JOSEPH ELLIOTT COWLES

COWLES

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 16:41:48

JOSEPH ELLIOTT COWLES, a farmer of section 15, Nodaway township (postoffice Nodaway), was born in Geauga county, Ohio, September 19, 1835, a son of Benjamin Cowles, a native of New York State. His father was Elliott Cowles, a native of New England and of English ancestry. Joseph’s mother, whose name before marriage was Lodisa King, was a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Samuel King, an early settler of Geauga county, that State. Benjamin Cowles had four sons, one of whom, Frank, was a member of the Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died in the service at Camp Ashland, Kentucky. Benjamin and wife lived in Geauga county,Ohio,
until their death,—he dying at a little past sixty years of age, and she past fifty. He was a Democrat in his political principles, and in religion a Universalist.

The subject of this sketch, the eldest son in the above family, was reared to farm work. In the fall of 1855 he came to Black Hawk county, Iowa, where he spent the winter with a brother-in law, John Murphy. In the spring he came to Adams county and purchased 160 acres in Nodaway valley, which he proceeded to convert into a good farm. In 1865 he sold it, returned to Geauga county, Ohio, and engaged in merchandising for three years, returning then to this county. Here he now owns 240 acres of well-improved land. Half of it is bottom land, and some is in timber. The farm is well adapted to both grain and stock-raising. Upon the premises are a good frame house, 20 x 40 feet and one and a half stories high, a barn 44 x 52, a poultry house 12 x 52, fitted up with all the modern improvements, etc. Every feature of the place is an evidence of the thrift and good judgment of the proprietor.' He is a Republican. He was made a Mason in 1867, and is now a member of Lodge No. 93, at Chardon, Ohio.

He was first married in Geauga county, Ohio, in 1859, to Miss Anna Bushnell, a daughter of Elijah Bushnell. They had one daughter, Jesse J., now the wife of L. L. Bullock, of Nodaway township. Mrs. Cowles died in 1875, and Mr. Cowles, in February, 1878, married Mrs. Flora Chase, a native of Ashtabula county, Ohio, and a daughter of Seth and Olive (Beverly) Lobdell, natives of Steuben county, New York.