San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JAMES CALVIN McCOWN
A well-known and highly respected
Grand Army man, whose residence in California covered a period of forty-six
years, was the late James Calvin McCown.
He was born in Ohio in 1839 and there grew to young manhood and married. During the Civil War he enlisted in Company
C, Eleventh Regiment, New York Volunteer Cavalry, and served until the
conclusion of the war. After the war he
removed with his wife to Colorado where he engaged in the general merchandise
business in Eire, a small town near Denver, until 1876, when they came to
California and located in Mendocino, later going to Eureka, Humboldt County,
where he conducted a merchandise store.
Later Mr. McCown conducted hotels at Sisson, at the base of Mt. Shasta,
Siskiyou County, and at Adin near Alturas, Modoc County. In 1895 the family located at Stockton and
Mr. McCown retired from active business cares.
He passed away on February 26, 1922, and his wife, Electa Ann McCown,
survived him until May 10, 1922. This
worthy couple is survived by four children:
William E., the eldest, was born at Monroe, Jasper County, Iowa, December 16, 1869. He
received a good public school education and finished with a course in a
commercial college in Stockton. He was
married in Stockton, October 19, 1911, to Miss Eva S. Church, born at
Farmington, California, a daughter of M. M. and Sivilla
Ann Church, pioneer residents of the Farmington section of San Joaquin
County. The mother, Mrs. Church, died in
March 1920; the father is still living.
Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McCown: William E., Jr., and Edna Birdena. William E. McCown is a Mason and a past grand
and past chief patriarch of the I. O. O. F.
The other surviving sons are Nathaniel T. and Edwin L. Nathaniel T. was born in Iowa in 1871, and is
now clerk in the freight office at Stockton for the Southern Pacific. He was public administrator of San Joaquin
County for one term. Edwin L. was born
at Adin, Modoc County, California, September 7,
1880. He received his education in the
public schools of Modoc County and when twelve years of age began to make his
own living by delivering newspapers; in 1898 he learned the boilermaker’s trade
and for the past seven years has been conducting his own business. Mary E., the only daughter, was born in Erie,
Colorado, and received her education in California schools. In Stockton on June 3, 1902, she was married
to Willard Loveland, a native of California, who passed away in March,
1909. The third son, James Calvin, Jr.,
died April 30, 1917, thirty-eight years old.
He was a linotype operator and a law student at the time of his death.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
519. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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