John McGowan was born on Aug. 24, 1842 in White Co., Tennessee and moved with his family to Saline Co., Illinois around 1857. In Sept. 1862, he enlisted in Co. H, 128th Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry as a private, along with his older brother James and his future father-in-law Thomas Robertson. John is described as follows: age - 20, 5'9" tall, light hair, blue eyes, light complexion, single and he was a farmer. On Apr. 1, 1863, the 128th Regiment was disbanded, mostly due to the high rate of desertions. Of the original 860 men, only 161 were left in the regiment. In fact, John had been "absent without proper authority" from Feb. 6, 1863 to Mar. 16, 1863, about six weeks. From Cairo, IL in May, 1863, he later claimed that "in the line of duty....he was taken sick with liver complaint and neuralgia, which resulted in partial loss of eyesight." According to his pension application, John was discharged on June 26, 1863 at Columbus, KY. He then returned home to Carrier's Mill, Saline Co., IL where he underwent treatment for his eyes by local doctors and farmed as best he could. On Apr. 9, 1868 he married Marinda Robertson, born about 1847 in Williamson Co., IL, a daughter of Thomas & Mary Robertson. Within a few years he was blind in his right eye and partially blind in his left eye. In 1875 he moved his family to Burlington, Boone Co., Arkansas and in 1888 he made application for a pension due to service disability. Also, the charge of desertion was removed from his record by a provision of an 1884 Act of Congress. In 1892 he reapplied for a pension. One neighbor testified that John McGowen was totally blind in both eyes, that he had to have someone lead him around." He was pensioned at $12/month for his blindness. On this pension he was described as being 5' 6 1/2" tall, 140 lbs., light complexion, dark hair and blue eyes. (This is several inches shorter than his description in 1862.) Sometime before 1900, John moved with his family a few miles north across the Arkansas state line to Kirbyville in Taney Co., Missouri. In 1902 he applied for an increase in his pension there. By 1910 he and Marinda had moved to Parkhill, Cherokee Co., Oklahoma with their son Frank and his wife. They may have participated in the Oklahoma Land Rush in 1907. He again applied for a pension increase and this time was awarded $24/month. (Cherokee County was also where some of his cousins he had known during his boyhood days in White County had settled: the Clarks and the Heltons. It is interesting to wonder if they knew each other there.) John died there on Feb. 16, 1914. The 1910 census indicates that Marinda had six children, four of whom were living at that time. Their children, as listed on his pension application, were:

      Children              Born-Died            Spouse
1. Kissiah McGowan         (1874-1960)       Jeptha H. Whorton
2. George McGowan          (1877-1940)       Ida Powers
3. James Frank McGowan     (1879-  ? )       Ida M. Ramsey
                                             Anna Manus
4. Elsie Calvin McGowan    (1887-1977)       Dock M. Lewallen

McGowan Family History