****USCT Virtual Cemetery Location****
59th U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment
Son of David Cowden and Elizabeth Kitch
Married Lydia Tabitha Miller 24 July 1854. Crawford County, Ohio. Ended with her death in 1890
Children:
Daniel Webster Cowden - 31 October 1854
John C. Milton Cowden - 9 November 1856
Jacob Kitch Riley Cowden - 5 November 1865
Zoe Estella May Cowden - 29 May 1868
Married Mrs. Joanna Huber, widow of Samuel McGinnis, November 1891. Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas.
No Children
Civil War Veteran
Lt. Colonel
59th U. S. Colored Infantry
Conover, Frank (ed.); Centennial Portrait and Biographical Record of the City of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio. A.W. Bowen & Co. 1897. pps. 445-447.
COL. ROBERT COWDEN, of Dayton, Ohio, is descended from an old Scotch family, who came to America, many years ago, from Cowden Beath, twenty-five miles north of Edinburg. His parents, David and Elizabeth (Kitch) Cowden, were natives of Pennsylvania, and early settlers in Ohio, where the father died when Robert was but five years of age. Robert Cowden was born May 24, 1833, near Leesville Cross Roads, Ohio, and although his opportunities for securing an education were meager, he succeeded, by dint of close application to study, in acquiring a fair amount of knowledge and became a school teacher at the age of eighteen years, following that calling in the winter and working during the summer at any paying employment he could find, for several consecutive years.
At the age of nineteen he was converted to Christ and at once entered upon a career of religious work in the interest of the United Brethren church and humanity, and today, as an organizer and teacher of Sunday schools, he probably has no superior. Persistent in his studies, he early developed himself as a scholar of much learning, especially in the field of theology, and was thus fully qualified for Sabbath-school work, and for nearly thirty years he has been closely identified with that branch of religious activity in this country, and has filled many positions of honor in connection with it.
Coupled with his well-earned reputation for usefulness in civil life, Col. Cowden has a military record for patriotism and valor, and the scars upon his person bear substantial witness to the fact that he not only loved his country but helped to fight her battles. Robert Cowden enlisted September 9, 1861, in company B, Fifty-sixth Illinois volunteer infantry, but was transferred to company H, and between the date of his enlistment and January 28, 1862, was promoted to be corporal, was next advanced to the position of sergeant, and still later was commissioned first lieutenant of company H. Because of defective enlistment or organization of the Fifty-sixth, that regiment was mustered out of service January 28, 1862, and on the same day Lieut. Cowden entered battery I, First Illinois light artillery, as a private. During his service of eighteen months in this body he was promoted through the intermediate grades from private to second lieutenant, receiving his commission for meritorious conduct on the battle field of Shiloh.
July 29, 1863, Lieut. Cowden was discharged to receive promotion, and was mustered in as major of the Fifty-ninth United States colored infantry, and May 1, 1864, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, with which rank he served until his final muster out, January 31, 1866. At this time, to save the men, who in most cases had been recruited from the illiterate plantation hands, from the self-constituted bounty and claim agents, a meeting of the officers of the regiment was held at Memphis, Tenn., where it was decided that Col. Cowden should receive authority to act for the discharged men. As a consequence 530 soldiers entrusted their discharge papers to him, the result being that he subsequently collected all back pay, bounty, etc., due to the men and placed the proceeds into the hands of those to whom they rightfully belonged. The colonel was also instrumental in establishing a school for the instruction of unlettered men of his regiment, and in this school 250 colored men were taught to read and write.
Among the many engagements in which Col. Cowden participated may be enumerated that of Shiloh, both days; the siege of Corinth and the engagement at the Russell house, lying between Pittsburg Landing and Corinth; the siege and capture of Vicksburg; the second; capture of Jackson, Miss.; the engagement at Guntown, Miss., where, June 10, 1864, he received a severe wound in the right hip; and finally the battles of Tupelo and Pontotoc, Miss., in July, 1864.
