John Cowden and Mary Reynolds
Husband John Cowden 1 2
Born: 1735 - Paxtang Twp, Lancaster (later Dauphin) Co, PA 1 2 Christened: Died: Aug 1776 - Cumberland Co, PA 1 2 Buried:
Father: Matthew Cowden (Abt 1707-1773) 1 3 Mother: Martha Johnston ( - ) 4
Marriage: Abt 1750
Wife Mary Reynolds 5
AKA: Mary [Unk] 1 Born: Christened: Died: - Mahoning Co, OH Buried:
Children
1 M James Cowden 5
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
2 M John Cowden 6 7 8 9
Born: 1758 - near Carlisle, Cumberland Co, PA 9 Christened: Died: 15 Jun 1827 - Mt. Pleasant Twp, Washington Co, PA 10 Buried: - U. P. Church, Hickory, Mt. Pleasant Twp, Washington Co, PASpouse: Anna Sloan (Abt 1765-1802) 6 11 Marr: 1786 or 2 Jan 1787 12Spouse: Esther Struthers (1772-1819) 13 Marr: 29 Jan 1805 13Spouse: Margaret Nelson ( -1850) 13 Marr: 16 Nov 1820 14
3 F Jane Cowden 8 15 16
Born: 1759 15 Christened: Died: 4 Apr 1839 - near Cadiz, Harrison Co, OH 15 Buried:Spouse: Thomas Hanna (1760-1839) 15 16
4 M Joseph Cowden 5 8 17 18
Born: Oct 1765 19 Christened: Died: 19 Sep 1849 - Coitsville Twp, Mahoning Co, OH 19 Buried: - Poland Center, Mahoning Co, OHSpouse: Mary May (1771-1857) 17 19 Marr: 1794 ? - Canonsburg, Washington Co, PA
5 M Matthew Cowden 8
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
6 F Margaret Cowden 8 20
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: James Scroggs (1746- ) 21 Marr: Abt 1772
7 M Reynolds Cowden 5
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1840 Buried:Spouse: Polly Sloan ( -1840) 22
8 F Esther Cowden 5 8 23 24
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: David McNary (1757-1817) 5 23 25
9 M William Cowden 5 8 26
Born: 1774 - Franklin Co, PA 5 Christened: Died: 1854 - Poland Center, Mahoning Co, OH 22 Buried:Spouse: Unknown ( - )
10 M Dr. Isaac Patterson Cowden 5 26
Born: 1776 5 Christened: Died: 22 Oct 1855 27 Cause of Death: Cancer of the face Buried: - Poland Center, Mahoning Co, OHSpouse: Mary McWilliams ( -1808) 27 Marr: 15 Jan 1805 27Spouse: Jean McBride ( -1816) 27 Marr: 28 Nov 1809 27Spouse: Mary Watson ( -1828) 28 Marr: Nov 1817 28Spouse: Ann Law ( -1865) 28 Marr: 13 Jan 1830 28
General Notes: Husband - John Cowden
He set his face toward the west resolved to conquer the perils of the way and find a home among the waters that flowed toward the Ohio River. He removed from Paxtang with his wife and children at a time when his family was both large and small. Over the mountains and all the way to Fort Pitt was almost impenetrable wilderness. The settlements were few and far apart. This was before even the Conestoga wagon was invented as a means of transportation over the rough and hilly roads. The way was but a blazed trail often unmarked by previous wheels. It was doubtless the plan of John Cowden to follow the trail of the Armstrong expedition as his destination is said to have been the Crooked Creek country. This creek is situated in what is now Indiana County, but there is no record of the name of Cowden in the counties of Indiana and Armstrong in the registry of land transfers. Another Crooked Creek is in North Bedford County. It is not unlikely that he made several stops, tarrying in a place that suited him and that was safer for a man with a family of children. In 1776 he was near Cumberland, Maryland, at Conacocheague (Indian name Gu-ne-uk-isschick, meaning, Indeed a long way) which was a village on a creek of the that name that flowed southward from the Cumberland valley of Pennsylvania and entered the Potomac river. The village is now in Maryland, but before the running of the Mason and Dixon line it was counted a Pennsylvania settlement. In August, 1776, John Cowden died there. This was about half way to the Ohio river by the southern passes. Upon the night of his death their horses were stolen, whether by Indians or Tories is unknown. A few weeks thereafter a child was born to his widow, being her twelfth child. She called him Isaac Patterson Cowden, after a neighbour who had been kind and helpful to them in their trouble and bereavement. These facts come through letters written by descendants of that child. John Cowden was said to be buried in Cumberland, but this is doubtful. After some few years his widow removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania, with her family, by the natural route through the Cumberland Gap, via Casselmans, Confluence, Uniontown, Brownsville, (formerly called Parkinson's Ferry and Old Redstone Fort) to Canonsburg. Her oldest sons were by then stalwart men.
General Notes: Wife - Mary Reynolds
In her old age she became blind but was still active and spry. Eventually she went to live in Ohio with her son Joseph in Lowellville, Mahoning County. She lived to be eighty-four years of age.
Notes: Marriage
They were the parents of twelve children; besides those listed perhaps the others did not lived to maturity.
1 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 143.
2 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 20.
3 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 12.
4 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 14.
5 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 22.
6 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 371.
7 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 1315.
8 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 144.
9 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 22, 67.
10 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 67.
11 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 119.
12 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 68, 80.
13 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 68.
14 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 80.
15 Charles A. Hanna, Ohio Valley Genealogies (New York, 1900), Pg 57.
16 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 22, 55.
17 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 702.
18 Aaron L. Hazen, 20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1908), Pg 475.
19 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 27.
20 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 22, 43.
21 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 22, 42.
22 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 30.
23 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 804.
24 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 82.
25 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 81.
26 Editor, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (R. C. Brown & Co. Publishers, 1895), Pg 1267.
27 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 32.
28
Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 33.
Home | Table of Contents | Surnames | Name List
This Web Site was Created 12 Feb 2026 with Legacy 9.0 from Millennia