The 1770 Will of Joseph McDowell (b. 1715)

From McDowells in America, by Dorothy Kelly MacDowell, pub. 1981, Gateway Press, Inc.:

Joseph McDowell's will, Rowan County, N.C., dated March 16, 1770, proved Nov. 1771, Will Bk “A”, pages 99 & 100, divides his estate in the following manner:
To Margaret McDowell, his dearly beloved wife, one feather bed and furniture, one riding horse and side saddle and bridle to her and her heirs forever.
To his well beloved son Hugh, the sum of 30 pounds lawful money of N.C.
To his well beloved son Charles, the sum of five shillings lawful money of N.C. over and above what was already given him.
To daughter Elizabeth McKinnie, five pounds lawful money.
To daughter Hannah Chrisman, the sum of five pounds.
To his two younger sons John & Joseph, all the rest of his real and personal after their mother's estate of the third is deducted to be equally divided thusly: Joseph shall possess and enjoy the tract of land situated on Silver Creek which he purchased from his son Charles and his executors are to purchase out of his estate a tract of land for his son John to the value of 60 pounds, and the remainder was to be equally divided between John and Joseph.
His wife, Margaret, and sons Hugh and Charles were to be executors of the will.
Witnesses were Philip Price, Abram Scott and Joseph Dobson.

Origin of the McDowells

From History of the McDowells and Connections, by John Hugh McDowell, pub. 1918, C. B. Johnston, pp. 381, 383:

ORIGIN OF THE McDOWELLS.

By William McDowell. The McDowells are of Pictish origin and natives of Scotland, and away back about 200 B. C. one of them, the first that I can find anything about, had a duel with one of the Kings Habakon. You will find another William McDowell—was governor-general of Scotland in 1293, and had charge of Sterling Castle. You are further aware that this name is as old as the Creation. They are not of Celtic origin, they are not Irish; but the best blood that ever landed upon the American continent. They were early settlers in America. A great many of the McDowells that are in America are from Ireland. They went over there the time of the Cromwell settlement, in Ulster. You will find a great settlement of the McDowells near Belfast, along the Legon River, about fourteen miles from Belfast. You can find out there where the McDowells came from that landed there; some in the County Derry, County Monaghan—all over the north of Ireland. You likewise will find out that in Renfrewshire, Scotland, there are a great many, and in Ayrshire, and in Dumfrieshire, and in Gallowshire; there would be very little difficulty of finding out all about the McDowells in America—the McDowells that came later from Scotland. Sometimes the name is spelled McDowall, but after the Scotch Revolution the settlers in Ireland spelled it McDowell. They are all of Presbyterian, Covenanter origin.

more Joseph McDowell confusion...

From The Political Register and Congressional Directory, by Benjamin Perley Poore, pub. 1878, Houghton, Osgood and Company, page 512:

McDowell, Joseph (father of Joseph J.* McDowell), was born at Winchester, Virginia; and his father soon afterwards removed to Burke County, North Carolina; was active in the Revolutionary movements, commanding a portion of the right wing under his brother [-in-law] Joseph at the battle of King's Mountain October 7, 1780; was a member of the House of Commons of North Carolina 1782-1788; was a member of the convention of 1788 to consider the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which he opposed; was elected to the Third Congress, serving from December 2, 1793, until March 3, 1795;** was again elected to the Fifth Congress, serving from May 15, 1797, to March 3, 1799.

*Joseph Jefferson McDowell (1800-1877)
**This is an error. It was his cousin Joseph McDowell of Pleasant Gardens that served in the Third Congress. Please reference the U.S. Congressional Biography posts for each (linked via US Congress index labels.)

Benjamin Borden's Agents & Settlers

From Kegley's Virginia Frontier: The Beginning of the Southwest: the Roanoke of Colonial Days, 1740-1783, by Frederick Bittle Kegley, The Stone Press, Roanoke, Virginia, 1938:

When Benjamin Borden came to Augusta he made different men his agents and lodged at their houses using the houses as places to see persons wanting land. Aside from John McDowell with whom he first met he had John Patterson, through whom he sold many tracts of land. McDowell first made entries of one hundred acres each for James Bell, Alexander Breckenridge, George, James, Robert and Adam Breckenridge, John Moore, Quentin Moore, John Walters, William McCanless, Robert Poage, Seth Poage, Daniel McAnaire and John Gwinn, the land to be given them if they would build and improve on it by the next April. This agreement was dated Feb. 21, 1738-39. The settlers got no deeds and brought suit against Borden's executor for titles. Benjamin Borden, Jr. charged in answer that James Bell caused a servant wench of his to be dressed in man's clothes and made an entry in her name as a man, and also caused another woman, the wife of William McCanless, to appear in her proper person on a different part of the land as the wife of another settler and thereby obtained another entry.
Among other purchasers were David Moore, Isaac Anderson, Andrew Moore, William Evans, John Downing, William Sawyers, John Paul, Robert Campbell, Samuel Wood, John Mathews, John Edmiston, Richard Woods, John Hays, Charles Hays, Samuel Walker, John McCraskey. Alexander Miller was the first Blacksmith and John Hays the first owner of a mill. James Greenlee* came in 1737.

*Note: In 1736 James Greenlee married Mary Elizabeth McDowell, sister of Borden's Grant surveyor John McDowell. She and her older brother John were children of McDowell patriarch Ephraim McDowell. Check index for more, including Borden/McDowell survey arrangement.

The Family vs Magdalen's 3rd Husband

Robert Harvey and Martha, his wife et als., vs. John Bowyer
--O. S. 140; N. S. 48--.
Orators Robert and Martha are children of Magdalen Bowyer of Rockbridge, wife of John.
Complainants are, viz: Robert Harvey and Martha; David McGavock and Elizabeth; James McDowell of Rockbridge; James McDowell, son of John, said John next friend to his infant children, Polly, Samuel, William, Sarah and John; George Moffett and Sarah, his wife, representatives of Magdalen Bowyer, deceased.
Samuel McDowell of Jessamine County, Ky., deposes 26th July, 1808: Was son of Magdalen; was Dr. McDowell; moved to Kentucky with his family in 1783. Andrew Reed was Samuel's son-in-law. Martha Harvey was only daughter of Benj. Borden, her sister Hanna having died infant and intestate. Elizabeth McDowell was widow of James McDowell (deceased intestate), son of Magdalen. Martha had been the wife of Benj. Hawkin's, deceased. Benj. Borden, Jr., died April, 1753. Magdalen Bowyer and Mary Greenlee were sisters-in-law. John McClung deposes 7th August, 1809, he was acquainted with Gen. John Bowyer on his arrival in this country, which was about fifty-five years ago. John came as a school teacher, which he followed only a few months, when he married Mrs. Magdalen Borden. Samuel McDowell's wife was sister of deponent. William Patton deposes (same time as above) that in fall coming it will be about 55 years since Genl. John Bowyer came first to this part of the country. Deponent was about 13 years old. Bowyer opened a school which William attended, and in a few weeks Bowyer and Magdalen were married. Bowyer had of property only a horse and saddle and the usual clothes which young men in his station had.

(From: Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, Vol. 2, by Lyman Chalkley, originally pub. Mary S. Lockwood, 1912; "Circuit Court Records, Section 'I'; Circuit Court Judgments and Causes Ended. These notes are extracted from the records of the District Court, the Circuit Superior Court, the Circuit Court, and all papers belonging to the records of the present Circuit Court. The references are to the bundles of original papers and style of suit or to the number of the order or record book in which the original papers will be found.")

Ephraim, John & James McDowell

Near this spot repose

the remains

of

EPHRAIM McDOWELL.

the first of his name

in America.

Who died about 1730:

JOHN McDOWELL.

his son.

Who was killed by the

Indians in 1742:

JAMES McDOWELL.

his son.

born 1739. died 1772.

And ELIZABETH his wife.

Who died about 1810:

Also their Daughter

ELIZABETH McGAVOCK.

Who died 1803.

[marker location: McDowell Cemetery, near Fairfield, Rockbridge County, Virginia]
Ephraim McDowell, patriarch of the family, was born 1673 in Ireland, and lived to be 104, well past 1730. His longevity is documented by many sources. His death date on this marker is in error.