To revert to the life of Col, Cowden as a civilian, it may be stated that, prior to the Civil war, he resided in Kansas for three years and was there during the "border" troubles, and was the first county clerk elected in Franklin county. He again resided in that state from 1885 until 1891, in Cheyenne county; in the interim, however, he lived in Gallon, Crawford county, Ohio, where he was postmaster during the administration of President Hayes. He is at present a member of the military order known as the Loyal Legion, commandery of Ohio; for twenty-six years has been a member of the general board of the Ohio Sunday-school association, in which he served one year as president, six years as general secretary, and the remainder of the period as a member of the executive committee; for years he has been general secretary of the Sabbath-school board of the United Brethren in Christ and general Sabbath-school missionary and organizer for that denomination; he is also secretary of the normal department of the Ohio State Sabbath-school association and is its statistician; from 1875 until 1890 he was a member of the executive committee of the International Sabbath-school association, and has been a delegate to all its triennial conventions, held in London, and to the first and second world's conventions; also the convention held at Saint Louis, Mo., in 1893. He travels about 20,000 miles annually in the prosecution of his work. He has contributed many valuable articles to the religious press, and, wielding a facile pen, has written a history of his regiment.
The first marriage of Col. Cowden was solemnized, in 1854, with Miss Lydia T. Miller, which union was blessed with four children, viz: Daniel Webster, now a wholesale merchant of Salina, Kans.; John C. Milton, a farmer of Cheyenne county, in the same state; Jacob K. R., a farmer of Eagle county, Colo., and Mrs. Zoe E. M. Chipperfield, whose husband is also a farmer of Cheyenne county, Kans., and descended from these children there are now twelve living grandchildren of Col. Cowden. After a happy union of over thirty-six years, Mrs. Cowden died in December, 1890, and in November, 1891, Col. Cowden was united in matrimony with Mrs. Joanna McGinnis, of Wichita, Kans.
References:
- Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994
- Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953
59th U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment
Son of David Cowden and Elizabeth Kitch
Married Lydia Tabitha Miller 24 July 1854. Crawford County, Ohio. Ended with her death in 1890
Children:
Daniel Webster Cowden - 31 October 1854
John C. Milton Cowden - 9 November 1856
Jacob Kitch Riley Cowden - 5 November 1865
Zoe Estella May Cowden - 29 May 1868
Married Mrs. Joanna Huber, widow of Samuel McGinnis, November 1891. Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas.
No Children
Civil War Veteran
Lt. Colonel
59th U. S. Colored Infantry
Conover, Frank (ed.); Centennial Portrait and Biographical Record of the City of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio. A.W. Bowen & Co. 1897. pps. 445-447.
COL. ROBERT COWDEN, of Dayton, Ohio, is descended from an old Scotch family, who came to America, many years ago, from Cowden Beath, twenty-five miles north of Edinburg. His parents, David and Elizabeth (Kitch) Cowden, were natives of Pennsylvania, and early settlers in Ohio, where the father died when Robert was but five years of age. Robert Cowden was born May 24, 1833, near Leesville Cross Roads, Ohio, and although his opportunities for securing an education were meager, he succeeded, by dint of close application to study, in acquiring a fair amount of knowledge and became a school teacher at the age of eighteen years, following that calling in the winter and working during the summer at any paying employment he could find, for several consecutive years.
At the age of nineteen he was converted to Christ and at once entered upon a career of religious work in the interest of the United Brethren church and humanity, and today, as an organizer and teacher of Sunday schools, he probably has no superior. Persistent in his studies, he early developed himself as a scholar of much learning, especially in the field of theology, and was thus fully qualified for Sabbath-school work, and for nearly thirty years he has been closely identified with that branch of religious activity in this country, and has filled many positions of honor in connection with it.
