Robert Edwin Cowan (November 9, 1830 – July 14, 1887) was a Virginia lawyer and politician who served in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

and the

Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 The Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 was called in the state capital of Richmond to determine whether Virginia would secede from the United States, govern the state during a state of emergency, and write a new Constitution for Virginia, whi ...

and as a Confederate officer. After the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, he moved to

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, where he resumed his legal practice and was elected a judge before his death and burial in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Early and family life

Descended from the

First Families of Virginia The First Families of Virginia, or FFV, are a group of early settler families who became a socially and politically dominant group in the British Colony of Virginia and later the Commonwealth of Virginia. They descend from European colonists who ...

, Robert Cowen was born in

Staunton, Virginia Staunton ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 25,750. In Virginia, independent cities a ...

, on November 9, 1830, to Arthur Cowan and his wife, the former Elizabeth Floyd who married in Monongalia County, Virginia, on August 9, 1829. Cowen's ancestors had moved from northern Ireland to Pennsylvania early in the 18th century, and by the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

were attempting to settle in the Shenandoah and

Clinch River The Clinch River is a river that flows southwest for more than through the Great Appalachian Valley in the U.S. states of Virginia and Tennessee, gathering various tributaries, including the Powell River, before joining the Tennessee River in ...

valleys. They had at least three sons—Robert E. Cowen, John T. Cowen and James P. Cowen—and many grandchildren. Robert E. Cowen married the former Susan Louisa Cresap, whose ancestors had explored and settled in the Appalachian foothills of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia and whose grandfather Thomas Cresap also fought for independence in the American Revolutionary War. Their children included Arthur Cresap Cowan (1858–1927), Charles Perry Cowan (1860–1902), Robert Cowan (1862–) and Ada Lee Cowan Woodson (1866–1953).

Career

After admission to the Virginia bar, Cowen became a clerk in the Virginia General Assembly. While the legislature was not in session, Cowan lived and practiced in Kingwood the county seat of Preston County (in what became

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

after the

). Beginning in 1857, Preston County voters elected Cowen as one of two men to represent them (part-time) in the

. He first won election alongside J. C. Kemble in 1857, and re-election in 1859 alongside John Scott (Virginia), and during most of the American Civil War served as that county's only delegate in Richmond. Months after the Virginia Secession Convention expelled Unionists William G. Brown (a former Virginia General Assembly delegate and U.S. Congressman) and James Clark McGrew on June 29, 1861, because of the Wheeling Convention that May (in which many men from Preston County but not they, participated), five men from Preston County at a Confederate camp in Pocahontas County on October 24, 1861, elected this Robert E. Cowan (another Confederate officer of the same name and distantly related, but from Russell County, Virginia would die months later) to replace Brown, and his brother-in-law and newly admitted lawyer Charles J. P. Cresap to replace McGrew. During the Civil War, Cowan left Preston County and moved to Richmond, where in addition to his part-time legislative service, Cowan served as a captain, assistant commissary and subsistence officer. Major A.G. Regar recommended him for the job, and he was appointed on January 26, 1862, as of January 18. Reassigned on June 5, 1863, as the ACS was disbanded, Cowan then applied to become 3rd auditor in the post office on December 23, 1863, and to become a clerk in the Treasury Department on April 9, 1864. Cowan was the only delegate representing Preston County (part-time) in Richmond between 1861 and mid-1863. Beginning on September 7, 1863, until the war's end, he and Charles J. P. Cresap both represented Preston County in the House of Delegates in Richmond.

Postwar Missouri years

After the war, Cowan moved his family (and sister-in-law Mary Cresap) to

, where he practiced law together with former CSA Major Blake L. Woodson (b. 1835), formerly of

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It lies in Southwest Virginia, along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanok ...

, and who had studied under John Brockenbrough in Lexington, Virginia. In 1884 Kansas City voters elected Woodson their prosecuting attorney and re-elected him in 1886. Their legal partnership had continued until Cowan was elected a judge (and Woodson would later become a judge).Missouri History Encyclopedia 1901 p. 159 indicates the only judge of the Kansas City Court of Law and Equity

Death and legacy

Judge Cowan died in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, on July 14, 1887. By then, his son Arthur had moved to Jacksonville, Florida, but Charles and Ada Lee remained with their widowed mother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Robert Edwin 1830 births 1887 deaths Virginia lawyers Missouri lawyers 19th-century American judges Virginia Secession Delegates of 1861 Members of the Virginia House of Delegates People from Kingwood, West Virginia People from Staunton, Virginia 19th-century American lawyers Cresap family 19th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly