Our subject is a native of the Isle of Man, which is in the Irish Sea, north of Wales, his birth occurring there march 3, 1811. His parents, Thomas and Catherine (Teare) Cowley, were also natives of that Island, and until he was seventy years of age, his father never left that little spot of earth, emigrating then to America.

Our subject was the only son of his parents’ family and was reared on his native isle, and received a fair education in its schools, though he did not have the fine advantages that the youth of to-day enjoy. At fourteen years of age he began to learn the trade of a carpenter and joiner, serving an apprenticeship until he was twenty-one years old. After that for a time he was employed as a journeyman at his calling in Liverpool and Manchester, England. In 1836, in the vigor and strength of the opening years of an active manhood, he took his life in his own hands, and started on the long journey to America, where he hoped he might, under the good opportunities offered to foreigners, secure a comfortable competence and build up a good home. He took passage at Liverpool on the good ship “Thomas,” at White Haven, and after a long and tiresome voyage of forty-three days, landed in New York City. In that great metropolis he found work at his trade, and lived there some three years. He next took up his residence in the South, and we hear of him working in Mobile, Ala., at his calling for several years. He was also employed as a journeymen and a contractor in Memphis, Tenn., for some thirteen years.

In 1846, our subject made a new departure, and became a landowner in this State, buying the property on which he now resides, and removing to it from Tennessee in 1853, and since then has made farming his life work. He at first purchased one hundred and thirty acres at $4.50 an acre, it being then in a wild condition, as the Indians had left it, and he turned the first furrow of what is now a most excellent farm, he having brought it to its present condition of great productiveness and fine improvement, by persevering and well directed labor. He has added to his original purchase, and now has two hundred and ten acres of land under good cultivation, supplied with the necessary buildings of a good order and conveniently arranged, and with all the appliances for carrying on farming.

Mr. Cowley has been greatly assisted in the accumulation of his property by his good wife, who is at once counselor, friend and helpmate. Their marriage was solemnized November 9, 1841, and to them have come nine children, of whom the following four are living: Cornelia J., widow of Mr. Slocum, of Brimfield Township; William T.; Daniel; and Martha, wife of Joseph Harper, of Peoria. The five deceased are: Cornelia, Daniel, Margaret, Edward, and Catherine A. Mrs. Cowley, whose maiden name was Martha Price, is a native of Flintshire, Wales, and was born March 28, 1819, a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Dooir) Price, natives of Wales. She came to this country in 1840.

Mr. Cowley began life in this country with but little means, and experienced many of the inconveniences and hardships of pioneer life. The comfortable home in which he lives is the work of his own hand, and was built by him in the spring of 1848, the doors and window sashes having been made by him at Memphis, and brought hither with him on a steamer when he came to this county. Activity, clear discernment, and excellent powers of calculation have been the faculties with which our subject is gifted, that have made his career as a pioneer farmer of Brimfield Township, alike honorable to himself and useful to the community. He and his wife regulate their lives by Christian principles, and are regarded with feelings of trust and affection by the people around them. They are valued members of the Old Settlers’ Association of Brimfield Township. Religiously, they are of the Methodist Episcopal faith, being devoted members of the church in the township, in which he is acting as Steward and Trustee. In him the Democratic party finds a sturdy supporter, and he is ever ready with true public spirit, to favor all things tending to the good of the community. He was formerly identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

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