|
Home
Up
Search
Multi-County DVDs
Missouri Counties
Southeast Missouri
Ozark Region
Arkansas Counties
Illinois Counties
Indiana Counties
Iowa Counties
Kansas Counties
Kentucky Counties
Louisiana Parishes
Massachusetts Vital Records
North Carolina Counties
Ohio Counties
Pennsylvania Counties
Tennessee Counties
Texas Counties
Historic Map Reprints
Plat Map Books
Census Records
State County Maps
New Titles
Coming Soon
Questions Answers
Customer Quotes
Wholesale
Conferences
Missouri Journey
Iris Median
Contact Us
Genealogy History News
Special Offers
County History Books
| |
Below is a sample of a family biography
included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton,
and Linn Counties
Missouri and published by Chapman Bros. in 1893.
These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing
ancestors or filling in the details in a family tree. Family biographies often
include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.
Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place
of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including
maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if
married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service,
church and social organization affiliations, and more. There are often
ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical
record.
JOHN McGOWAN. Popular appreciation has made John McGowan an Alderman of the
city of Brookfield no less than three times. He is recognized as a business
man of shrewdness and intelligence, and these qualities make him a most useful
member of the City Council. He is a member of the hardware firm of Graham &
McGowan, established for four years, and carrying a full line of builders'
hardware and shelf goods, etc. Our subject was born in Almond, Allegany
County, N. Y., June 13, 1845, his father at that time being engaged on the
grading of the Erie Railroad. He came to Illinois in 1855 or 1856 with the
brother of his mother, Patrick Tooey, his parents being of the party. Mr.
Tooey, who was a brother of James Tooey, had a contract for grading the
Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad from East Yellow Creek to Lingo, a distance of
ten miles, and brought out his family with the intention of locating in
Missouri. They drove from St. Louis in the dead of winter, when the Northern
Missouri Railroad extended only to St. Charles. Dreary, indeed, was the
prospect at the end of the journey, with not a habitation in sight, but only
the wild wilderness for miles on every hand. Yet twenty-five laborers were
along, including the families, for whom it was necessary to erect shelter of
some kind.
The parents of our subject secured teams and came to Yellow Creek, where the
father erected a temporary structure for the winter, and in the spring of the
following year removed to Thayer. He had worked with Pat Tooey at Troy and on
the grading of the Erie Road, and came to Illinois to work with him on the
grade work of the Hannibal & St. Joseph. Mr. Tooey had his hands full finding
shelter for twenty-five laborers, including the families, Mr. McGowan and
several bosses; this, too, in the winter season with building material scarce
and a market none too close; yet he provided for all and secured for them the
necessities of life. The road ran through Fulton, Huntsville and old
Bloomington, in Macon County, then the county seat. Thayer remained the
headquarters while the work was being prosecuted. The road was completed in
1858, and in the following year it was connected near Chillicothe. Patrick
Tooey remained in Thayer, having bought considerable property in that place;
but presently misfortunes overwhelmed him, he being bereaved by the death of
his wife and later sustaining serious financial mishaps. Under the burden of
his troubles his reason gave way and for several years he has been an inmate
of the St. Joseph Asylum.
The father of our subject, Michael McGowan, worked with his brother-in-law for
some years and then with the railroad. Locating at Brookfield, he became one
of the first settlers of the place, where he remained until his death in 1883.
His wife is still living. Our subject being a mere boy when the move was made
to Illinois, was employed in driving a team for his uncle and hauled goods
from Brunswick, Carbondale and Hudson, and afterward from Macon City. For a
season he was in the store at Thayer, and was employed by the railroad at the
latter place in 1858-59 as a helper in the roundhouse, which, on a Sunday
afternoon in May of the latter year was, with its five engines, removed to
Brookfield, which at that time contained only a turntable, a boarding shanty
and a hut occupied by Thomas Bresnehan, a grading contractor. Our subject was
made timekeeper and watchman, and is the only one remaining of the residents
of the village in that spring of 1859, and of the twenty-five workmen, the
bosses and contractors and the man in the blacksmith shop. The first store was
erected by James Tooey nearly a year later.
Our subject worked with the railroad until 1876. He began to fire an engine in
1862, and eighteen months later was given charge of an engine, being then less
than seventeen years old. Before he had fired a week he was in a collision on
the New Cambria grade, in which four men were killed. His engine rolling down
a bank into a cornfield, tipped over with him, and he was severely scalded and
laid up for two months. Both trains were running at full speed and the cars
were smashed to pieces. Several times during the war he was fired at by
guerrillas while running his train. August 5, 1868, his engine was ditched and
turned upside down, having met an obstruction on the track while at a speed of
forty miles an hour. As a result of this accident our subject was laid up for
months. Running mostly by daylight, it was necessary for him to carry spikes
and stop now and then to spike down rails. His perils during the war were many
and some of his escapes were narrow indeed. Upon one occasion the engine was
taking water at a tank, when four hundred Confederates appeared. He started
away, but being up grade they followed so closely that he saved himself only
by lying flat upon the floor, one hundred shots being fired into the engine.
At another time he brought out an engine from Hannibal to secure the remains
of two trains, a passenger and a freight, near Monroe City, that had been
stopped and robbed and the engineer of which had been made to put fire to his
own train. The robbers, some of whom remained, paid no attention as he
superintended the repair of the tracks by laborers he had brought out for that
purpose; but later, when another train bearing laborers and soldiers arrived,
a brisk and sharp fight ensued.
The operation of railroads was very difficult during war time, there being no
trackmen, and none for the shops; and cabs had to be lined with boiler iron to
protect the engineer and fireman from bullets. On one trip, when taking a load
of soldiers to Cameron with an old engine, the commander sent a guard to watch
our subject while he stopped to repair it, suspecting that he might be
attempting to cripple the locomotive. Mr. McGowan ran the first engine for the
Kansas City branch, which only ran to Harlem, until the bridge was built, and
when but one road ran into Kansas City. While in charge of the roundhouse in
1861 he was required for three weeks to keep the engines fired up day and
night, an attack being expected from Price's army and guerrillas to burn the
bridge on each side. Leaving the road in 1876 he started a grocery and later a
saloon, after which he went into the hardware business.
June 10, 1878,Mr. McGowan married Miss Maggie Mehan, of St. Louis, the fruits
of this union being, Katie, Annie Frances, May Gertrude, Julia Agnes and
Josephine Augusta (the three last named dying in childhood), Anastasia, Ellen
and Maggie. Mr. and Mrs. McGowan are prominent members of the Catholic Church.
They have a fine residence on Brooks Street, one and one-half blocks west of
Main Street. In addition to this, Mr. McGowan owns some valuable business
property in Brookfield. His devotion to the Democratic party shows itself in
earnest work, while he has never sought office his fellow-citizens have three
times elected him an Alderman.
This family biography is one of 555
biographies included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Clay, Ray,
Carroll, Chariton, and Linn Counties Missouri published
in 1893. For the complete description, click here:
Linn County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and
Maps
Additional
Free Genealogy and Map Resources
|
