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Below is a sample of a family biography included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn Counties Missouri and published by Chapman Bros. in 1893.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details in a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.


JOHN McGOWAN. Popular appreciation has made John McGowan an Alderman of the city of Brookfield no less than three times. He is recognized as a business man of shrewdness and intelligence, and these qualities make him a most useful member of the City Council. He is a member of the hardware firm of Graham & McGowan, established for four years, and carrying a full line of builders' hardware and shelf goods, etc. Our subject was born in Almond, Allegany County, N. Y., June 13, 1845, his father at that time being engaged on the grading of the Erie Railroad. He came to Illinois in 1855 or 1856 with the brother of his mother, Patrick Tooey, his parents being of the party. Mr. Tooey, who was a brother of James Tooey, had a contract for grading the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad from East Yellow Creek to Lingo, a distance of ten miles, and brought out his family with the intention of locating in Missouri. They drove from St. Louis in the dead of winter, when the Northern Missouri Railroad extended only to St. Charles. Dreary, indeed, was the prospect at the end of the journey, with not a habitation in sight, but only the wild wilderness for miles on every hand. Yet twenty-five laborers were along, including the families, for whom it was necessary to erect shelter of some kind.

The parents of our subject secured teams and came to Yellow Creek, where the father erected a temporary structure for the winter, and in the spring of the following year removed to Thayer. He had worked with Pat Tooey at Troy and on the grading of the Erie Road, and came to Illinois to work with him on the grade work of the Hannibal & St. Joseph. Mr. Tooey had his hands full finding shelter for twenty-five laborers, including the families, Mr. McGowan and several bosses; this, too, in the winter season with building material scarce and a market none too close; yet he provided for all and secured for them the necessities of life. The road ran through Fulton, Huntsville and old Bloomington, in Macon County, then the county seat. Thayer remained the headquarters while the work was being prosecuted. The road was completed in 1858, and in the following year it was connected near Chillicothe. Patrick Tooey remained in Thayer, having bought considerable property in that place; but presently misfortunes overwhelmed him, he being bereaved by the death of his wife and later sustaining serious financial mishaps. Under the burden of his troubles his reason gave way and for several years he has been an inmate of the St. Joseph Asylum.

The father of our subject, Michael McGowan, worked with his brother-in-law for some years and then with the railroad. Locating at Brookfield, he became one of the first settlers of the place, where he remained until his death in 1883. His wife is still living. Our subject being a mere boy when the move was made to Illinois, was employed in driving a team for his uncle and hauled goods from Brunswick, Carbondale and Hudson, and afterward from Macon City. For a season he was in the store at Thayer, and was employed by the railroad at the latter place in 1858-59 as a helper in the roundhouse, which, on a Sunday afternoon in May of the latter year was, with its five engines, removed to Brookfield, which at that time contained only a turntable, a boarding shanty and a hut occupied by Thomas Bresnehan, a grading contractor. Our subject was made timekeeper and watchman, and is the only one remaining of the residents of the village in that spring of 1859, and of the twenty-five workmen, the bosses and contractors and the man in the blacksmith shop. The first store was erected by James Tooey nearly a year later.

Our subject worked with the railroad until 1876. He began to fire an engine in 1862, and eighteen months later was given charge of an engine, being then less than seventeen years old. Before he had fired a week he was in a collision on the New Cambria grade, in which four men were killed. His engine rolling down a bank into a cornfield, tipped over with him, and he was severely scalded and laid up for two months. Both trains were running at full speed and the cars were smashed to pieces. Several times during the war he was fired at by guerrillas while running his train. August 5, 1868, his engine was ditched and turned upside down, having met an obstruction on the track while at a speed of forty miles an hour. As a result of this accident our subject was laid up for months. Running mostly by daylight, it was necessary for him to carry spikes and stop now and then to spike down rails. His perils during the war were many and some of his escapes were narrow indeed. Upon one occasion the engine was taking water at a tank, when four hundred Confederates appeared. He started away, but being up grade they followed so closely that he saved himself only by lying flat upon the floor, one hundred shots being fired into the engine. At another time he brought out an engine from Hannibal to secure the remains of two trains, a passenger and a freight, near Monroe City, that had been stopped and robbed and the engineer of which had been made to put fire to his own train. The robbers, some of whom remained, paid no attention as he superintended the repair of the tracks by laborers he had brought out for that purpose; but later, when another train bearing laborers and soldiers arrived, a brisk and sharp fight ensued.

The operation of railroads was very difficult during war time, there being no trackmen, and none for the shops; and cabs had to be lined with boiler iron to protect the engineer and fireman from bullets. On one trip, when taking a load of soldiers to Cameron with an old engine, the commander sent a guard to watch our subject while he stopped to repair it, suspecting that he might be attempting to cripple the locomotive. Mr. McGowan ran the first engine for the Kansas City branch, which only ran to Harlem, until the bridge was built, and when but one road ran into Kansas City. While in charge of the roundhouse in 1861 he was required for three weeks to keep the engines fired up day and night, an attack being expected from Price's army and guerrillas to burn the bridge on each side. Leaving the road in 1876 he started a grocery and later a saloon, after which he went into the hardware business.

June 10, 1878,Mr. McGowan married Miss Maggie Mehan, of St. Louis, the fruits of this union being, Katie, Annie Frances, May Gertrude, Julia Agnes and Josephine Augusta (the three last named dying in childhood), Anastasia, Ellen and Maggie. Mr. and Mrs. McGowan are prominent members of the Catholic Church. They have a fine residence on Brooks Street, one and one-half blocks west of Main Street. In addition to this, Mr. McGowan owns some valuable business property in Brookfield. His devotion to the Democratic party shows itself in earnest work, while he has never sought office his fellow-citizens have three times elected him an Alderman.

This family biography is one of 555 biographies included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn Counties Missouri published in 1893.  For the complete description, click here: Linn County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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