The ancient Gaels from Ireland to the Highlands of Scotland, like all Celts, loved a good fight.
When they returned from battle, the heads of their enemies swung from the manes of their own beloved horses. Heads because they believed the head was where the soul/spirit lived in a man and by taking his head you took his power. When not at war, they cut fields into long rows with their iron-pronged plows, revolutionizing agriculture in Europe.
Certainly, within every successful warring, farming, livestock-stealing clan lived a village smith who enjoyed high regard. The Gaelic god Goibhniu, or Gobhainn, was the Great Smith, god of blacksmiths, weapons makers, jewelry making, brewing, fire, and metalworking; all-around a very useful god.
By the 10th Century, when surnames became hereditary among the Celts, the prominence of the smith (gow or gabha" in Gaelic), could be seen. It was one of the few occupational titles that came into use as a surname. After all, it was the smith who made the armor, and the swords strapped over the warrior’s tunics or "belted plaids," the dagger tucked under his armpit, the shoes on his horse, and that iron-pronged plow.
Mac Gabhann, or "son of the smith," in Ireland is chronicled as a powerful family originating in the ancient kingdom of Breffny, now, roughly, County Cavan. Most of these sons of smiths however eventually chose or were forced by the English to use the extreme Anglicization of the name -- plain old Smith.
In Scotland, Mac a' Ghobhainn , and its many phonetic Anglicizations, is found in both Highland and Borderland history. McGowans are often mentioned as a sept (subgroup or family group) within the Donald and Pherson and possibly McIntosh clans, as well as the Chattan federation. In the reign of David II there was a clan MacGowan on the river Nith in the Scottish Borders.
Our name is still found in the Highlands and the Borders. It is in fact the most common name in Scotland, as is the name Smith across the remainder of the English speaking world. The name is found in many forms: MacGowan, McGowan, McGown, Megown, McGowen, Magowen, Smith, and Smythe and several others.
Scottish McGowans travelled across the Irish Sea to County Cavan's neighbor counties of Leitrim, Donegal, Sligo and Monaghan during the English "Plantation" of Scots and English farmers to Northern Ireland beginning in 1601. The British used the poverty stricken Borderlanders and some English farmers (like the Calverts) to drive the indigenous Irish off land they had long farmed. British landowners offered leases only to the incoming Scots and English, thereby disenfranchising the, Catholic Irish. Better land and more religious freedom were too good to pass up, so the Borderlanders went and the Irish troubles began.
Historically then we see that McGowans were found in Northern Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and the Scottish Borderlands and, by the late Seventeenth Century, even in North America.
Western Pennsylvania near what is now the city of Pittsburgh was still the frontier at the end of the Revolution. Its pioneers were largely Scots-Irish, along with some Germans and sprinklings of others including Scots, who were tough enough or crazy enough to stake out land on the far side of the Allegheny Mountains. Here they built their “cabbins” of log, forested, farmed, brewed whiskey, built Presbyterian churches and populated the new America at an astounding pace. They shed French and Indian blood, and the earliest to arrive were the backbone of Washington’s army. From Western Pennsylvania these settlers moved on into South and Midwest and ultimately also the far west. The famous Conestoga wagons were built here.
We pick up the trail of our North American McGowans in Western Pennsylvania in 1850. The census shows four American born McGown and McGowan householders living in close proximity in Miflin Township, Allegheny County. I think the four households are all related, and represent four generations of McGowns all born in America.
Note: The issue of spelling the name with an A or with no A may have been one the family (or the census taker) was uncertain about. In the 1840 census, all the families in Miflin township used the no-A spelling. By 1860, the added A was the norm. As time passes, the family adopts the A almost unilaterally.
In any case, the households in 1850 are headed by Moses, aged 48, John, aged 44, younger Moses, aged 30, and Thomas, aged 25. An older couple, James and Anne, in their late 60’s live with the younger Moses. In 1840, there are three householders; John, Moses and another John. In 1830 and 1820, however, there are no McGown or McGowan families found in the census in Miflin Township. But in 1800 we have three: Charrels, Samuel and John, all middle aged men with young families.
