css3menu.com

html menu by Css3Menu.com


WHO WAS - William H. Cowen
in Plum Township
Venango County, Pennsylvania
By Howard Strawbridge 1960

It was on Dec. 15, 1828, that William Henry Cowen was born on the old Cowen Homestead located in the southern part of Plum Township. William Henry was a son of William and Catherine McIntosh Cowen, who settled there about 1826. The Cowens were Scotch-English.

William Henry attended the common school of his neighborhood and remained on the old homestead until he was 33 years of age.

Like most every boy, he had his mischievous spells. One day he and a relative, Clemuel McIntosh, who was about the same age, went after the cows in the pasture. William purposely went ahead and jabbed a yellow jackets' nest. When Clem reached the spot he was attacked by the angry bees. He ran back to old Mr. Cowen and told him what young William did. It is not known what method of discipline was used, if any.

While still at home William took seriously ill with typhoid fever one time. A doctor was engaged to treat him, but seemed to get nowhere. Finally the family sent for another doctor, Dr. L. W. Ranney of Cooperstown, who made William show some progress. William asked a lady relative who was staying and working there at the time to go down cellar, dig into the center of the sauerkraut barrel, and bring up a plate of kraut to him. This she did. When William's mother head of this she was thoroughly shocked and told Dr. Ranney as soon as he made his next call. Dr. Ranney said in his stuttering voice: "B-by gosh, B-B-Bill, it might have killed you, b-b-but it didn't hurt you any!"

In October, 1861, William enlisted as a Second Lieutenant in Company I of the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry. He was in service two months when he was cited by Major Kerr before the Board of Examiners, on which account he handed in his resignation, fearing he would not pass the examinations. His letter of resignation was written at Camp Campbell, near Washington, D. C., on Dec. 19, to Col. D. Campbell, and upon recommendation of Brig. Gen. J. N. Palmer, it was accepted. Hence William left the service.

It seems that William had a rather deep misunderstanding with another officer. Rather than getting involved in trouble, William resigned. Men of his company regretted his decision and signed a petition urging him to remain in the service, but he wouldn't consider it.

It was around March, 1864, that William was married to Mrs. Isabella Richey Brown, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Job Richey of Sunville. Isabella had dark hair, was of average size, and about 5 feet, 2 inches in height. She was a member of the Sunville Presbyterian Church. Just where William and she lived during their short married life isn't known. Record states Isabella died without issue on Nov. 10, 1865. She left a daughter by her first marriage to Thomas Brown. The daughter, Miss Eldie Brown, last lived in New Castle.

William Henry for a short while owned one-third interest in the store at Wallaceville with James R. Grove and Squire William Gill. He eventually sold out to the other two.

William also had an interest with Grove and Gill in some oil lands and leases in Oil City during part of the 1860s, but it is said William realized but little from this venture.
The small pieces of Oil City land were sold in 1889 to the Oil City Lumber and Coal Company.

William also had an oil agreement with others on the Davison farm in Oakland Township in 1865. It is not known what results came of it.

He once owned the old Mrs. Elizabeth Loker place, or a portion of it, at Wallaceville for a very brief time. He sold it to Solomon Klinordlinger of Franklin.

The Klinordlinger brothers, Sol and Abe, had a store in Sunville for some time. Sol had a case on Miss Sarah Ehrhart who lived south of Bradleytown (and whom William Henry later married). Klines, as they were called for short, sent William and Adam Babb to Meadville for store supplies, among which was a barrel of white fish. William told Babb to give one of the fish to Sarah (Sadie), saying Sol sent it to her. News of it finally got around to Sol and he got angry. The next time he saw William he told him he thought he (Wm.) should pay for the fish!

William got quite a kick out of taunting Sol. Years later, after the Klines moved to Pittsburgh and operated a liquor store, William and Sadie called on them. Klines were so pleased over the visit that they insisted on treating William to some of their wine. William at first refused, but they were so insistent that he finally sampled it.

During the early 1870s, William and Wallace Davison "bached" it together on the old George Fetterman place at the foot of Fetterman Hill in Oakland Township. William at this time worked as a livestock dealer. He dealt a lot in livestock, both cattle and horses, following the war.

One time he and Wallace made a barrel of sauerkraut and took it to Oil City to sell. They sold it to ladies for a dollar a plate. They made $90 on this barrel of sauerkraut!

William was married in Titusville to Sarah Ehrhart on Christmas Day, 1873. She was a daughter of Jacob and Eva Shaffer Ehrhart, pioneer settlers of German extraction near Bradleytown. She was born May 5, 1838. Sarah, or Sadie, was one of 12 children. The lady who stood up for Sadie at her wedding was Mrs. Ellen Ann Strawbridge of near Fairview.

The couple lived their entire married life on the Ehrhart farm south of Bradleytown. After Sadie's father died in 1875 William bought out the other heirs.

A new seven-room house had been built on the place in 1873, Mr. Ehrhart having hired Milton Reib and Rev. Erastus Bumpus to carpenter it. The old house burned on March 8, 1873. A large old barn stood on the place. It was 72 feet long and 42 feet wide and was built in 1843. Erhart hired John Guist to carpenter it. The shed of it fell in 51 years ago, while the barn itself collapsed during hard winds in April, 1948. Retired Col. Chalmers White, who lives nearby, got some of the foundation stones 2 years ago to build a fireplace.

