Document. Excerpt from Orr and Cowan, 1970

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Source

Original Source: Source:Orr and Cowan, 1970. Article on Cowan's Gap State Park, Mrs. James E. Orr, and Mrs. Ralph E. Cowan, 1970, in:Newsletter of Cowan Clan United, January 1970
Intermediate Source: Source:Fleming, 1971:381

Related

Source:Maurer, 1899
Source:Fleming, 1971

Text

Fleming, 1971 included the following excerpt from an article in Cowan Clan United, January 1970 Newsletter.

Family tradition and Mr. Maurer's report tell us that John Cowan was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1753. As a British solider he came to New York in 1772, and after a short stay there was sent to Boston. There he met his future wife, who had been born in Germany in 1755 or 1757. Her father, a well to do merchant of Boston, forbade Cowan's visits to see his daughter. After about a year Cowan was sent back to Ireland and was there discharged from the service. He then returned to Boston, and again he was not permitted to see his sweetheart. One night the young couple met secretly and decided to elope. This they did and at once set out for Pennsylvania where they bought a farm in Lancaster County, now Franklin County. After living there approimately two years, they heard of the bluegrass country of Kentucky and determined to move westward to it. They sold their farm, loaded all their goods on a covered wagon and traveled through Chambersburg, Campbelstown, and Fort Loudon. In crossing the Conococheague Creek their wagon broke down 7 miles from a repair shop. Fortunately they met a Tuscarora Indian Chief who traded 100 acres of land to them for their team and wagon. They went to the gap in 1776, or 1784 or 1785, where they built a log cabin. There were four boys in John Cowan's family: Hugh, William, David, and Samuel who died at the age of 46.

Text in red is consistent with information in Source:Maurer, 1899 Fide Source:Fleming, 1971. That information "has feet" in an interview by Mauerer with the widow of a "John Cowan" who settled in Cowan's Gap, Bedford (now Fulton) County, PA, by 1785. Maurer interviewed Mrs Cowan in 1860 according to his report presented in 1899. [1] There may be discprancies between what he says and facts because he simply forgot some of the details in the intervening 40 years, or because he misunderstood what he was told, or because of the great age of his informant. [2] Where the additional information in black comes from is apparently "oral tradition", but with out specific provenance its credibility is limited. Note in particular the ambivalence about the date of settlement "1776, 1784, or 1785". The 1776 date, if correct, would make the story about Cowan being a British soldier sent to America during the Revolution patently untenable. the question here is "Do you throw out the "1776" date of settlement, or the story about being a British soldier during the Revolution?

Footnotes

  1. This may be inaccurate. This story was published about 1878 in a local newspaper (See: Document. Burning of the Old Cowan House). While there are some differences in the two versions of the story, most of Maurer's text seems to have been taken verbatim from the newspaper article. Its unlikely that Mauerer actually conducted the interview.
  2. the 1860 census for Fulton County lists a Margaret Cowan, age 102, in the household of a William Cowan who seems to have been living in Cowan's Gap at that time. Presumably this is the person Mauerer interviewed, as he gives her age as 102 in 1860. Reconciling the census data of both 1850, and 1860, with the data in Mauer's story, is something of a challenge.