John W. Lowell

    John W. Lowell, a native of Boon Township, Warrick County, Indiana, was born March 23, 1835, the fourth of eight children born to James E. and Sinai (Armer) Lowell, natives of Michigan and Pennsylvania respectively. The father was raised near Detroit, Michigan, by his parents, where his father, who was a General in the war of 1812, died. The General's widow married again, and came to Warrick County with the family in 1814, locating in Rockport, which was then in Warrick County, and where James E. helped clear the grape-vines and underbrush from the bluff where that town now stands. About 1818 the family located about two miles from Boonville, where James E. lived until he married, when he bought the farm where John W. now resides, and followed farming successfully until his death, August 15, 1863. He started farming with no capital, but by hard work, close economy and strict integrity succeeded in accumulating 600 acres of good land. His widow married John Murphy, and is living in Crawford County, Indiana.

    John W. was raised on the farm with his parents, enduring many of the privations and hardships of pioneer life, receiving a limited education. When twenty-two he married and commenced farming for himself on a part of the old homestead, where he remained until his father's death, when he bought his mother's share of the estate, and in 1880 built a good two-story house in addition to his father's residence, where he now lives. He owns 380 acres of well-improved land, 250 acres being under cultivation.

    October 9, 1857, he married Harriett Fay, daughter of Mahlon Fay, one of the early pioneers of the county. They are the parents of ten children, seven of whom are living: Sinai, Mahlon H. and James E. (twins), Lucy, John W., and Clyde. Mr. Lowell is a member of the A. O. U. W., a Democrat, and he and wife have been members of the M. E. Church for over twenty-five years. Mr. Lowell and sons are engaged in the manufacture of tiles for drainage, having a factory on the farm, where they make a superior quality of tile from bleu clay, which is pronounced by competent judges to be the best quality used in the manufacture of this important article for drainage. He also raises tobacco quite extensively, an average of 15,000 pounds per annum.

Source: History of Warrick, Spencer, and Perry Counties, Indiana, By: Goodspeed Bros. & Co., 1885.