Ephraim McDowell (1673-1777)

My 7x great-grandfather Ephraim McDowell migrated to America with his children and grandchildren after the death of his wife Margaret Irvine in County Antrim, Ulster, Ireland. Not all survived the arduous transatlantic voyage. They disembarked at the Quaker port city of Philadelphia and, like many early Scots-Irish immigrants, soon settled in western Pennsylvania.
In the fall of 1737, with his son John, daughter Mary Elizabeth, and son-in-law James Greenlee, Ephraim left Pennsylvania to go to John Lewis, a cousin who had left Ireland some years before and about 1732 had settled on the Middle River in the Shenandoah Valley near present-day Staunton, Virginia. It was their intention to locate near him. While on their way, when in camp on Lewis' Creek, a tributary of the South River, Benjamin Borden, Sr, joined them one night. He offered a thousand acres of land to anyone who would conduct him to his grant of land. The offer was promptly accepted by Ephraim's son John McDowell, a surveyor by trade. The three men conveyed their families to the home of John Lewis and then piloted Borden to what has since been known as "Borden's Grant." In consideration of a liberal share of the claim, the two McDowells and James Greenlee then undertook to assist in carrying out Borden's contract for him, and before the close of the year removed their own families to the grant, where they permanently settled—the first three settlers in that part of the valley. Ephraim McDowell’s homestead, "Timber Ridge," ranged 42,000 acres lying east of the Great Wagon Road through present-day Lexington, Virginia. He served in the Augusta County militia until 1743, when he was exempted from further service due to his advanced age (70 years). Still, Ephraim, who had defended the gates of Londonderry and fought in the Battle of the Boyne, would live another 34 years.

The Catawba Valley Settlements

From History of the McDowells and Connections, by John Hugh McDowell, pub. 1918, C. B. Johnston, page 232:

Amongst the earliest settlers in the valley of the upper Catawba, in the old county of Burke [then Rowan],* were Joseph McDowell the elder [b. 1715], a grandson of Ephraim, the founder of the family in Virginia, Kentucky and our own State, and his cousin, known as "Hunting John," who was near the same age. They migrated somewhere about the year 1760, and during the French-Indian war, from the old home of Ephraim McDowell, in Rockbridge** [then Augusta] County, Va., and because the country west of the Catawba was rendered unsafe by roving bands of Cherokee and Catawba braves, went with their families through Rowan and Mecklenburg counties to some point in South Carolina, near the northern boundary line. Their sturdy Scotch-Irish friends had already drifted from Pennsylvania, where they, with thousands of Germans, were first dumped by the English land agents upon American soil, to upper South Carolina, and had commemorated their first American home by naming the three northern counties of that State York, Chester and Lancaster.

*Burke was formed from Rowan County in 1777

**Rockbridge was formed in 1778 from Augusta and Botetourt counties in Virginia. Botetourt had been formed from Augusta in 1770. Augusta was formed from Orange County in 1738.

Mary McDowell Greenlee, re: "Borden's tract"

From Annals of Augusta County by Joseph Addison Waddell, pub. 1902,
C.R. Caldwell, page 31:

Borden's tract was South of Beverley's Manor, and in the present county of Rockbridge. The first settlers on the tract were Ephraim McDowell and his family. His daughter, Mary Greenlee, related in a deposition taken in 1806 [at age 94], and still extant, the circumstances under which her father went there. Her brother, James McDowell, had come into Beverley's Manor during the spring of 1737, and planted a crop of corn, near Woods' Gap; and in the fall her father, her brother John, and her husband [James Greenlee] and herself came to occupy the settlement. Before they reached their destination, and after they had arranged their camp on a certain evening at Linnville Creek, (now Rockingham,) [Benjamin] Borden arrived and asked permission to spend the night with them, being doubtless on his way to his tract from his home in the lower Valley. He informed them of his grant, and offered them inducements to go there. The next day they came on to the house of John Lewis, and there it was finally arranged that the party should settle in Borden's tract. Ephraim McDowell was then a very aged man, and lived to be over one hundred years old. When a youth of 16 he was one of the defenders of Londonderry. He and his family located on Timber Ridge, originally called "Timber Grove," being attracted by the forest trees on the ridge, which were scarce elsewhere in the region. Borden offered a tract of one hundred acres to any one who should build a cabin on it, with the privilege of purchasing more at fifty shillings per hundred acres. Each cabin secured to him one thousand acres. Mrs. Mary Greenlee related in her deposition, referred to, that an Irish girl, named Peggy Millhollan, a servant of James Bell, dressed herself in men's clothes and secured five or six cabin rights. John Patterson, who was employed to count the cabins, was surprised to find so many people named Millhollan, but the trick was not discovered till after the return was made. Among the settlers in "Borden's grant" were William McCausland, William Sawyers, Robert Campbell, Samuel Woods, John Mathews (father of Sampson and George), Richard Woods, John Hays and his son, Charles and Samuel Walker. Borden obtained his patent November 8, 1739. He died in the latter part of 1743, in Frederick, leaving three sons, Benjamin, John and Joseph, and several daughters. The next spring his son Benjamin appeared in Rockbridge (as it is now) with authority under his father's will to adjust all matters with the settlers on the grant. He had, however, been in the settlement before his father's death.
Mrs. Greenlee says Benjamin Borden, Jr., was "altogether illiterate," and did not make a good impression on his first arrival, but he proved to be an upright man, and won the confidence of the people. The saying: "As good as Ben. Burden's bill," passed into a proverb. He married Mrs. Magdalene McDowell, (originally a Miss Woods, of Rock fish), widow of John McDowell, who was killed by Indians in December, 1742, and by her had two daughters, Martha and Hannah. The former became the wife of Robert Harvey, the latter never married. Benjamin Borden, Jr., died of small-pox in 1753. His will was admitted to record by the County Court of Augusta, November 21, 1758. The executors appointed were John Lyle, Archibald Alexander and testator's wife, but the first named declined to serve. His personal estate was large for the time. During her second widowhood Mrs. Magdalene Borden contracted a third marriage with Colonel John Bowyer.

