William Cowley
William Cowley, farmer, P. O. Earlville, was born in Lincolnshire, England, April 27, 1815, son of William and Charlotte (James) Cowley. He was reared on a farm in his native town, and when twenty-one years of age emigrated to the United States, landing in New York City in the spring of 1836, without a copper in his pocket. He then went up the Hudson to Albany and walked from there to Stockbridge, Mass., where he worked in a stone quarry one summer, and the following winter went to Philadelphia, following the same occupation there until the next spring, when he moved to Lee, Mass., and worked by the month as a farm hand up to the fall of 1838. He then came to Ohio, and in the winter of 1838-39 worked on the Miami Canal from Defiance to Cincinnati. In April, 1839, he settled in Streetsboro Township, this county, a mile south of the Center, living there some five years, when he settled on his present farm, now comprising 482 acres, most of which he cleared and improved. Mr. Cowley has been twice married, on first occasion May 4, 1844, to Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Betsey (Green) Olin, of Streetsboro, this county, by whom he had nine children: Heniy B., William, Betsey (deceased), Eliza (wife of Levi Raber), Harriet (deceased), Albert, Ida, Emma (wife of Thomas Elliman) and Joseph J. January 8, 1867, our subject married his present wife, Chloe, daughter of Timothy and Frances (Rathburn) Brockway, of Trumbull County, Ohio, who were among the first settlers of Hartford, in that county. Mr. Cowley is one of the leading farmers and a representative citizen of Streetsboro Township. In politics he is a Democrat.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885