Ohio History Journal

GENERAL BENJAMIN RUSH COWEN.     W. H. MACKOY,   ATTORNEY-AT-LAW, CINCINNATI. The death of General Benjamin Rush Cowen, January 29, 1908, at his home in Cincinnati, removed one, who, during the

eventful and critical period beginning with the nomina- tion of General Fremont for the Presidency in 1856 and ending with the inaugura- tion of President Hayes in 1877, was a prominent actor in the affairs of his party, his state and the United States, and whose public services entitle him to high rank among the patriotic and dis- tinguished men who have given fame to Ohio. He was born August 15, 1831, at Moorfield in Harrison County, Ohio, a county that has the honor of having been the birthplace

of General George A. Custer, the home of John A. Bing- ham and the scene of the early legal practice of Edwin M. Stanton, and the character of whose sturdy population must have exerted a formative influence upon young Cowen during his boyhood years, as the beauty of its landscapes must have quickened his imagination and aided in the development of the faculty, which he possessed to an unusual degree in his mature years, of expressing his thoughts in a pleasing and forceful style. To those who knew General Cowen personally in his later life, but who knew nothing of his forbears, it would not have 149

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been necessary to state that he came of honorable lineage. His

handsome and expressive face and features, the quiet determina-

tion which he manifested in the conduct of important affairs, his

gracious manners, and his well modulated voice, all indicated

that generations strongly endowed intellectually and physically,

had handed down to him their best qualities of mind and per-

son. The evidence afforded by his appearance, his manners

and his speech was borne out by the facts. His ancestors were

among the early settlers of the colonies of Plymouth and of

Massachusetts Bay. Ebenezer Sprague, his great-grandfather,

was a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly prior to

the year 1779. Joseph Cowen, his grandfather, served in the

Revolutionary War, and, in 1790, removed from Rhode Island

to New York, settling first in Saratoga County and then in

Washington County. Esek Cowen, one of Joseph Cowen's sons,

was a Reporter of the Supreme Court of New York from 1823

to 1828 when he was appointed Circuit Judge for the Fourth

Circuit, and, in 1835 or 1836, an associate Justice of the Su-

preme Court. He was self-educated but he became an able law-

yer and had the reputation of being one of the most accom-

plished scholars of the state.

Benjamin Sprague Cowen, father of General Cowen, re-

moved to Ohio and settled first in Harrison County. He was

a soldier of the war of 1812; afterwards practiced medicine for

a time; then read law, and, when admitted to the bar, removed

while General Cowen was in his early boyhood, to St. Clairsville

in Belmont County, where he engaged in the practice of his pro-

fession, and gave a portion of his time to the conduct of a

weekly newspaper, the Belmont Chronicle, in which he acquired

an interest. He was a Representative from Ohio in the Twenty-

seventh Congress (1841-43); a member of the Ohio House of

Representatives during the years 1846-1847, and, from the years

1848 to 1852, presiding Judge of the Common Pleas Court of

his District.

It was in the classical academy in St. Clairsville, which his

father had assisted in establishing, that young Cowen was edu-

cated. Then, entering the office of the Belmont Chronicle, he

learned the art of typesetting, and, before he had attained his

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General Benjamin Rush Cowen.             151

 

majority, became the sole owner and editor of the paper. While

he was engaged in managing and editing the newspaper, he read

medicine, taking a full course, but never practiced.

His connection with the newspaper introduced him to po-

litical life, and, in 1856, as an alternate, he attended the National

Convention of the Republican party in Philadelphia which nomi-

nated General Fremont for the Presidency. During the session

of the Convention, he acted as one of its assistant clerks al-

though his name as such does not appear on the records of the

Convention.

He disposed of his interest in the Belmont Chronicle in

1858, and, for a time, engaged in the real estate business in Bel-

laire. At the commencement of the Fifty-fourth General As-

sembly of Ohio, he was chosen Chief Clerk of the House of

Representatives and served as such during the session of 1860

and the adjourned session of 1861.

