Joseph Harvey McDowell born on December 10, 1908 in Louisa, Kentucky to Eli Harvey McDowell and Ida Rice Johns McDowell. He lived with his grandparents, Martin Harrison Johns and Josephine Weddington Johns, in Louisa where he graduated from Louisa High School in 1926. He was an engineering student at the University of Kentucky in 1927-1928 and served in the Civilian Conservation Corps at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky in 1933. He moved to North Carolina in 1935 and was employed as a Mechanical Engineer with Duke Power Company for 35 years. At his death on May 4, 1971, he was Superintendent of Buck Steam Plant in Spencer, North Carolina. He married Daisy Parks in 1937 and was the father of two children, Betty McDowell Garrett and Joseph Harvey "Tony" McDowell II. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Salisbury, North Carolina, a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the Kiwanis Club in Salisbury.
From the description of Joseph McDowell photographs of the University of Kentucky, ca. 1927. (University of Kentucky Libraries). WorldCat record id: 192072500
