William Cowan Settled in Delaware Co. NY about 1825 - excerpt from Long Papers
Valorie
has a longer excerpt:
http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/william-cowan-settled-in-delaware.html
William Cowan settled in Delaware County, New York about 1825
Excerpt from Long Papers, posted on the Delaware County, NY - Genealogy
and History Site
http://www.dcnyhistory.org/longpapers.html
The poster says, "This book once belonged to my Grandfather Cecil
Sanford, so I would like to dedicate this book not just in his memory
but the memory of all my Grandfathers mentioned within this book. ...
With regards, Tamara Sanford, December 12, 2002." It is not made clear
whom the writer was, nor exactly when the papers were written - perhaps
around 1925.
WILLIAM COWAN SETTLED HERE ABOUT 1825
THIS WEEK I VISITED another farm where the family line has been
continuous, and the land is still occupied by one of the direct
descendants. There are four such families tip that branch of the
valley: the Thomsons, the Cowans, the Archibalds, and the Millers. My
visit was to the Cowan farm now owned by Andrew Cowan (presently owned
by Harold Mead).
The homestead lies adjacent to, or is cut by, three roads and is
one of the two farms which looks particularly smooth and well adapted
to its purpose and it has been well farmed. With abundant water, it is
naturally adapted to dairying, and the records of the testing
association for the past year (1924) show that the business has been
well followed.
The original lease or deed was from General Hermance, which
particularly interested me as I had come across the name in the records
and have been wishing to know what lands he might have held in this
section. So far I have found that he probably owned the farms now
possessed by Harry O'Connor, Thomas Ingles, and Andrew Cowan. The
O'Connor farm was sold to Archibald Elliott in 1837 by Sally Hermance
of Rhinebeck, who doubtless was the widow of General Hermance and
probably one of the Livingston line.
The Cowan farm was settled by William Cowan about a century ago. We
figured out the date from the children of Thomas Cowan, Thomas having
taken the farm a few years afterward from his father. There were ten
children, the youngest being the only one left, and he gave me the
facts to figure with. The oldest one was Hannah Cowan, born in 1830 or
31, and as there must have been at least five or six years before
Thomas Cowan could have married and settled on the place after it was
cleared by his father, the first trees must have been cut as early as
1825.
Thomas Cowan came across from Scotland after his father, if I
remember correctly. The ship in which he came drifted from its course,
and he was compelled to winter in Prince Edward's Island just north of
Nova Scotia. The following summer he came on to New York State and
found employment at Catskill in a tannery, until his father transferred
to him the farm he had started to clear.
The value of the incomers from the little island across the sea to
our great country is well illustrated by this line. Strong, energetic,
intelligent, whether in this immediate valley or in Weaver Hollow or
the "Turnpike," they have "made good." I have "sponged" many a meal at
their tables ending for the time just the other night when I sat at the
board while I got material for my story. I shall not be sorry to try it
again, especially if they have some more of the dried beef of the
old-fashioned style, the kind I used to whittle off with my jackknife
as it hung by the stove of course, when the housewife was not
looking.....
There are many other interesting stories and mentions of some of the
families the Cowans intermarried with on this page; well worth the time.
Laura Cowan Cooper
Don't get rid of your info on the disk - there are many of us as well as the LDS Family History Centers that might be able to do something with that disk. Did you know if anyone had made an earlier back up of the file or someone that you shared it with that might have at least part of the one that you lost?
At 11:15 PM 7/2/2006, you wrote:
Just realized that Morgan Kent is serving his mission in Ontario. I mean I knew that when he left of course but was reading over his emails and he started in Brantford, then went to Guelph, and now is in St. Thomas! Guelph sounded so familiar, but didn't really think about it. I believe he is right around where part of our family was. Interesting... We lost all the info we had on PAF when gramps computer crashed. We have a disk that has some info we put on in az but this computer doesnt have a disk drive, just cd and dvd. Do you have your stuff there? I recall you useing a different program that you liked better!!! Is yours updated? Kim
Do you Yahoo!?
Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail Beta.
Valorie Zimmerman
group, Kimberly) had uploaded her GEDCOM to WorldConnect at
Rootsweb.com. So she can download her complete file from Rootsweb.
Another great reason to share you information with the world --
BACKUP! :-)
Kim didn't mean to send this to the group, but instead wanted to send
it to me personally. No harm done, and any post sent by mistake to the
group can be easily removed from the archives. Kimberly was right in
her memory of the city names, though -- our friend is living only a
few miles from where our grandfather and generations of his family
lived since 1832. Now we're going to make him fill his hours off with
taking pictures of houses, churches and gravestones for us!
Thanks for your helpful concern, Laura.
Valorie
On 7/2/06, Laura Cowan Cooper <lauracow...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Kim,
>
> Don't get rid of your info on the disk - there are many of us as well as
> the LDS Family History Centers that might be able to do something with that
> disk. Did you know if anyone had made an earlier back up of the file or
> someone that you shared it with that might have at least part of the one
> that you lost?
>
>
>
> At 11:15 PM 7/2/2006, you wrote:
>
> Just realized that Morgan Kent is serving his mission in Ontario. I mean I
> knew that when he left of course but was reading over his emails and he
> started in Brantford, then went to Guelph, and now is in St. Thomas! Guelph
> sounded so familiar, but didn't really think about it. I believe he is right
> around where part of our family was. Interesting... We lost all the info we
> had on PAF when gramps computer crashed. We have a disk that has some info
> we put on in az but this computer doesnt have a disk drive, just cd and dvd.
> Do you have your stuff there? I recall you useing a different program that
> you liked better!!! Is yours updated? Kim
>
>
> Laura Cowan Cooper of Kodak, TN lauracow...@comcast.net
--
All my pages: http://valorie.zimmerman.googlepages.com