He was the son of Samuel McDowell, Jr., and Anna Irvine McDowell and the grandson of Revolutionary War soldier Samuel McDowell, Sr., and Mary McClung McDowell. His spouse was Anne Haupt.

Information from Find A Grave Contributor: Shelley (48724495)
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Alexander Keith Marshall, the youngest son of Samuel McDowell, of Mercer, and Anna Irvine, was born in Mercer in 1806. His childhood was passed in Mercer. His mother dying when he was about ten years old, he was sent to Franklinton, Ohio, where he lived, alternatively, with his two elder brothers, and attended school. Later, he received instruction at the academy of the learned and celebrated Dr. Priestley, in Tennessee, where one of his classmates was Andrew J. Donelson, and afterward was sent to the college at Nashville.

On attaining maturity, he bought land near Palmyra, Missouri, and while living there, married Priscilla, daughter of General Robert McAfee — the historian of, and a gallant officer in, the War of 1812 — who had removed from Kentucky to Missouri. After a brief residence in Missouri, he determined to settle permanently in the South; and while proceeding thither with his wife and their infant, the two latter died tragically in the burning of the “Ben Sherrad," on the Mississippi, while the bereaved husband made the narrowest of escapes by swimming the great river. Returning to Missouri, after another brief residence there, he sold his lands, and, with his servants, went to Demopolis, Alabama, where be bought a plantation.

After a widowerhood of 15 years, he there married Anna, daughter of Sebastian Haunt, a native of Philadelphia, and son of a rich ship-owner of that city. Mr. Haupt had been for many years a prosperous coffee planter in the Island of Trinidad, and on returning to this country, avoided the rigors of northern winters by settling upon large tracts of rich land which he bought in Greene and Sumpter counties, Alabama. Miss Haupt was an educated and intellectual woman. Her husband. Mr. McDowell, after their marriage, continued to live upon and cultivate a cotton plantation, together with the avocations of a civil engineer, for which he had been educated, until about four years before the war, when he became a resident of Demopolis. He had taken part in the "Black Hawk War," in which he was wounded in the knee, crippling him for life. His condition did not prevent his early enlistment in the southern army, but he was soon detailed from the Line to other and more important duties. About the time of the surrender, he was chosen probate judge of Marengo county.

In 1868, he sold out what possessions in Alabama the war had left him, and removed to St. Louis, where he remained until 1873, when he became a citizen of Cynthiana, Kentucky, and afterward clerk of the Harrison circuit court. A handsome, stately gentleman, of winning and graceful manners, sunny temper, extensive reading, and attractive gifts, he is also an uncompromising Calvinist. His only surviving daughter, Mrs. Louise Irvine McDowell, is the wife of her kinsman, Dr. Hervey McDowell, of Cynthiana — an accomplished lady, of native talent broadened by elegant culture, whose general and accurate information, not less than her ready and sportive wit, render her the most interesting of correspondents, the most charming of conversationalists. His son, Colonel E. C. McDowell, lives at Columbia, Tennessee.

“Historic Families of Kentucky” by Thomas Marshall Green

Information from Find A Grave Contributor: C. A. Marshall (48779793)