Whitelaw Reid, in his Work, "Ohio in the War," makes

the following mention in regard to the military services of Gen-

eral Cowen: "His first military appointment was that of En-

gineer in Chief, with the rank of Colonel, on Governor Denni-

son's Staff. This post he resigned upon the fall of Fort Sum-

ter, and enlisted as a private in Captain Wallace's Company, in

the Fifteenth Ohio. He did not, however, sever his connection

with the Legislature, which was then in session, until its ad-

journment, when he joined his regiment at Zanesville. He was

commissioned First Lieutenant May 24th, and assigned to duty

as Assistant Commissary of Subsistence. In the summer of

1861 he received the appointment of Additional Paymaster, dat-

ing from June 1. He served at Washington and in West Vir-

ginia in that capacity. He also served at the same time as Pay

Agent for Ohio, in forwarding soldiers' pay to their friends at

home.

"In December, 1863, he was ordered to New Orleans, as

chief paymaster of the Department of the Gulf; but, before

leaving for that post, he was tendered the position of Adjutant

General of Ohio, by Governor Brough. He accepted this, and

having obtained leave of absence with suspension of pay and

allowances, he entered upon his new duties in January, 1864."

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As Adjutant General he rendered meritorious services in

bringing into the field Ohio's quota of the One Hundred Day

Men. In less than two weeks after the acceptance by the War

Department of the offer of the One Hundred Day Men, he

brought together, at the appointed place of rendezvous, over

thirty-six thousand members of the National Guard of Ohio

who were organized, mustered, clothed, armed, equipped and

turned over to the U. S. authorities for transportation.

For the important work performed by him in this regard

he received the thanks of the War Department, and it was upon

this account that, March 13, 1865, he received the successive

appointments of brevet Lieutenant Colonel, brevet Colonel and

brevet Brigadier General. Governor Cox retained him in the

position of Adjutant General.

In the fall of 1861, while he was with the army of the

Potomac, he was nominated and elected Secretary of State of

Ohio upon the ticket with Governor Tod, and, under leave of

absence, served for a few months, in that capacity, and then re-

signed and returned to his duties in the army.

In the Republican State Convention of 1867, he was a can-

didate for nomination as Governor but was defeated by Gen-

eral Rutherford B. Hayes by ten votes.

From 1866 to 1876 he was a member of the National Re-

publican Executive Committee and in 1868, was a delegate to

the National Republican Convention of that year.

After the close of his term as Adjutant General he re-

moved to and engaged in business in Cincinnati, and, while there,

in the fall of 1869, President Grant sent him to the Pacific Coast

to investigate irregularities in the Revenue service in which men

politically prominent were implicated. This mission occupied

several months of his time.

In the spring of 1871, he was appointed Assistant Secre-

tary of the Interior, a position that he continued to hold for

nearly six years, during a portion of which time in consequence

of the feeble health of Secretary Delano, he was the Acting

Secretary.

While connected with the administration of President

Grant, he was frequently selected to execute special commis-

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General Benjamin Rush Cowen.           153

 

sions which required tact, good judgment, ability to deal with

conditions hostile to the Government and the faculty of observ-

ing closely and reporting accurately.

One of these commissions took him, in 1872, to the Upper

Missouri Valley and the Yellowstone Country. The only in-

structions given to him by President Grant on this occasion were,

"To amuse Sitting Bull while the Northern Pacific R. R. engi-

neers make their reconnoisance up the Yellowstone River."

He was sent by President Grant in 1873 to Northern Cali-

fornia to remove the Modoc and other Indians from Round Val-

ley reservation, and to survey a new reservation and establish

them upon it. The instructions of Grant to Cowen at that time,

were the briefest possible.

In 1874, he was directed by President Grant to visit New

Orleans with Admiral Rodgers of the Navy, during White

League troubles in Louisiana, which culminated in September

of that year in a bloody encounter in front of the Custom House

in which one hundred negroes of General Longstreet's militia

were shot down. The instructions to General Cowen were "To

go secretly and find out who was to blame."

The following year, he was sent by President Grant to

Utah, where Judge Kean had confined Brigham Young in the

territorial penitentiary for a contempt of court in refusing to

pay alimony to one of his wives, pending a suit for divorce.

The action of Judge Kean had aroused the passions of the com-

munity and the instructions to Cowen were, "To see what's the

matter with the Mormons."

It was upon the occasion of one of his trips as a Special

Commissioner that lie was with the Hayden expedition during a

part of the official exploration of the Yellowstone Valley. After

his return from that trip, he aided materially in securing the

passage of the law setting aside the Yellowstone Valley as a

National Park.

All matters relating to the Park were referred to him by

Secretary Delano. The first superintendent of the Park, N. P.

