McDowell, Samuel James Polk, Lockhart, Caldwell County, Tex. Born at Columbia, Maury County, Tenn., July 6, 1824; son of Samuel McDowell and Isabella McCleary; Scotch-Irish descent; his paternal grandparents were John and Esther McDowell; his maternal grandparents, Thomas and Jane Creigh, emigrated to the United States in 1792; landed at Wilmington; thence to Augusta County, Va.; his parents moved from Augusta County to Greenbrier County, Va.; thence to Columbia, Tenn.; farmer; delegate to Democratic State Convention from Hardeman County, Tenn., at Nashville in 1853; moved to Caldwell County, Tex., same year; county clerk four years; member of first Confederate Legislature, 1860-1862; resigned; captain Company K., Seventeenth Texas Volunteer Infantry, C. S. A.; transferred to Mississippi Department, 1862-1865; district and county clerk, 1873-1880.