Coupled with his well-earned reputation for usefulness in civil life, Col. Cowden has a military record for patriotism and valor, and the scars upon his person bear substantial witness to the fact that he not only loved his country but helped to fight her battles. Robert Cowden enlisted September 9, 1861, in company B, Fifty-sixth Illinois volunteer infantry, but was transferred to company H, and between the date of his enlistment and January 28, 1862, was promoted to be corporal, was next advanced to the position of sergeant, and still later was commissioned first lieutenant of company H. Because of defective enlistment or organization of the Fifty-sixth, that regiment was mustered out of service January 28, 1862, and on the same day Lieut. Cowden entered battery I, First Illinois light artillery, as a private. During his service of eighteen months in this body he was promoted through the intermediate grades from private to second lieutenant, receiving his commission for meritorious conduct on the battle field of Shiloh.
July 29, 1863, Lieut. Cowden was discharged to receive promotion, and was mustered in as major of the Fifty-ninth United States colored infantry, and May 1, 1864, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, with which rank he served until his final muster out, January 31, 1866. At this time, to save the men, who in most cases had been recruited from the illiterate plantation hands, from the self-constituted bounty and claim agents, a meeting of the officers of the regiment was held at Memphis, Tenn., where it was decided that Col. Cowden should receive authority to act for the discharged men. As a consequence 530 soldiers entrusted their discharge papers to him, the result being that he subsequently collected all back pay, bounty, etc., due to the men and placed the proceeds into the hands of those to whom they rightfully belonged. The colonel was also instrumental in establishing a school for the instruction of unlettered men of his regiment, and in this school 250 colored men were taught to read and write.
Among the many engagements in which Col. Cowden participated may be enumerated that of Shiloh, both days; the siege of Corinth and the engagement at the Russell house, lying between Pittsburg Landing and Corinth; the siege and capture of Vicksburg; the second; capture of Jackson, Miss.; the engagement at Guntown, Miss., where, June 10, 1864, he received a severe wound in the right hip; and finally the battles of Tupelo and Pontotoc, Miss., in July, 1864.
To revert to the life of Col, Cowden as a civilian, it may be stated that, prior to the Civil war, he resided in Kansas for three years and was there during the "border" troubles, and was the first county clerk elected in Franklin county. He again resided in that state from 1885 until 1891, in Cheyenne county; in the interim, however, he lived in Gallon, Crawford county, Ohio, where he was postmaster during the administration of President Hayes. He is at present a member of the military order known as the Loyal Legion, commandery of Ohio; for twenty-six years has been a member of the general board of the Ohio Sunday-school association, in which he served one year as president, six years as general secretary, and the remainder of the period as a member of the executive committee; for years he has been general secretary of the Sabbath-school board of the United Brethren in Christ and general Sabbath-school missionary and organizer for that denomination; he is also secretary of the normal department of the Ohio State Sabbath-school association and is its statistician; from 1875 until 1890 he was a member of the executive committee of the International Sabbath-school association, and has been a delegate to all its triennial conventions, held in London, and to the first and second world's conventions; also the convention held at Saint Louis, Mo., in 1893. He travels about 20,000 miles annually in the prosecution of his work. He has contributed many valuable articles to the religious press, and, wielding a facile pen, has written a history of his regiment.
The first marriage of Col. Cowden was solemnized, in 1854, with Miss Lydia T. Miller, which union was blessed with four children, viz: Daniel Webster, now a wholesale merchant of Salina, Kans.; John C. Milton, a farmer of Cheyenne county, in the same state; Jacob K. R., a farmer of Eagle county, Colo., and Mrs. Zoe E. M. Chipperfield, whose husband is also a farmer of Cheyenne county, Kans., and descended from these children there are now twelve living grandchildren of Col. Cowden. After a happy union of over thirty-six years, Mrs. Cowden died in December, 1890, and in November, 1891, Col. Cowden was united in matrimony with Mrs. Joanna McGinnis, of Wichita, Kans.
