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Following discharge in Davenport, Iowa on November 2, 1865, Pvt HENRY COWDEN married, his first known wife, a woman named BETTIE COWDEN who died in Keokuk, Iowa in October, 1870. It is rumored [by an affiant in the pension records]that BETTIE COWDEN died of poisoningdue to the fact that she became ill and died within a matter of a few days. Pvt HENRY COWDEN moved upriver to Burlington on July 29, 1871. and soon married his second wife, my Great-Great grandmother, ROSANNA MUDD, an emancipated slave on April 5, 1874 in Burlington, Iowa in the parsonage of the Old Zion Methodist Episcopal Church by the Rev. J.B. Blakeney. THE COWDEN CHILDREN HENRY and ROSANNA had eight children, all born in Burlington, Iowa: * NATHAN COWDEN (1874 - ?) * ELLA [Ellen] MAE COWDEN HUGHES (2/27/1876 - 7/26/1958) * [Infant] ISAIAH COWDEN (7/1879 - 9/22/1879) * MABEL COWDEN FRANKLIN (6/1881 - ? ) * GOLDIE BELLE COWDEN CLARK IRVING (11/2/1882 - 4/2/1859) * CLIFFORD H. COWDEN (11/5/1889 - 2/8/1960) * CHESTER COWDEN (10/14/1893 - ?/1958) * GERTRUDE COWDEN HARRIS (1/11/1895-7/8/1963) CIVILIAN LIFE Pvt. HENRY COWDEN died from an "aneurism [sic] of the right leg" on Dec. 29, 1895 at the age of 50. His widow, ROSANNA COWDEN, lived until August 11, 1944 and was reported in the "Burlington Hawkeye-Gazette" to be "the oldest colored woman inBurlington" when she passed away at age 90. ROSANNA COWDEN died at her home in Burlington at 226 So. Central St. I lived in that same home decades later from when I was four to nine years old. How I long for the lost chance I had of rummaging through ROSANNNA's attic full of boxes of papers and photographs nobody thought important. Who knows what mysteries lay therein. One of the great mysteries in ROSANNA COWDEN's life is, "why she was known as ROSANNA OGDEN on her marriage license? Both HENRY and ROSANNA MUDD COWDEN are interred at Aspen Grove Cemetery, along with most of their eight children. ROSANNA COWDEN, as well as her daughters, ELLA COWDEN HUGHES, GOLDIE COWDEN IRVING, and GERTRUDE COWDEN HARRIS, were all members of the local post of the Eastern Star Lodge. The COWDEN daughters were buried with full Eastern Star rites, their funerals attended by a small regiment of Worthy Matrons, dressed in white dresses, white stockings, white hats and white shoes accented by deep purple and gold sashes, worn bandoleer-style across their ample bosoms. Aunt ELLA COWDEN was even buried in her Eastern Star uniform in an open-casket ceremony at Prugh's Funeral Home. The funeral of "Aunt" ELLA is among my very earliest memories. Whether Pvt HENRY COWDEN or his sons were ever members of any fraternal organizations, his son-in-law, PERCY LEROY HARRIS, was a member of the PRINCE HALL MASONIC LODGE of Burlington, Iowa and Gary, Indiana in the 1930s till he died in 1960. ROSANNA'S JOURNEY In 1927 ROSANNA COWDEN swore out an affidavit in connection with her claim for an increase in her widow's pension. ROSANNA testified that she celebrated her birthdate on February 27. She said that her mother, JENNIE WHITESIDES, always told her that date because JENNIE''s mistress had always told JENNIE that was the date. ROSANNA told how she, her, mother and her sister, MARY F[RANCES?] had been assisted by Union Army soldiers in making their way from the WHITESIDE Plantation near Whitesides, Missouri in Lincoln County to Louisiana, Missouri in Pike County. To get there they had walked, ridden in a wagon and rode on a train. From there she told how they took a Mississippi River steamboat to Burlington, Iowa. ROSANNA said their mother had been told by her father [AN UNKNOWN MAN NAMED 'MUDD'(?)] to go ahead and he would meet them in Burlington, however, he never arrived. JENNIE WHITESIDES is listed in the 1870 Census as being 35 years old, a washerwoman, and living with her daughters and two boarders. She could neither read nor write. JENNIE WHITESIDES does not appear in the 1880 Census. ROSANNA (WHITESIDES) is listed in the 1870 Census as being eleven years old and "in school". The census indicates that ROSANNA was able to read and write. Indeed, in 1903 ROSANNA began her 45 year battle to receive her Civil War Widow's pension and its various increases, by writing a letter to the U.S.Pension Office in Washington, DC. A copy of the two-page letter, in her own handwriting, and signed by that same hand, are in the Soldier's Service Records housed at the National Archives and Records Center in Suitland, Maryland.

