.
By Terry Cowan, April 2008:
John S. Cowan married Nancy Jane Gollihar in her native Clark County, Arkansas in 1853. On December 12, 1857, John S. Cowan purchased 40 acres from his brother-in-law, Drew Gollihar. Gollihar had himself purchased the property from his parents in 1854. On the 1857, John S. Cowan was said to be of neighboring Pike County, Arkansas.
On March 1, 1860, John Cowan received a grant for 40 acres of government land in Section 5, T 5 N, R 30 W. On May 1, 1860, he received a grant for another 40 acres in Section 19. This tract was just west of the acreage his father settled on.
The Cowans were Unionists, apparently. John S. Cowan did not enlist in the Confederate army upon the outbreak of hostilities. His brother William later joined the Union army, as did a brother-in-law. When the new conscription law was passed in April 1862, John S. Cowan was drafted into the Confederate Army on June 19, 1862. He was described as being 5'11" in height, of light complexion, with blue eyes and black hair. He served in Co. B of King's Regiment of the 34th Arkansas Infantry. His brothers-in-law, Drew Gollihar and Abner J. Wilson served in the same company. John obtained leave to go home for Christmas 1862, and once there, he and Jane packed their belongings, crossed over into the Indian Territory and headed for Texas. There, they sat out the rest of the war, and found a permanent home. His land in Arkansas may have been sold for taxes. Yet the acreage closest to the Cowan homeplace was owned by brother-in-law Andrew J. Gist in 1887, so some arrangement may have been made within the family.
The Cowans first settled in San Saba County. Some of the Gollihars may have lived in the area, though probably across the Colorado River in Burnet County. By 1870, they had relocated to southwestern Bell Cowan, near a host of distant kinsmen, the William F. Cowan family.
Indians remained a problem in the area. Jane Gollihar Cowan recalled that they would sneak up to the spring and steal butter and milk from the milk house. She kept a gun close by, and a bulldog for protection. In 1870, Indians stole some horses from the Cowans.
John Cowan was a freighter and owned several wagons and teams. At first, he used ox teams, but later upgraded to mule teams. John Cowan would often haul freight out to Fort Concho and back. The freighters traveled together for protection from Indians. John Cowan lost several oxen to marauding Indians.
In 1879, John Cowan sent his own herd from Bell County to Llano County, with sons William and Patrick in charge of their care. The cattle remained there for several years.
In 1889, John Cowan made at least one trip back to Sebastian County, Arkansas. He was there to execute some deeds in settlement of the family land there.
In later years, John S. Cowan may have maintained a home in Bandera, Texas, where he died and was buried. Other accounts indicated that he died while on a trail drive there. Jane Gollihar Cowan was a midwife. She spent her last years with her daughter, Mary Cowan Elmore, in Eden, Texas, and was buried there.
