Asa Jarmon Lee Sowell (April 30, 1822) was the youngest of the Sowell children. He had not reached his eighth birthday when he arrived in Texas with his parents. Like his brother Lewis he loved books, learning early to read and write and to speak the Spanish language. At age seventeen, with his big brothers Andrew and John, he joined Matthew Caldwell's "Gonzales Rangers." In March, 1845 it was said that Asa and Calvin S. Turner were hired by Prince Solms to guide the German settlers to their land on the Comal River, where later was founded the town of New Braunfels. Asa served as district clerk in 1846 and as chief justice from 1870 to 1874 in Guadalupe County. On August 29, 1844 Asa and Mary Mildred Turner were married. Mary (October 15,1829) was the daughter of Major William S. and Elizabeth Smith Turner who had other children William, Calvin, Hardin, John and Lucinda. Major Turner served on Andrew Jackson's staff at one time and under him in the war with Creek Indians at Talladega, Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans. He was twice wounded. The Turners came to Texas in 1840. Mary Mildred Turner Sowell's great grandfather was governor of North Carolina, James Turner. Asa and Mary had children Andrew Jackson, Leroy Polk, Pleaman Smith, John, Adaline, Lucy, Isabel, Laura and Molly.. Mary died April 28, 1873 and Asa died December 21, 1877; both were buried in the San Geronimo Cemetery. Dorcas Baumgartner (Adapted from The History of Gonzales County, Texas. Reprinted by permission of the Gonzales County Historical Commission).

From the journal of James Wilson Nichols (Now Your Hear My Horn, C.W. McDowell, ed.):

Asa Sowell was almost the only person, after his sister married, that could converse with his mother who was delicate and very deef. He had learned to talk to her by signes as the other boys ware almost constantly in the woods and his father at his anvil while he lived. The old man died in 1838 and the family mooved to Seguin whare they had a league and a labor of land near that place but not thinking it safe to occupy their land they baught property and settled in Seguin. My mot-her haveing died the same year 1838 and Father almost compeled to be away from home a great potion of his time after his stock or chaceing Indians and when I was not thare had to leave four girl children at home by themselves, he became disgusted at a widowers life and as the Widow Sowell was one of only two widows living in Seguin he undertook to court her. It was in the spring of 1840 that he taken this notion and he tried every plan that he could conceive to make her understand but failed in every effort. She was so deef he could not hollow in her ear for fear of being heard all over town and he fail to make her understand by his signes so he had to call on Asa to interpet for him. Asa done the courting for them and they married.

There is a major error in the biographical material which goes back to William Suddarth Turner, apparently. In fact, William Suddarth Turner (1790-1872) is the son of John Turner (bef 1740-a1826) and Mildred Suddarth as stated in "Turner Bible Records", Southern Genealogists Exchange Quarterly, Spring 1974, vol. 15, no. 69. But John Turner was the son of Terisha Turner (c1705-b1802) and Sarah (--?--) as proven by Amherst County, Virginia Will Books, vols 3-4, 1786-1810, FHL Film #0,030,275. Whereas Terisha and Sarah (often shown with an undocumented surname of Wimpey) did have two sons, Stephen and Terisha, who migrated to North Carolina, they were definitely not related to the James Turner who was governor of NC. Because the Stephen who went to NC is my direct ancestor, I have researched all extant records carefully and determined there was no relationship between these two Turner families. I cannot begin to guess what motivated William to claim a relationship . . . perhaps it was a joke (there is a similar on in my family with a direct ancestor telling a grandchild he was heir to the Earl of Stanley!). But the trail of family bibles, wills and memoriabilia clearly show the true line of descent.