Lanford, in his book on the "Discovery of Yellowstone Park,"

pays high tribute to him for his efforts to promote the park and

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154      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

says that the firmness of Assistant Secretary Cowen, in his ac-

tion against landgrabbers, saved the park to the country.

Following his resignation as Assistant Secretary of the In-

terior until July 1, 1882, he was engaged in business first at Bel-

laire and later at Cincinnati, and from the last mentioned date

until November 26, 1884, he was the Editor of the Ohio State

Journal at Columbus, an occupation more congenial to his tastes

than any other.

From the termination of his connection with the Ohio State

Journal in 1884 until his death, a period of nearly twenty-four

years, he was the Clerk of the United States Circuit and District

Courts for the Southern District of Ohio, and made his home in

the city of Cincinnati.

During his incumbency of the clerk's office he was frequent-

ly appointed by the presiding Judge of the Circuit Court as

referee or master in important cases in which it was necessary to

unravel intricate conditions of fact, to settle complicated ac-

counts and to make clear and correct findings.

Soon after General Cowen took up his residence in Cincin-

nati and entered upon the performance of his duties as Clerk of

the Circuit and District Courts he became a member of the Lit-

erary Club of Cincinnati and of several patriotic societies.

As a member of these societies he found compensation in

some measure for the lost occupation of editor as he was fre-

quently appointed to write and read papers for the entertain-

ment and instruction of his fellow members.

His experience in life had been wide, his connection with

the stirring events of the civil war and of the exciting years

immediately preceding and following it, had been intimate, and

he had known personally a large proportion of the men who

were prominent in public life during that period.

His memory was very retentive and he had, therefore, a

large mass of material to draw from in the preparation of the

papers which he wrote, and which he read in a voice that gave

pleasure to those who had the privilege of listening to him.

His literary efforts were not confined to the Clubs of which

he was a member but he was frequently invited to make ad-

dresses upon public occasions. One of those occasions was the

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General Benjamin Rush Cowen.            155

 

dedication of the Lincoln statue in Avondale, December 23, 1902,

and his speech then was one of the best examples of a field in

which he excelled.

Another occasion was the annual meeting of the Kentucky

State Bar Association at Winchester, Kentucky, in the latter

part of June, 1906, when, as the invited guest of the Associa-

tion, he delivered an admirable address on the Life and Public

Services of Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite.

The modesty of General Cowen prevented the publication

during his life time of any of the numerous essays and addresses

which he wrote and read or delivered.

A limited edition of one only has been published since his

death, entitled, "Abraham Lincoln, An Appreciation."

His finished sketches of eminent men, all of whom he knew

more or less intimately, are eleven in number.

Among them are recollections of President Grant, Chief

Justices Chase and Waite, and Governors Thomas Corwin, Wil-

son Shannon, John Brough and Charles Anderson.

His memorandum book shows the names of nineteen other

prominent men, sketches of whom he had intended to add to

those which he had completed, with a view to publication under

the title of, "Some Men I Have Known."

A short introductory note written by him and preceding one

of his sketches, indicates their character as well as the modesty

of the author. It reads: "This paper and others of similar

character which I have inflicted on the Club from time to time

are not intended in any sense as a history of the men nor of the

periods in which they flourished. I have neither the time nor

the fitness to write an acceptable history of anything. What I

have written in this and other papers is merely some personal

recollections derived from my acquaintance with the men named

which may or may not throw a sidelight on characters who have

been instrumental in making our history."

The title of a few of the interesting papers written by him,

other than his sketches of eminent men, are, "The Launching of

the Greenbacks," "The One Hundred Day Me,," "The Battle

of Monocacy," "The Beginning of the End of Mormonism," and

"Three Months in the Rockies."

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156      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

The narrative style of General Cowen as manifested in the

papers which he has left behind him is as attractive as that of

either John Fiske or Francis Parkman and all of his sketches

have a historical value which should lead to their publication in

book form.

In social life he was a most charming companion. His

sympathies were broad, his interest in humanity was keen,- his

judgment was good, he observed closely and was tolerant in his

opinions.

He had attained a ripe age at the time of his death but his

mental faculties remained unimpaired until shortly before his

dissolution.

He left to survive him his widow, whose maiden name was

Ellen Thoburn, and three sons, James L., Benjamin Sprague

and Sidney J. Cowen.

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