McCowan Family

James McCowan was born in Alabama on 1808 February 11. He married Elizabeth H. Greene, who was born in South Carolina or Alabama on 1815 August 20, in Alabama on 1832 July 19. The couple had five children who survived to adulthood: David Conroe, Eugenia, Jerome, James, and Sampson. They may have also had three children who died as infants.

The McCowan family immigrated to Texas sometime between 1839 and 1845 and settled in Harrison County, where James became a planter with more than fifty slaves and the owner of the Marshall Hotel. He also served in the first Texas State Legislature. James McCowan died in Harrison County on 1852 July 6. His widow married William T. Fortson on 1855 February 22. Elizabeth McCowan Fortson died in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, on 1866 August 21; her husband died around the same time.

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