References:
- Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994
- Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953
****USCT Virtual Cemetery Location****
59th U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment
Son of David Cowden and Elizabeth Kitch
Married Lydia Tabitha Miller 24 July 1854. Crawford County, Ohio. Ended with her death in 1890
Children:
Daniel Webster Cowden - 31 October 1854
John C. Milton Cowden - 9 November 1856
Jacob Kitch Riley Cowden - 5 November 1865
Zoe Estella May Cowden - 29 May 1868
Married Mrs. Joanna Huber, widow of Samuel McGinnis, November 1891. Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas.
No Children
Civil War Veteran
Lt. Colonel
59th U. S. Colored Infantry
Conover, Frank (ed.); Centennial Portrait and Biographical Record of the City of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio. A.W. Bowen & Co. 1897. pps. 445-447.
COL. ROBERT COWDEN, of Dayton, Ohio, is descended from an old Scotch family, who came to America, many years ago, from Cowden Beath, twenty-five miles north of Edinburg. His parents, David and Elizabeth (Kitch) Cowden, were natives of Pennsylvania, and early settlers in Ohio, where the father died when Robert was but five years of age. Robert Cowden was born May 24, 1833, near Leesville Cross Roads, Ohio, and although his opportunities for securing an education were meager, he succeeded, by dint of close application to study, in acquiring a fair amount of knowledge and became a school teacher at the age of eighteen years, following that calling in the winter and working during the summer at any paying employment he could find, for several consecutive years.
At the age of nineteen he was converted to Christ and at once entered upon a career of religious work in the interest of the United Brethren church and humanity, and today, as an organizer and teacher of Sunday schools, he probably has no superior. Persistent in his studies, he early developed himself as a scholar of much learning, especially in the field of theology, and was thus fully qualified for Sabbath-school work, and for nearly thirty years he has been closely identified with that branch of religious activity in this country, and has filled many positions of honor in connection with it.
Coupled with his well-earned reputation for usefulness in civil life, Col. Cowden has a military record for patriotism and valor, and the scars upon his person bear substantial witness to the fact that he not only loved his country but helped to fight her battles. Robert Cowden enlisted September 9, 1861, in company B, Fifty-sixth Illinois volunteer infantry, but was transferred to company H, and between the date of his enlistment and January 28, 1862, was promoted to be corporal, was next advanced to the position of sergeant, and still later was commissioned first lieutenant of company H. Because of defective enlistment or organization of the Fifty-sixth, that regiment was mustered out of service January 28, 1862, and on the same day Lieut. Cowden entered battery I, First Illinois light artillery, as a private. During his service of eighteen months in this body he was promoted through the intermediate grades from private to second lieutenant, receiving his commission for meritorious conduct on the battle field of Shiloh.
July 29, 1863, Lieut. Cowden was discharged to receive promotion, and was mustered in as major of the Fifty-ninth United States colored infantry, and May 1, 1864, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, with which rank he served until his final muster out, January 31, 1866. At this time, to save the men, who in most cases had been recruited from the illiterate plantation hands, from the self-constituted bounty and claim agents, a meeting of the officers of the regiment was held at Memphis, Tenn., where it was decided that Col. Cowden should receive authority to act for the discharged men. As a consequence 530 soldiers entrusted their discharge papers to him, the result being that he subsequently collected all back pay, bounty, etc., due to the men and placed the proceeds into the hands of those to whom they rightfully belonged. The colonel was also instrumental in establishing a school for the instruction of unlettered men of his regiment, and in this school 250 colored men were taught to read and write.
Among the many engagements in which Col. Cowden participated may be enumerated that of Shiloh, both days; the siege of Corinth and the engagement at the Russell house, lying between Pittsburg Landing and Corinth; the siege and capture of Vicksburg; the second; capture of Jackson, Miss.; the engagement at Guntown, Miss., where, June 10, 1864, he received a severe wound in the right hip; and finally the battles of Tupelo and Pontotoc, Miss., in July, 1864.