To discover if there is a link between the 1800 McGowns and the 1840 McGowns, more research must be done. For now, we can only say that the family was certainly in the country as early as 1840 when Moses’ name first appears in the census, but possibly much earlier. We cannot safely assume that James, the eldest of the 1850 McGowns is our relative. Nor can we positively claim any of the 1800s McGowns.
So for now, here is what I can say to be true: In 1850, our ancestor Moses McGown and his wife, Rosana Wallace, both American born, are farming in Western Pennsylvania with 3 children at home. Rosana is from a local family of Scots-Irish Wallaces who came from County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Wallaces immigrated directly to Western Pennsylvania sometime after 1784.
Rosana and Moses’ children are Eliza, 23, Mary, 21, John, 19 and Samuel, 17. Also living with the family is Thomas McGown, 51. Perhaps he is the older brother of Moses. Young Sam is the McGowan who fathers our direct line. In the next 15 years of his life, he will marry, become a father and widower, fight as a foot soldier in the Union army, marry again, and head west to Iowa to begin his farm and family there. Civil War vets were given six months edge on other homesteaders when it came to securing title on homesteaded land. Many vets wasted no time heading west and grabbing some land the minute they left the army. In Iowa, Sam and Rebecca will have a large family, including their son, Elmer McGowan, Grandma Hattie’s father, and Grace Swain’s husband.
Trying to identify our McGowans with any certainty has so far been like looking for hay in a haystack. I think we can get much closer than I am at present to knowing who Moses’ parents were, and how long the family has been in America, but it may take awhile. My best guess is that they came from Stirling, Scotland in 1774. But that is just a guess based on lots of snooping around.
Hopefully we will one day know unquestionably if they came from Northern Ireland or from Scotland, if they were indigenous Irish McGowans from ancient Breffny, remnants of clan McGowan of the Scottish borders or Scots-Irish farmers soured on Northern Ireland and fleeing the exorbitant "quit rents". We may know if they were Scots Highlanders driven from their ancient crofts in the brutal "Clearances" (a sad and savage chapter of Scottish history, when crofters were driven and even burned out so landowners could bring in sheep farming; more profitable than the old system of tenant farms. The Highland Clearances have been called "the years when sheep ate man.").
We may learn that our McGowans were the persecuted Presbyterian “covenanters,” who refused to acknowledge the Stuart kings as the spiritual heads of the church, believing that only Christ could be the head. Or that they were bonded servants, exported criminals or political prisoners sentenced to servitude in the colonies. McGowans walked many paths through Scotland and Ireland and into the New World.
We were told when children that McGowans were Scots and so they certainly were. Our precise McGowan heritage in Scotland or Ireland may come to light, or there may always be some uncertainty. So in claiming the roots to this family line, we may need to embrace the complete history of the name in the Gaelic, and larger Celtic, diaspora. Our McGowans could have been Irish Gaels invading Scotland in very ancient times, Borderlanders of mixed Celtic ancestry stuck for centuries on poor soil between invading English and resisting Highlanders. Or, they might have been the romantic Highlanders themselves surging through the glens alongside the McDonalds, loyal forever to Bonnie Prince Charlie.
What is certain is that our McGowan ancestors were from a people who wanted to pray as they saw fit, farm a few decent acres, husband good livestock, love hard, fight often, and work. They wanted to make some music, dance a bit, sip a good whiskey and avoid paying taxes whenever possible. They wanted independence from outsiders and especially from the law, yet interdependence with their own people. Throughout history they were motivated by loyalty to their clan, political persuasion or religious conviction. And, they were always willing to go to war in defense of those, even with each other.
Coming to America meant a clean start for them. They sought fresh air, a fair deal and a new challenge. They were willing to suffer for it, because suffering was nothing new. They were willing to go way out on the ledge of the frontier, because they had nothing to lose, they were willing to fight for what they took and then fight to keep it.
Whether these are admirable traits or not, I leave to you to decide. And to sort out the McGowans I invite anyone to augment my searches with your own. But in the meantime, “slainte” (a Gaelic salute) to the McGowans. It has been a long battle.
rrc
