Alonzo Cowgill

    Alonzo Cowgill, son of Israel and Elizabeth (Donnelly Cowgill, was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, November 20, 1840. He came to Warren County, Indiana in 1846, and in 1856 to Pine Township, this county (Benton). In 1861, he enlisted in Company D, Tenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, being the second man to enroll in that company. At the battle of Chickamauga, September 19, 1863, he was shot through both lets, and in 1864 received his discharge.

    In 1865, he married Miss Mary A., daughter of William and Malinda (Pucket) Massey, and to this marriage have been born six children, of whom four are living. Mr. Cowgill was elected Sheriff of Benton County by the Republicans in 1866, and served two terms. He also moved to Oxford in 1866, and in 1870, purchased the Tribune, which he conducted until July, 1876, also, he was appointed Postmaster at Oxford, which office he resigned in 1872, when a candidate as joint Representative for White and Benton Counties, for which office he was beaten by Robert Gregory with a majority of sixty votes in both counties. Mr. Cowgill is a Past Grand of Oxford Lodge, No. 169, I. O. O. F., Past Chief Patriarch of Oak Grove Encampment, No. 137, was for many years connected with the Good Templars of Oxford, and he and wife are members of the Christian Church. In 1881, he settled on forty acres in this township (Gilboa), and in 1883 his house and library were destroyed by fire, entailing upon him a loss of $1,200.

Source: Counties of Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton, Indiana. Historical and Biographical. F.A. Battey & Co., 1883.