- JAMES S. McGOWEN, more than threescore years a resident of
Wisconsin, is a native of
- County Fermanagh, Ireland. He was born November 5, 1830,
and is the second of four children born to John and Mary (McDONALD)
McGOWEN, natives of Ireland. The father was a farmer there until
1840, when he immigrated to the United States with his family
and settled on a farm near Rochester, in Monroe county, New York.
In 1849 the family moved to Dodge county, Wisconsin, where the
father bought a tract of unimproved land, on which he built a
log house and where he successfully continued his occupation
of general farming. Here he reared his family and made his home
until his decease in 1857. The mother died in 1880, past ninety
years of age. Their first child, Mary, died in Ireland; Charles,
the third child, lives in the state of Iowa; and John, the youngest,
is now deceased.
- The father was a Democrat in politics, and with his family
was in religious faith a Catholic.
- James S. was eleven years old when the family came to this
country and nearly twenty when they
- came to Wisconsin. He had the ordinary experience of the
farmer boy, working on his father's farm and attending the district
schools, until he grew to manhood, and then learned the carpenter
and builder's trade. In the spring of 1850 he left home and
began life for himself, settling in Janesville, where he continuously
plied his trade until his retirement from active business.
- For many years Mr. McGOWEN held a first place among the successful
and reliable contractors
- and builders of Janesville, and the evidences of his skill
and workmanship are to be seen in all parts of the city. He
has always been a Democrat in politics, but has taken no active
part in political matters more than to perform his duties as
a loyal citizen. He is a Catholic in religious faith.
- In 1854 Mr. McGOWEN married Miss Mary Louise, daughter of
Daniel and Deborah L.
- BENNETT, who was born in Hounsfield, Jefferson county, N.Y.,
on June 23, 1831, and whose death occurred February 19, 1905.
Of four children born to Mr. and Mrs. McGOWEN, the eldest, James
B., is deceased; the second, Emmett D., is a successful attorney
in Janesville, whose sketch appears in another part of this work;
Mary L., the third child, married Mr. Charles F. MILES, a Unitarian
minister, and lives in Menomonee, Wis.; and Eva, the youngest,
died in infancy. Since the decease of Mrs. McGOWEN, Mr. McGOWEN
has continued to occupy his comfortable home on Milton avenue
and busies himself in fruit and bee culture, the productions
of new fruits being his specialty.
- Mr. McGOWEN is one of the most successful fruit growers in
the state of Wisconsin, and his
- advice is sough in all fruit centers throughout the state.
-
- [Transcriber's note: The word sketch above is used for
biography, not picture.]
-
- Taken from "Rock County, Wisconsin, Vol. II"
by William Fiske Brown, (c)1908, pp. 873-874.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|