Sowell, A. J. (Andrew Jackson), 1848-1921

Andrew Jackson Sowell was in some ways a third-generation Texan, although he was a member of the first generation of his family born in the state. His paternal grandfather John Newton Sowell (1780-1838) moved his family from Tennessee to Missouri and then to Texas, settling in Green DeWitt’s colony near Gonzales in 1830. During the Texas Revolution, he was one of the “Old Eighteen” in Gonzales and aided the Texan cause by making and repairing guns. Sowell’s uncle, also named Andrew Jackson Sowell (1815-1883), participated in several engagements during the Texas Revolution, serving at the Alamo garrison but departing to obtain supplies prior to its fall. Members of the Sowell family were among the earliest settlers in Guadalupe County, Texas.

Sowell’s maternal grandfather William Suddarth Turner (1787-1871) arrived in Texas with his wife and children in 1837 September. A veteran of the Creek War and War of 1812 who served under Andrew Jackson, Turner served in the Vasquez and Woll campaigns in Texas in 1842. He eventually settled in Seguin and was elected coroner of Guadalupe County in 1846. Sowell wrote in his History of Fort Bend County that his grandfather was a descendant of James Turner, the twelfth governor of North Carolina, an assertion that further research indicates may be incorrect.

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