North Carolina's McDowell Heroes

From North Carolina, 1780-'81: Being a History of the Invasion of the Carolinas, by David Schenck, pub. 1889, Edwards & Broughton, North Carolina, pp. 464-466:

To the brothers, Charles and Joseph McDowell, of Quaker Meadows, and to their no less gallant cousin, Joseph McDowell, of Pleasant Garden, Burke County, North Carolina, are due more credit and honor for the victory of King's Mountain than to any other leaders who participated in that decisive and wonderful battle. Yet, the name of McDowell does not appear on the granite shaft, raised by patriot hands, on those memorable heights—a reproach to the intelligence of the men who wrote its inscriptions and an indignity to North Carolina which contributed so largely to construct the monument. It was Colonel Charles McDowell, and Major Joseph McDowell, his brother, who originated the idea of organizing a force to capture Ferguson, and in conjunction with their cousin, they were the most prominent in executing the plan which they had conceived.

Major Joseph McDowell was subsequently a General of militia and was known as General McDowell. He also served as a member of Congress from North Carolina during the years of 1787, 1788, 1791 and 1792. In 1788 he was a member of the State Convention which met for the consideration of the Federal Constitution. He was of Scotch-Irish descent; his ancestors came to North Carolina by the way of Virginia. The McDowells of North 
Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio are all of one common stock.

On one of the foot hills of the Blue Ridge, a beautiful round knob, selected for its lovely view, and overhanging the "Quaker Meadows," is the cemetery of the McDowell family. On a slab of marble, erected as a head-stone, is this inscription:

"TO THE MEMORY OF 

GENERAL CHARLES McDOWELL, 

A WHIG OFFICER IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 

WHO DIED, AS HE HAD LIVED, A PATRIOT, 

THE 31ST MARCH, 1815, AGED 

ABOUT 70 YEARS." 

By his side is the unmarked grave of Major Joseph McDowell, his brother. Not a stone is raised 
to his memory; not a line is carved to recount his deeds of valor and patriotism; no epitaph tells the 
story of King's Mountain and Cowpens and Ramsour's Mill, where he was foremost in the fight; 
no record speaks to the stranger and says, here lies a hero who was victorious in every field, and never 
turned his back on a foe. The only mark that indicates the grave of this gallant soldier is the 
letter J rudely carved on a white oak tree that stands at its head.

What a reproach to those who enjoy the liberties that were purchased with his blood! Will the State he loved and served so well suffer this reproach to continue? 

Close by his side, the remains of his cousin, Joseph McDowell,* of Pleasant Garden, lie. On a head-stone is this inscription:

HERE LIES THE BODY OF 

CAPTAIN JOSEPH McDOWELL, 

BORN 27TH FEBRUARY, 17-5, 
(the other figure obliterated) 

AGED 60 YEARS." 


[*Blogger's note: *Actually, this is Capt. Joseph J. McDowell, born 1715 in Ireland, the father of Charles and Joseph of Quaker Meadows. Cousin Joseph "P.G." McDowell was interred at Round Hill Cemetery on his Pleasant Gardens estate.]

