My Genealogy Hound

Joe T. Cowling. A history of Howard County would be in a measure incomplete without a description of him whose name heads this sketch. Born in Franklin County, Tenn., on May 12, 1839, he was educated in private schools in Hempstead (now Howard) County, where he afterward commenced farming for himself, and where he now resides. On May 12, 1861, he married Miss Juliet A. Beggs, a daughter of Robert and Hulda Beggs, and soon after marriage, broke the golden bonds of happiness to serve his country in the late war, enlisting under Gen. E. W. Gant in the Twelfth Arkansas, Company G. He fought in the battles of New Madrid, Mo., was captured at New Madrid Bend, at the fall of Island No. 10, and carried to Chicago, being retained there six months, and was afterward exchanged at Vicksburg, and then marched to Holly Springs, Miss., to reinforce Van Dome and Price. Returning to Port Hudson, La., he was there sometime, and then surrendered at that point, and was then paroled and returned home to Hempstead County, Ark. Afterward he was called into parole camp and organized and fought the balance of the war on this side of the Mississippi River. Surrendering at Marshall, Tex., he returned home, once more devoting his attention to agricultural pursuits. Mr. and Mrs. Cowling are the parents of ten children, viz.: Robert J., Margaret F., Amelia A., Mary E., John K., James M., David G., Dudlie, Lafayette and Florence B. At the present writing Mr. Cowling is an extensive planter, owning 1,400 acres of valuable land, about 400 acres of which are well cultivated. He has been deputy sheriff for four years, and he and his wife are both members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Our subject's parents, John D. and Frances Cowling, were natives of Tennessee, and married in that State, and in 1842 moved to Hempstead (now Howard) County, where they continued to reside.