ST. JOHN'S AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH As an adolescent, ROSANNA MUDD gained notoriety among African-Americans in Southeast Iowa for her efforts in founding St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church in Burlington, soon after the Civil War. Below is an excerpt from the program for the St. John's A.M.E. Church 118th Anniversary celebration held on Sunday, April 28, 1985: "St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded by a woman, a man, and a young girl. They were Mrs. Amy Carter, Mr. William Emmanuel and Miss ROSA MUDD (later Mrs. ROSA COWDEN). The trio met in the early 1860's in a little schoolhouse at the southeast corner of 7th and Market Streets to organize a Church.... In the midddle 1860's four young men joined the group: Washington Brown, Perry Thurman, James Higgins and William Searcy. They wanted to build a Church and sought financial aid from the Churchill Drug Co. where W. Searcy was employed. Other interested persons in the community donated funds and the Church was built on the permanent location on Central Avenue between Jefferson and Valley Streets....1860's ... 1985! WE'VE COME THIS FAR BY FAITH." In September 1906 the 23rd Session of the Iowa Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was held at Buxton, Iowa - a thriving African-American community at the time. On page 52 of the Official Journal and Reports is printed the "Burlington, Iowa, Dollar Money Report" which lists the members of the congregation who had contributed one dollar during the past year. Not to be outdone or overlooked, and contrary to its caption, at the end of that list is the "Fifty cent list:" The lists read like a Who's Who of Black Burlington at the turn of the century. There are many last names on the lists that are shared by many in the Burlington African-American community today, 97 years later. "BURLINGTON, IOWA, DOLLAR MONEY REPORT. Dollar Money list: W.M. Emanuel, Mary Emanuel, Julia Folks, Margaret Jennie Drew, Beatrice Johnson, Elizabeth Grahaim, Cora Mackey, J.W. Mackey, George Brown, Jr., George Tyler, Lenora Palmer, Jennie Brown, W.M. Palmer, Washington Grahaim, Andrew Rident [Rideout?], Eliza Marten, Emma Clark, Ellen [ELLA] COWDEN, Mary Drake, Mrs. Agnes A. Lamb, Cordelia Brown, A.L. Cook, Emma Reed, A.L. Drew, Ed Williams, Lydia Weldon, ROSIE COWDEN, Sophia Bird, Danora Harris, Hattie Tigg, S.L. Tigg, Alice Newton, H. Cooper. Fifty cent list: Rebecca Pleasant, Nellie Johnson, Angeline Gustin, Lillie Keith, Rev. J.W. Smitch, Eliza Mitchley, Alfored McDowell, Hulda Earley, Lucy P. Lewis, John L. Brooks, Louisa Douglas, W.M. Raglan. W. W. Williams, pastor." THE COWDEN PROGENY The grand-children, Great grandchildren, Great-Great grandchildren, Great-Great-Great grandchildren and now, Great-Great-Great-Great grandchildren of Pvt HENRY and ROSANNA COWDEN are dispersed thoroughout the Midwest, and, in fact all over the U.S. - from Detroit, to Miami, Florida, to Des Moines, to Minneapolis/St. Paul, to Portland, Oregon, to New York City - we are everywhere - and the well-lived lives of our valiant forebearers, Pvt HENRY COWDEN and ROSANNA MUDD COWDEN, represent a microcosm of the world inhabited by African-Americans in southeast Iowa during the so-called Era of Reconstruction. The COWDENS have thrived in the face of racial discrimination; pension examiners that "did not believe in pensions for colored, of any kind," [not unlike the current debate over reparations for the descendents of slaves]; an attorney in Keokuk that robbed Pvt HENRY COWDEN of his discharge papers, and any number of other unknown indignities. Their story is the story of America. It is my sincere desire that the descendents of Pvt HENRY COWDEN commemmorate the 110th Anniversary of his death in the summer of 2005 at Aspen Grove Cemetary in Burlington, Iowa. I encourage anyone who knows or believes themselves to be a descendent of Pvt HENRY COWDEN to contact the author by email at: DanaTurner@pvthenrycowdenusct.ourfamily.com or by postal mail at: P. O. Box ----- Times Square Station New York, New York 10036. *** THANKS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS *** The author is indebted to the exhaustive research and insights of the historian, the late Mrs. Geraldine Brown (born Dec. 29, 1906 - died Oct. 21, 1997) at aged 90. In addition to serving as the Church Organist at St. John's A.M.E. Church from the age of 12 until the time of her death, Mrs. Brown was a contributing author (along with Mrs. Frances Hawthorne of Des Moines, Iowa) of a chapter on the history of African-American churches in frontier Iowa in the seminal book, "Outside In: African-American History in Iowa: 1838-2000" published by the State Historical Society of Iowa in 2001. I would also like to thank Mr. Terry Strother, a longtime resident of Saunderson Heights in Burlington whose acquaintance I made after unkowingly writing to Mrs. Geraldine Brown in 2002. I was referred to Mrs. Brown by the Executive Director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, Ms. Corlis Moody. My untimely letter to Mrs. Brown was forwarded to Mrs. Charlotte Weldon, who herself has an encyclopedic knowlege of the African-American community in southeast Iowa. Mrs. Weldon, in turn, referred my letter to Mr. Strother who was a musical colleague of Mrs. Brown's for 27 years before her death. The assistance and inspiration of Mr. Strother has been instrumental in the creation of this website. Thank you all. This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit .