Joseph M. McDowell & Mary Queen, 1839

Source: Lumpkin County, Georgia, Marriage Book A-1, 1838-1849
(click to enlarge)

Georgia
Lumpkin County
To any Judge Justice of the Inferior Court Justice of the Peace or Minister of the Gospel  You are hereby authorized to join together in the holy Estate of Matrimony Joseph M. McDowell* and Miss Mary Queen and to make your return on this license to this office of their actual _ intermarriage and of the day on which the same was solemnized  Given under my hand this 16th of June 1839. 
M.P. Quillian C.C.O.
By Bessy Turner
June 16th 1839. I have this day Join together in the holy Bands of Matrimony Joseph M McDowell and Miss Mary Queen  Bessy Turner J.P.
____________

*I am speculating that this may actually be Joseph Moffett McDowell, son of Joseph "P.G." McDowell and Mary Moffett, claimed by many to have died young. Census data proves that both bride and groom, as well as their parents, were born in North Carolina. In 1822, sixty-one families moved to Georgia's Nacoochee Valley in Habersham County from Burke County, North Carolina, during the Georgia Gold Rush. Lumpkin County, just west of Habersham, was the area where the rush initiated, and was created in 1832 in conjunction with the seizure and survey of Native American lands. (White County was formed between the two counties in 1838 from parts of Habersham and Hall counties. Joseph and Mary McDowell's federal census data indicates they lived in White County 1860-1880 after residing in Habersham 1850, though they may not have physically moved.)
Another key to the theory is Joseph and Mary's third child, a son, my great-great-grandfather. Born 1847 in Habersham County, Georgia, he was named Adolphus Erwin McDowell. In 1848, James Moffett McDowell (born 1791), who had inherited McDowell House at Pleasant Gardens (in what by then had become McDowell County, North Carolina) from his late father P.G., deeded the property over to his late wife Margaret Caroline Erwin's brother Adolphus Lorenzo Erwin in order to pay off debts. The matching names of Joseph's son Adolphus Erwin and possible brother-in-law Adolphus Erwin are simply too blatant to pass off as random coincidence. The implication of a Pleasant Gardens connection is too strong to ignore. Research is ongoing. 

Update 12.22.16:

A "Letter of Dismission" in the name of Joseph McDowell is on file in the Georgia Wills & Probate Records 1742-1992. The item is in the Letters of Dismission: Administration, Guardianship and Executors, Vol. B, 1878-1932. His Administrator was J.M. Reese, probate date is 4 January 1886, and the place of record is Gordon County, Georgia. 
Joseph McDowell's possible nephew Dr Joseph Lewis McDowell, was born in North Carolina in 1812, and later made his home in Gordon County, Georgia. He was the first-born of Joseph "P.G." McDowell's own first, John Moffett McDowell, born at "Pleasant Gardens," Burke County, North Carolina, in 1787.

The 1796 Will of "Hunting John" McDowell

Excerpt from “Hunting John” McDowell’s will, misspellings intact, dated 28 May 1796:

"... I also bequeath to John McDowell, my grandson, my part of the Flowery Garden and a hundred acres of land that I have entered adjoining the said place; further 640 acres of land upon Beaver Creek; also a negro fellow named Aaron.
I further bequeth to my dearly beloved [grand]*son, Joseph McDowell, 400 acres of land upon Johnathan's Creek, this forementioned land lying in Buncombe County. Furthermore, he is to have fifty pounds current money paid to him or his current guardian out of my estate.
I also bequeath my part of the Locust Grove, a tract of land of 640 acres lying in Buncombe County, to my dearly beloved grandson, William Whitson.
I also bequeath to loving grandsons, John and Thomas Whitson, 640 acres of land known by the name of Richland Creek, equal parts to each, below the lands of John Carson, Esq. on said creek.
To my beloved grandson, Joseph Whitson, I give and bequeath 320 acres of land lying upon the mouth of Ivie Mill Creek in Buncombe County. ..."

*Note: I believe that this is meant to read "grandson" rather than "son," especially since it is in a list of grandsons and mentions a guardian. It likely refers to the youngest child of Mary Moffett McDowell, newly widowed after the death of Hunting John's son Joseph "P.G." McDowell. This would be their son, Joseph Moffett McDowell, born 10 January 1796.