Benjamin R. Cowen

Benjamin R. Cowen

Benjamin Rush Cowen (born August 15, 1831 in Moorefield Township , Ohio , † January 29, 1908 in Cincinnati , Ohio) was an American editor, officer and politician ( Republican Party ). He was Secretary of State of Ohio from January to May 1862 .

Career

Benjamin Rush Cowen was born in Harrison County about six years before the Great Depression of 1837 . His father Benjamin S. Cowen was later elected to the US Congress . He grew up in St. Clairsville ( Belmont County ), where he attended a classical institute. He then did an apprenticeship as a printer at the Belmont Chronicle . At the age of 17 he became the owner of the newspaper and worked there as an editor. Cowen graduated from medical school but never practiced.

On September 19, 1854, he married Ellen Thoburn of Belmont County. The couple had eight children, three of whom survived. As a substitute ( Alternate ) he took part in the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia ( Pennsylvania ) in 1856 , where John C. Frémont was nominated as a presidential candidate. Cowen sold the Chronicle in 1858 and then started trading real estate in Bellaire . During the 54th  General Assembly , he served as chief clerk in the Ohio House of Representatives . He attended the session of 1860 and the postponed one of 1861. In October 1861 he was elected Secretary of State. However, after the outbreak of the civil war in May 1862, he resigned from his post to join the Union Army .

General Benjamin R. Cowen (1865)

Whitelaw Reid wrote the following about Cowen's service in Ohio in the War in 1895 :

"His first military appointment was that of Engineer-in-Chief, with the rank of Colonel , on Governor Dennison 's staff. This post he resigned on the fall of Fort Sumter , and enlisted as a private in Captain Wallace's company in the 15th Ohio Infantry. He did not, however, sever his relationship with the Legislature, which was then in session, until its adjournment, when he joined his regiment in 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 as Additional Paymaster, dating from June 1. He served at Washington and West Virginia in this capacity. He also served at the time as Pay Agent for Ohio, in forwarding soldier's 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. ... It was "for meritorious services while acting as Adjutant-General of the State of Ohio in organizing, equipping and forwarding to the field, the troops known as the Ohio National Guards, "that he received the successive appointments of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel , Brevet Colonel, and Brevet Brigadier-General , to date from March 13, 1865. General Cox retained General Cowen in the same position. "

Although Cowen's appointment as Brevet Brigadier General was dated March 13, 1865 in the anthology, President Andrew Johnson did not nominate him to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers until January 13, 1866, and the Senate did not nominate the nomination on January 12 , 1866 . Confirmed March 1866.

Cowen ran at the Republican State Convention in 1867 as a candidate for governor of Ohio, but drew the shorter against Major General Rutherford B. Hayes . He was then offered a nomination as Lieutenant Governor , which he refused. He took as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1868 Chicago ( Illinois part). In 1869 he was appointed Supervisor of Revenue for California , Nevada , Utah and Arizona . He then moved to southern Ohio the following year. Cowen was Assistant Secretary of the Interior to President Ulysses S. Grant from 1871 to 1876 . Grant entrusted Cowen with a number of special missions. In this context, Cowen also helped found Yellowstone National Park .

From 1877 to 1882 Cowen did business in Bellaire and Cincinnati. Then he was an editor at the Ohio State Journal in Columbus from 1882 to 1884 . From 1884 until his death he was employed as a clerk at the United States Circuit and District Courts for the Southern District of Ohio . During this time he lived in Cincinnati.

Cowen was a member of the Literary Club of Cincinnati and a frequent speaker on history and patriotism . He died on January 29, 1908 in Cincinnati and was then buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Bellaire.

Works

• 1904: The Conquest of the Indian

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Mackoy, WH: General Benjamin Rush Cowen, Volume 18, Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, 1908, pp 149-156
2. ^ ^{A b} Smith, Joseph Patterson: History of the Republican Party in Ohio , Volume 2, Lewis Publishing Company, 1898, p. 128
3. ^ Reid, Whitelaw: History of Ohio during the war, and the lives of her generals , The Robert Clarke Company, 1895, pp. 963f
4. ^ John H. Eicher and David J. Eicher : Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 , p. 743
5. ^ Benjamin Rush Cowen in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved May 9, 2015.