Jonas H. McGowan

Who was Jonas H. McGowan?

Jonas Hartzell McGowan was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.

McGowan was born in Smith Township, Ohio. He was the eighth of ten children of Samuel and Susan McGowan. His paternal Scotch-Irish ancestors had fled religious persecution and settled in Pennsylvania. His father was a pioneer in Columbiana County, Ohio, where he cleared a tract of government land and occupied it as a homestead. In 1854, Samuel moved his family to Orland, Indiana, where he died in 1860. McGowan's mother was of German descent and survived the father for another four years. McGowan's father was an abolitionist and his house served as a depot on the Underground Railroad.

McGowan attended a seminary in Alliance, Ohio and the Orland Academy. He graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1861 and taught in the city schools of Coldwater, Michigan for one year. In 1862, he married Josephine Pruden, then preceptress at the High School in Coldwater.

During the Civil War, McGowan served in the Fifth and Ninth Regiments, Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. In August 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Fifth Regiment and was soon promoted to Sergeant of his Company.