To revert to the life of Col, Cowden as a civilian, it may be stated that, prior to the Civil war, he resided in Kansas for three years and was there during the "border" troubles, and was the first county clerk elected in Franklin county. He again resided in that state from 1885 until 1891, in Cheyenne county; in the interim, however, he lived in Gallon, Crawford county, Ohio, where he was postmaster during the administration of President Hayes. He is at present a member of the military order known as the Loyal Legion, commandery of Ohio; for twenty-six years has been a member of the general board of the Ohio Sunday-school association, in which he served one year as president, six years as general secretary, and the remainder of the period as a member of the executive committee; for years he has been general secretary of the Sabbath-school board of the United Brethren in Christ and general Sabbath-school missionary and organizer for that denomination; he is also secretary of the normal department of the Ohio State Sabbath-school association and is its statistician; from 1875 until 1890 he was a member of the executive committee of the International Sabbath-school association, and has been a delegate to all its triennial conventions, held in London, and to the first and second world's conventions; also the convention held at Saint Louis, Mo., in 1893. He travels about 20,000 miles annually in the prosecution of his work. He has contributed many valuable articles to the religious press, and, wielding a facile pen, has written a history of his regiment.
The first marriage of Col. Cowden was solemnized, in 1854, with Miss Lydia T. Miller, which union was blessed with four children, viz: Daniel Webster, now a wholesale merchant of Salina, Kans.; John C. Milton, a farmer of Cheyenne county, in the same state; Jacob K. R., a farmer of Eagle county, Colo., and Mrs. Zoe E. M. Chipperfield, whose husband is also a farmer of Cheyenne county, Kans., and descended from these children there are now twelve living grandchildren of Col. Cowden. After a happy union of over thirty-six years, Mrs. Cowden died in December, 1890, and in November, 1891, Col. Cowden was united in matrimony with Mrs. Joanna McGinnis, of Wichita, Kans.
References:
- Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994
- Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953
59th U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment
Son of David Cowden and Elizabeth Kitch
Married Lydia Tabitha Miller 24 July 1854. Crawford County, Ohio. Ended with her death in 1890
Children:
Daniel Webster Cowden - 31 October 1854
John C. Milton Cowden - 9 November 1856
Jacob Kitch Riley Cowden - 5 November 1865
Zoe Estella May Cowden - 29 May 1868
Married Mrs. Joanna Huber, widow of Samuel McGinnis, November 1891. Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas.
No Children
Civil War Veteran
Lt. Colonel
59th U. S. Colored Infantry
Conover, Frank (ed.); Centennial Portrait and Biographical Record of the City of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio. A.W. Bowen & Co. 1897. pps. 445-447.
COL. ROBERT COWDEN, of Dayton, Ohio, is descended from an old Scotch family, who came to America, many years ago, from Cowden Beath, twenty-five miles north of Edinburg. His parents, David and Elizabeth (Kitch) Cowden, were natives of Pennsylvania, and early settlers in Ohio, where the father died when Robert was but five years of age. Robert Cowden was born May 24, 1833, near Leesville Cross Roads, Ohio, and although his opportunities for securing an education were meager, he succeeded, by dint of close application to study, in acquiring a fair amount of knowledge and became a school teacher at the age of eighteen years, following that calling in the winter and working during the summer at any paying employment he could find, for several consecutive years.
At the age of nineteen he was converted to Christ and at once entered upon a career of religious work in the interest of the United Brethren church and humanity, and today, as an organizer and teacher of Sunday schools, he probably has no superior. Persistent in his studies, he early developed himself as a scholar of much learning, especially in the field of theology, and was thus fully qualified for Sabbath-school work, and for nearly thirty years he has been closely identified with that branch of religious activity in this country, and has filled many positions of honor in connection with it.