William had a fine horse barn built in 1886. Bill Borger erected it. It and the house still stand although the place is now owned by the Orlo Vanderhoof family.

William Henry Cowen's farm contained 140 acres. He was known as one of the best farm managers along the Sugar Creek valley. His brother-in-law, Peter Ehrhart, made his permanent home with the Cowens. Peter always worked with a yoke of oxen while the hired man drove the horses. William had several hired men work for him, including John Kyle, Charles Jennings, Harry White and Lent Tingley. The tenant house was on the present Bill Keas place.

William was also a veterinarian. He learned this trade from a veterinary instructor named Merrick at Meadville. William went all over Plum, Jackson, Oakland and Cherrytree Townships doctoring stock. At times he even went as far as Canal Township, too.

In the summer of 1894 Mrs. Edith Foster of near Chapmanville worked for the Cowens. Besides doing housework she also held with the milking. William kept several hives of bees. Mrs. Foster remembers that a hive swarmed one day on a small fruit tree. Peter Ehrhart was hoeing in the garden right beside the fruit tree. The limb started drooping badly, so the bees started to light and swarm on Pete's old broad-rimmed hat. He started swatting them away but William shouted, no, no, not to do that - just hold still until he got the hive ready to get them back into it. So Pete held still with the bees on his hat and William got them back into the hive. It would have been a sight worth seeing. Pete didn't get one sting from the ordeal either.

William H. Cowen was a man 5 feet, 6 inches in height, and he weighed 145 pounds. He had white hair and whiskers and generally wore a long-tailed coat. He was quite a talker and full of fun. He took part in the literary societies held at Bradleytown. Once he delivered an address entitled "The Citizen, His Duties and Responsibilities", at a teachers institute held in the Bradleytown Baptist Church about 1895 or 96.

William was a Democrat and took quite an interest in political affairs. He had served as an auditor and road commissioner in Plum Township, and as auditor in Jackson Township. He had attended several annual meetings of the Democratic Convention of Venango County throughout the years.

Once William and a neighbor, Henry Weber, got up at 2 o'clock in the morning to go to Franklin to board the train for Youngstown, O., to hear the famous William Jennings Bryan make a speech. This was in 1896.

William once belonged to an I.O.O.F. lodge in Oakland Township, but not in his later years. He was an active member of the Albert Jackson Post No. 299, G.A.R., of Cooperstown. He attended several G.A.R. Encampments at such places as Louisville, Ky., Philadelphia, Cleveland and Buffalo. He and Sadie occasionally made lengthy visiting trips, too, to Indiana (where her sister lived), Pittsburgh, and other cities.

The William Henry Cowen home was always open to people. A neighbor once said: "This place is like a hotel, or maybe the poorhouse, as some unfortunate ones know they can come". No one ever came to William for help and went away empty-handed. He was a very generous man.

William was a charter member of the Wallaceville Methodist Church which organized in 1851, and remained a member there for years. However, he was not radical in religious denominations. He and Sadie attended all the nearby churches - the Sunville Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, the Valley Methodist (later Bradleytown) and Plum Freewill Baptist Churches. The latter also later became the Bradleytown Freewill Baptist Church. William was Sunday School Superintendent awhile at a Union Sunday School held in the old Plum Church in summers only. This was about 1898 or 99.

Sadie maintained her membership in the Sunville Presbyterian Church, joining in 1868. She sang in the choir there. She was about five feet, four inches in height and weighed 140 pounds. In her younger years she had dark brown hair, but had gray hair at last.

William and Sadie had one daughter, Susie Cowen, who was born on the old homestead June 24, 1887. She was married in her home to Frank Reib on May 18, 1908. They lived their married life in the Cowen home with the exception of a few years when Frank was a rural carrier out of the Cooperstown postoffice. Frank worked in the oil fields prior to marriage, but farmed afterwards. He died March 9, 1948.

They have two children, Howard E. Reib, an electrician in Washington, D.C., and Miss Marie B. Reib, who is a housekeeper at the Franklin High School.

The Reib family sold the farm a few years ago and Mrs. Reib and Marie now have a home in Franklin.

Mrs. Reib recalls of her father taking her along on many of his veterinary calls.

Although William and Sadie Cowen lived on the same place all the time, their township residence changed from Plum to Jackson in 1885. The area families of Cowen, Thomas Kyle, S.O. Small and William McAlevy had such long ways to send children to school at Bradleytown. They decided the Derrick school in Jackson Township was much nearer, so they prepared a petition and presented it to the Venango County Court on May 18, 1885, to annex that section of Plum to Jackson Township. It was passed and decreed as part of the latter township on Nov. 23.

Around 1896 two oil wells were pumped on the Cowen farm by Dick and Al Reid. J. R. Dodds of Oil City formed the company and Jackson McIntosh of Wallaceville was the contractor. Oil was then 50 cents a barrel.

William H. Cowen died at 9:00 a.m., Saturday, June 16, 1900, at his home following a two weeks illness of an abscess on the brain.

His funeral took place on Monday at the Sunville Presbyterian Church with Rev. S.E. Winger of the Methodist Church officiating. It was such a large funeral that many people were unable to get into the crowded church. The Cooperstown G.A.R. had a military service in the church cemetery.

Sadie died on the old homestead over 24 years later, on Oct. 20, 1924. She died more or less of infirmities of old age.

Transcribed by Penny Kulbacki Minnick
minnick862@verizon.net

Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription ofinformation from both early and late (current contributors) work.