Person:Cynthia Morgan (2)

Notes

Cynthia's POB is commonly given by genealogists as Jackson County, Alabama. Family information suggests that she came to Tn from either Ohio or Kentucky. There also seems to be evidence for a Cynthia Cowan born in Knoxville TN in 1802. Nothing definitive has been found, but the family tradition seems reasonable.

The following is from: Descendants of William Cowan, by Eleanor Brown, extracted May4 2011

Cynthia Morgan Cowan Of all of the Cowan ancestors, Cynthia Morgan (1802-1886), wife of William Cowan, seems to have the most confusion about her birthplace. In the Tennessee censuses of 1850, 1860 and 1870 the birthplace of Cynthia is listed as Tennessee, but in 1880 she lists her birthplace as Ohio. According to the memoirs of Alice Cowan Lewis, Cynthia came to Tennessee from Kentucky. According to a relative, Aunt Grace, Cynthia was a schoolteacher, although this may not have been a fact.

From: Memoirs left by Alice Lewis Cowan about her grandmother:

"Cynthia Morgan came to Tennessee from Kentucky to visit some relatives about 1820, as near as I remember being told by my mother. How or where she met and married my grandfather, William Cowan, I was not told. He died at the age of 69, leaving her with a family to rear: Sam, Seabird, Sally, Rheuben, William, Esther and Joseph. After the Civil War ended, Uncle Seabird and his family came from Alabama to live with Grandmother. When I was a child, Grandmother would come to our house and spend several weeks at a time. She wore a black lace cap in the daytime, that being the custom of old ladies at that time. She wore a woolen shawl about a yard square folded in a triangle. She smoked a clay pipe, and many times I have taken a coal of fire out of the fireplace to light her pipe. As I remember, she did not ever help with the work, but she was not sick. She was of French extraction, about 5 ft., 3 inches tall, had black eyes, dark curly hair that was not gray when I knew her. She was what is known as dark-complexioned: from her, I inherit my dark eyes and complexion. (I have a small tintype of her). After Uncle Joe married, he migrated to Kansas, taking Grandmother with him. She was dissatisfied there, and later they moved back to Tennessee, where she died at the age of 84, and is buried in Red Hill [Church] Cemetery."

According to Aunt Grace, Cynthia died as a result of falling and hitting her head against a bedpost.