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HANCOCK COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 23, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 580
Hancock
RALPH M. COWL is proprietor of one of the largest fruit
farms in Hancock County, an orchard developed by his
father, the late Rev. John Cowl. This place is at Cowl
Station, at the mouth of Tomlinson's Run, three miles north
of New Cumberland.
Rev. John Cowl was born in Cornwall, England, in 1818,
and at the age of three was brought to the United States,
his father, John Cowl, locating at Maryland and some years
later coming to Wheeling, where he followed his trade as a
shoemaker. John, the son, was first bound out to learn the
trade of making sandpaper. The second time he was bound
out to a blacksmith, and had a six years apprenticeship.
He educated himself, and having early committed himself
to the ministry he diligently studied Latin and Greek and
other subjects in the intervals of his hard working days,
and at the age of twenty-eight entered the ministry of the
Methodist Protestant Church. He filled pastorates at Wheel-
ing and other places in the Pittsburgh Conference, and
about 1856 preached at Nessly Chapel, his home being at
Fairview. He continued to carry the burdens of serving a
circuit of several churches until past sixty, and even after
retiring was frequently called to preach funerals. About
1866 he bought land at the mouth of Tomlinson's Run, and
kept up his plantings on the 150 acres until about half of
it was in bearing fruit. On this farm he spent his remain-
ing years and died in 1898. Rev. John Cowl was a man of
tremendous vigor and enthusiasm, gave himself heart and
soul to every undertaking, and was a thoroughly positive
character. He was a republican in politics.
Rev. John Cowl married Elizabeth Hunter, of Washington
County, Pennsylvania, and she died at the age of eighty-
four. They had seven children: William R., who became
a minister after serving as a soldier in the Civil war; John,
who went to Oklahoma and acquired a large farm; Water-
man, who was in the grain and coal business in Iowa when
he died; Sumner, who became a minister of the Methodist
Protestant Church and died during the first year of his
pastorate; Ralph M.; Sadie, living in California, widow of
J. O. Miller; and Mary, wife of George Brenneman.
Ralph M. Cowl was born in Allegheny County, Pennsyl-
vania, October 7, 1860, but since he was six years of age
has lived at the old homestead in Hancock County. He
married Kate Stewart, daughter of Samuel Stewart. They
have three sons. John S. was in service in France from
September, 1918, to July, 1919, with the S. O. S. Depart-
ment, and after returning home spent one year in the
Carnegie Steel Company's plant at Clairton, Pennsylvania.
He graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in
1918. Ralph H., the second son, was a member of the
Students' Army Training Corps during the war while at the
university at Morgantown. Stewart, the youngest son, is in
his first year at Washington and Jefferson College.
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