Silas McDowell (1795-1879)

Silas McDowell was a pomologist and botanist who discovered or introduced at least fifteen new apple varieties during the 1850s. He was a farmer, scientific observer, mountain guide, clerk of the Superior Court, and a man of letters. Born 16 May 1795 in York District, South Carolina, he was a cousin of Colonel Joseph McDowell of Pleasant Gardens, for whom McDowell County, North Carolina, was named. Son of Elizabeth McDowell (b. 1772) and an unknown (or undisclosed) father, Silas was raised mostly by his maternal grandfather “Pacolet William” McDowell. In 1812 he went to Asheville, where he was educated at the respected Newton Academy. Two years later he returned to South Carolina for an apprenticeship with a tailor in Charleston.

From 1816 to 1846, Silas McDowell worked as a tailor, first in Morganton, North Carolina, and later in Macon County, North Carolina, where he also served a clerk of the Superior Court for nearly sixteen years. On his farm near Franklin, he raised and sold apples, fruit tree grafts, and rhododendrons. He also experimented with native American grape varieties. In addition, he served as a guide to John Lyon, Moses Ashley Curtis, and several other botanists, touring and collecting specimens in western North Carolina.

McDowell was largely a self-taught scientist. He wrote extensively on a wide variety of scientific and literary subjects, including botany, horticulture, mineralogy, geology, zoology, and local and state history. He is perhaps best known as the originator of the "thermal belt" concept (which is a zone on a mountainside where frost and freezes are less common than in the valleys and on the mountaintops).

He gained fame as a writer and storyteller, and was the source of much of Eoneguski, "the first North Carolina novel," written by Senator Robert Strange. McDowell's writings were published in such widely diverse places as Harper’s, The North Carolina Planter, The Raleigh Observer, and Southern Cultivator. His prose landscape sketches were highly praised by James Wood Davidson in The Living Writers of the South (1869).

McDowell married Elizabeth Erwin in 1828. They, along with Silas' mother Elizabeth, moved to his farm in Macon County, North Carolina, which he had purchased in 1820. He had learned about the area from a former landlord, who had been part of General Griffith Rutherford's 1776 Cherokee expedition, and bought the land after the Cherokee cession in 1819. McDowell wrote about this farm in an 1873 letter to Lyman Draper, and said that he had “resolved to buy the Hiddintown in the Cullasajah Valley" while a "romantic youth" in school. He lived on the farm, which he variously referred to as Hiddintown, Sugartown, and the Vale of Cullasajah, until his death in 1879. The name Cullasajah, today spelled Cullasaja and used to designate a small river between Highlands and Franklin, North Carolina, has been variously spelled over the years as Cullasajah, Cullasaga, Cullasaja, and Callasaga. One of the apple varieties developed by McDowell, which is still cultivated, bears the name Callasaga.

(Sources: “Silas McDowell & Southern Apples,” compiled by T. Duane Phillips; and "Silas McDowell and the Early Botanical Exploration of Western North Carolina," by Gary S. Dunbar, North Carolina Historical Review, 1964)

Borden's Grant settlers request a "Captin"...

From a petition to Lieutenant Governor William Gooch of Virginia, dated 30 July 1742, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, i, p. 235:

(click image to enlarge)

The full text:

July 30th 

Petition of the Frontier Inhabitants for appointment of Proper Officers &c for their defense

To the Honorable, William Gooch Esqr His Majestys’ Lieut: Governor &c &c—

Sr

We your pittionours humbly sheweth that we your Honours Loly and Dutifull Subganckes hath ventred our Lives & all that we have In settling ye back parts of Virginia which was a veri Great Hassirt & Dengrous, for it is the Hathins [heathens] Road to ware, which has proved hortfull to severil of ous that were ye first settlers of these back woods & wee your Honibill pittionors some time a goo pittioned your Honnour for to have Commissioned men amungst ous which we your Honnours most Duttifull subjects thought properist men & men that had Hart and Curidg to hed us yn mind of — & to defend your Contray and your poor Sobgacks Intrist from ye voilince of ye Haithen—But yet agine we Humbly perfume to poot your Honnour yn mind of our Great want of them in hopes that your Honner will Grant a Captins’ Commission to John McDowell, with follring ofishers, and your Honnours’ Complyence in this will be Great settisfiction to your most Duttifull and Humbil pittioners—and we as in Duty bond shall Ever pray—

Andrew Moore, David Moore, James Eikins, Geroge Marfit [Moffett], John Goof, James Sutherland, James Milo, James McDowell, John Anderson, Joabe Anderson, James Anderson, Mathew Lyel, John Gray and many others.