Coupled with his well-earned reputation for usefulness in civil life, Col. Cowden has a military record for patriotism and valor, and the scars upon his person bear substantial witness to the fact that he not only loved his country but helped to fight her battles. Robert Cowden enlisted September 9, 1861, in company B, Fifty-sixth Illinois volunteer infantry, but was transferred to company H, and between the date of his enlistment and January 28, 1862, was promoted to be corporal, was next advanced to the position of sergeant, and still later was commissioned first lieutenant of company H. Because of defective enlistment or organization of the Fifty-sixth, that regiment was mustered out of service January 28, 1862, and on the same day Lieut. Cowden entered battery I, First Illinois light artillery, as a private. During his service of eighteen months in this body he was promoted through the intermediate grades from private to second lieutenant, receiving his commission for meritorious conduct on the battle field of Shiloh.
July 29, 1863, Lieut. Cowden was discharged to receive promotion, and was mustered in as major of the Fifty-ninth United States colored infantry, and May 1, 1864, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, with which rank he served until his final muster out, January 31, 1866. At this time, to save the men, who in most cases had been recruited from the illiterate plantation hands, from the self-constituted bounty and claim agents, a meeting of the officers of the regiment was held at Memphis, Tenn., where it was decided that Col. Cowden should receive authority to act for the discharged men. As a consequence 530 soldiers entrusted their discharge papers to him, the result being that he subsequently collected all back pay, bounty, etc., due to the men and placed the proceeds into the hands of those to whom they rightfully belonged. The colonel was also instrumental in establishing a school for the instruction of unlettered men of his regiment, and in this school 250 colored men were taught to read and write.
Among the many engagements in which Col. Cowden participated may be enumerated that of Shiloh, both days; the siege of Corinth and the engagement at the Russell house, lying between Pittsburg Landing and Corinth; the siege and capture of Vicksburg; the second; capture of Jackson, Miss.; the engagement at Guntown, Miss., where, June 10, 1864, he received a severe wound in the right hip; and finally the battles of Tupelo and Pontotoc, Miss., in July, 1864.
To revert to the life of Col, Cowden as a civilian, it may be stated that, prior to the Civil war, he resided in Kansas for three years and was there during the "border" troubles, and was the first county clerk elected in Franklin county. He again resided in that state from 1885 until 1891, in Cheyenne county; in the interim, however, he lived in Gallon, Crawford county, Ohio, where he was postmaster during the administration of President Hayes. He is at present a member of the military order known as the Loyal Legion, commandery of Ohio; for twenty-six years has been a member of the general board of the Ohio Sunday-school association, in which he served one year as president, six years as general secretary, and the remainder of the period as a member of the executive committee; for years he has been general secretary of the Sabbath-school board of the United Brethren in Christ and general Sabbath-school missionary and organizer for that denomination; he is also secretary of the normal department of the Ohio State Sabbath-school association and is its statistician; from 1875 until 1890 he was a member of the executive committee of the International Sabbath-school association, and has been a delegate to all its triennial conventions, held in London, and to the first and second world's conventions; also the convention held at Saint Louis, Mo., in 1893. He travels about 20,000 miles annually in the prosecution of his work. He has contributed many valuable articles to the religious press, and, wielding a facile pen, has written a history of his regiment.
The first marriage of Col. Cowden was solemnized, in 1854, with Miss Lydia T. Miller, which union was blessed with four children, viz: Daniel Webster, now a wholesale merchant of Salina, Kans.; John C. Milton, a farmer of Cheyenne county, in the same state; Jacob K. R., a farmer of Eagle county, Colo., and Mrs. Zoe E. M. Chipperfield, whose husband is also a farmer of Cheyenne county, Kans., and descended from these children there are now twelve living grandchildren of Col. Cowden. After a happy union of over thirty-six years, Mrs. Cowden died in December, 1890, and in November, 1891, Col. Cowden was united in matrimony with Mrs. Joanna McGinnis, of Wichita, Kans.
References:
- Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994
- Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953
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Siblings
Half Siblings
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