Demsey Bryant McGowen was born about 1815 on Lake Mattamuskeet in
Hyde County, North Carolina, a son of Joseph McGowen, Jr. (c.1769-
c.1850's). He was a child of about four years old when his family 
moved to White Co., Tennessee and settled in the Shady Grove area 
on the banks of the Caney Fork River. In about 1837, he married 
Rebecca Clark. She was born about 1815 in Tennessee, the daughter 
of Derias Clark and the grand-daughter of Burgess Clark, a 
Revolutionary War veteran. Bryant and Rebecca lived somewhere in 
Alabama during the 1840's as their daughter Mary Jane, was born 
there about 1844. By 1854, they were living  back in White County.  
By 1870, Bryant and his family left White County and headed for 
Missouri where the family of his brother Amos had settled. They 
stopped in Caldwell County, Kentucky for the Winter. They rented 
a farm and grew a crop of tobacco to refurbish before continuing 
their journey. Then, because one of their sons married and settled 
there, Rebecca refused to travel on.  So the rest of the family 
decided to settled there too and they bought a farm in Harmony 
Township.  Rebecca died about 1898 and Bryant died in 1899.  
They are buried in the Lance Nichols Cemetery located in between 
Princeton and Dawson Springs, Kentucky. When Bryant died, his 
headstone was chisled by his son Amos. Bryant and Rebecca 
McGowen were the parents of: 

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        Name                Born-Died          Spouse
1. Celia Caroline McGowen  (1838-  ? )      Richard Hames
2. Amos M. McGowen         (1840-1929)    1-Alma Chambers
                                          2-Sarah Frances Smiley
3. Derias McGowen          (1843-1860)      (Died Young)
4. Mary Jane McGowen       (1844-   ? )     James C. Dunning
5. Joseph T. McGowen       (1848-aft1915) 1-Florence Edora Owen
                                          2-Mrs. Lee G. (Jenny) Clark
6. Ozias Denton McGowen    (1850-1936)      Sarah E. O'donnell
7. Sarah Elizabeth McGowen (1856-1924)      John C. Hensley
8. Green McGowen           (1860-aft1920) 1-Sarah Naves     
                                          2-Jane Ollie Carpenter

- * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - 

Bryant McGowan's Headstone,
Chisled by son Amos McGowen.

Sometime around 1890, their son Joseph moved to Rutherford Co., Tennessee
and Green also moved there by 1900.  About the same time, Ozias Denton also 
moved back to Tennessee, to Cannon Co., then Warren Co., just south of White
County from where they had started. The remainder of Bryant's and Rebecca's 
children remained in the Caldwell County area.

(Photos and information submitted by Pamela (McGowan) Tippy, Perry McGowan 
and John McGowan.)

McGowan Family History