Oliver Sayer Gowin

Oliver Sayer Gowin was the half brother to Nancy Jane Gowin Gordon.


Oliver Sayer Gowin


Birth: Oct. 16, 1854
Hendricks County
Indiana, USA
Death: Sep. 17, 1936
Danville
Hendricks County
Indiana, USA

Oliver Sayer is the son of Elizabeth DEBERY Walton from Pennsylvania and Stephan Gowin from Virginia.

He has five brothers and sisters.

Love J Gowin [maybe Joy]
Emily Adeline GOWIN Slavens
Alexander Campbell Buchanan ''Buck'' Gowin
Cynthia Ellen GOWIN Robbins
Ann Eliza GOWIN Crose

Oliver also had twelve half brothers and sisters.
Infant Gowin
Edna GOWIN Collicott
James Gowin
Allen S Gowin
William Gowin
Stephen Merritt Gowin
Mary S GOWIN Barton
Sarah Ann Gowin
Nancy Jane GOWIN Gordon
Elizabeth Gowin McCoy
Robert M Gowin
John Gowin

Oliver had four step brothers.
Johnathan Walton
Warren Walton
Amos Walton
William Walton

Oliver married Mary Elizabeth Blanton from Hendricks,Indiana on 25 Feb 1875 in Hendricks,Indiana.

They had seven children.
Esther Ann ''Sis'' GOWIN Dodds
Alva Porter Gowin
Charles O ''Charley'' Gowin
Edgar M Gowin *
Lila Tessa ''Lilly'' GOWIN Sutherlin
Mayme GOWIN Eggers
Clarence B ''Dick'' Gowin




Parents:
Stephen Gowin (1797 - 1880)
Elizabeth Debery Gowin (1816 - 1901)

Children:
Esther Ann Gowin Dodds (1878 - 1952)*
Alva Porter Gowin (1880 - 1931)*
Charles O Gowin (1883 - 1896)*
Edgar M Gowin (1885 - 1955)*
Lila Tessa Gowin Sutherlin (1888 - 1981)*
Mayme Gowin Eggers (1890 - 1919)*
Clarence B. Gowin (1894 - 1933)*

Spouse:
Mary Elizabeth Blanton Gowin (1858 - 1931)


Burial:
Fairview Cemetery
North Salem
Hendricks County
Indiana, USA

Created by: Randal Eugene Waldon
Record added: Apr 15, 2007
Find A Grave Memorial# 18949125

Oliver Sayer Gowin
Added by: Randal Eugene Waldon


Genealogy Data > Index to "The History of Hendricks County" (1914)

from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)--pages 673-675
OLIVER SAYER GOWIN

The one of whom this narrative speaks is one of those strong, self-reliant and determined characters who are occasionally met with and who are of such a distinct type as to seem born leaders of their fellow men. Not that Mr. Gowin courts that distinction, for he is entirely unassuming, but his great force of character and his zeal and energy in whatever he undertakes naturally place him at the head of the crowd, and he has been a potent factor in the development of Hendricks County, where he has long maintained his home and where he is well known to all classes for his honorable and industrious life, both in private and public.

Oliver Sayer Gowin, the son of Steven and Eliza (Debery) (Walton) Gowin, was born in Marion Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, two miles from his present farm, on October 16, 1854. His father was left an orphan at a tender age, his parents, James and Mary Gowin, both dying shortly after his birth in Virginia. He was sent to Frankfort County, Kentucky, where he was reared to manhood by his uncle. Steven Gowin was twice married, his first wife being a native of Kentucky, and to this first marriage were born twelve children, only one of whom, Jane, is living at the present time, the other eleven being as follows: Etna, James, William, Allen, sarah, Mary, Steven Merritt, Elizabeth, Robert, John and two unnamed, who died in infancy. After his first marriage, in Kentucky, Steven Gowin moved to Ripley County, Indiana, where his first wife died, and some time after this he was married to Mrs. Eliza (Debery) Walton, and to the second marriage six children were born: Love, deceased; Emily Adeline; Oliver Sayer, whose biolgraphy is set forth in this review; Alexander Campbell Buchanan; Cynthiana Ellen and Ann Eliza. While living in Ripley County, this state, Steven Gowin purchased a farm, but in 1852 he sold this place and moved to Hendricks County, where he settled in Marion Township, about seven miles northwest of Danville. Here he purchased eighty acres and later added thirty acres more, and on this farm of one hundred and ten acres he lived the remainder of his life. He was a Whig in politics in the early days, and upon the dissolution of that old party, in 1852, he became a Democrat. He was a member of the Christian Church at New Winchester and a man who was well known and highly respected in the community where he lived.

Oliver Sayer Gowin, the third child of his father's second marriage, was given his elementary education in the district schools of Marion Township and spent his boyhood and early manhood days on his father's farm. Upon reaching his majority, in 1875, he was married to Mary E. Blanton, the daughter of John and Delilah (Ragland) Blanton. John Blanton was born in Kentucky in 1811 and came to Hendricks County with his parents when a young man. He was a farmer all his life and died in 1873. His wife was also a native of Kentucky, her birth having occurred there in 1825, and her death occurred in this county in 1907, at the advanced age of eighty-two.

Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Gowin have seven children: Esther Ann, the wife of Daniel Dodds, a farm of Eel River Township, in this county; Alva Porter, who married Mamie Rooker, and who lives on a farm in Marion Township, this county; he has four children living one who died in infancy, Cecil, Ollie, Jennie and Raymond; Charles, who died at the age of thirteen; Edgar M. married Emma Eggers, and is a farmer in Marion township, has one daughter, Dorothy, living, while three children died in infancy; Lillie Tessie, who became the wife of Maurice Sutherlin, who was formerly a teacher, but is now a farmer in Putnam County, this state, and they have one son, Howard; Mamie, the wife of Allen Eggers, a farmer of Putnam County, Indiana, and Clarence B., the youngest in order of birth, who is still under the parental roof.

Mr. Gowin has been a farmer since the age of ten, starting out at that early age by renting a small tract from his father and tending his crops with the enthusiasm which characterizes boys of that tender age. Upon his marriage, he rented a farm of eighty acres four miles northwest of New Winchester and remained on this farm for the first three years of his married life. He then moved to the eighty acres adjoining his present farm and lived here for twelve years, after which he moved to his former farm of eighty acres and spent the next three and one-half years there. He then returned to his other eighty acres and, after living there for almost a year and a half, he moved to his present place in 1895, where he has since resided. By close attention to his business and by good management he has succeeded in accumulating a fine farm of two hundred and forty acres. He is what the world delights to honor, a self-made man, and is not at all ashamed of the fact that he started out in life with nothing.

Mr. Gowan is a Progressive Republican and is well informed upon all the political questions of the day, being a wide reader of magazines and newspapers. He has never held any office except that of township supervisor. He and his wife are members of the Christian Church at New Winchester, and he has been a trustee of the church for a number of years. Mr. Gowan has managed his affairs in such a way as to keep his reputation unblemished before the world, and in his whole life of three score years in this county no act of his has ever been the occasion for censure upon the part of his fellow citizens. He has lived the quiet, unostentatious life of the good American citizen and is an honor and credit to the community in which he lives.