Introduction to the Erwin Letters and Document

by Kathy Munsel

❁ Our Erwin family history – the short version ❁

To understand the following letters and how they relate to our family, it may help to hear how I began my research and why. If this writing brings more questions than answers it has

successfully fulfilled its intention. It is in undertaking this research, becoming curious about who I am and who came before me, that I have been able to more fully understand myself – Kathy

Marshall Erwin, my mother’s father, was a gentle man who is remembered with fondness for his kindness, strength, and integrity. He was very committed to his family and a loving husband, father and grandfather. 

He and my grandmother, Vivian, raised their family and built a business, in Juneau, Alaska in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. An isolated community, Juneau could only be reached by boat or by air, the weather was often cold, wet, and gray, and roads were pitted from years of exposure to rain, snow and ice. Mud was a given fact of life. Those that chose to live there were a rare breed.

In the 1930s Marshall and Vivian opened Erwin’s Caselot Grocery. Starting from the ground up, they devoted their lives to this business. Always a forward-thinking businessman, Marshall had been the first in Juneau to install freezers in his store and carry frozen foods, he was the first to have a paved parking lot, and the first to open a grocery in the valley (until that time only downtown served Juneau). They were very successful in business and involved in the community. 

Marshall made a very positive impact on his community and his family before passing away at age 63, in 1973.

Marshall didn’t talk much about his childhood. His family had moved to Oklahoma, where he was born, from Tennessee shortly before he was born. Living next to an Indian reservation and he played with the Indian kids as a youngster. Marshall was the youngest of a pack of 8 children,

6 boys and 2 girls, all of who were 10 to 18 years older than he was. His stories told of a father, Cole Erwin, whowas a sharecropper, a drinker and a gambler. Life had little stability. He remembered how Cole would lose the family home in a bet and how he would abandon them all for long periods of time to fend for themselves. When his father would return home, his mother (May) would throw his belongings out onto the front porch and make him sleep in a tent in the front yard until she chose to allow him back into the house again.

May died when Marshall was only 8. Cole couldn’t cope with the younger children so they were shuffled from the homes of one older sibling to another as they grew up. By the age of 16,

Marshall was working in the oil fields of Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska with his father and brothers. It was not an easy life. By the time he reached his late twenties, he was ready to make a change. He made the decision, as he stood on a dock in Seattle, Washington, to flip a coin to

decide his fate: heads to Alaska or tails to Brazil. He flipped the coin, it was heads and the rest is history.  

Uneducated, Marshall read everything he could get his hands on and learned through experience and hard work. He was an American success story. But, with his upbringing, I had to wonder what was it was that drove him to succeed? Who was it that influenced him in his early years; was it his own grandparents? What were his they like, how did they live, where did they come from? 

I began to research the Erwin family and didn’t find much information beyond my great-grandfather’s generation. The US census told me where they were, but not who they were. I decided to take a deeper look into the family of Marshall’s great-great-grandmother, Catherine Cowan Erwin. The more I read about her family the better I understood how the traits Marshall had shown in his life may have developed.

Born in 1774, Catherine was the first child of Thomas Lincoln Cowan, Sr. (a captain in the civil war) and Mary Elizabeth Barkley. Her grandparents were immigrants from Scotland and Ireland, first settling in Pennsylvania and then in Salisbury, ND.

The availability of land in North Carolina drew thousands of settlers from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland during the mid-to-late 1700s. The process of patenting land in North Carolina was not complex. Anyone wanting to patent land submitted an application (also called a land entry) to a land office. The land officer then issued a warrant. Land officers included the secretary of state (1669–1776), the agents of Earl Granville (1748–76), or the county entry taker (1778–present). 

– Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.

The Cowan and Barkley families both became successful “planters” (a term for “plantation owner” in the US Census). They were prosperous, owned large tracks of land, ran huge plantations and owned many slaves.

Catherine (nicknamed Caty) was the oldest of the 14 children of Captain Thomas and Mary Cowan. She, her sisters and brothers grew up in a community now called Bear Poplar, about 10 miles outside of Salisbury, NC on the plantation that their father called “Woodgrove.” The Thyatira Presbyterian Church, where Thomas was an elder, was within walking distance of their home.

In 1792, when Catherine was 17 shemarried Joseph Johnson Erwin, 18. They wereprobably married in the Thyatira Presbyterian Church where the Erwins were members, as well, and the ancestors of both families were buried. Later that same year their first son was born. They would eventually have 13 children together. Josephwas the son of William and Elizabeth (Ord) Erwin. His grandfather was an immigrant out of Scotland, who first settled in Pennsylvania, married a local girl, and then moved to Salisbury, NC.

In 1817 Captain Cowan died, at age 70, leaving a substantial estate. His wife, Mary, lived on at the plantation as a widow for nearly twenty years after his death. She died on the 5th day of August 1836 at age 80.

In about 1818 Joe and Caty Erwin moved from North Carolina to Giles County, Tennessee. Grown daughter Nancy and husband (Michael Biles) and grown son, Joseph Jr. made the move as well. They settled in Henry County in about 1827. Caty’s brother James and his family were living in Paris, Henry County, Tennessee, which may have influenced their decision to move. It is after this time that the letters were written between her brothers regarding their father’s estate.  Our family line continues as follows: 

Joseph Johnson Erwin Jr., the third child of Joe and Caty, (born in 1794 in NC) married Nancy Rebecca (Rebecca) Davis on January 22, 1818 in Giles County, Tennessee. Their son, Thomas, Marshall’s grandfather, was born in Tennessee in about 1828. 

Thomas Johnson Erwin grew up in Tennessee and was married to Nancy Caroline Mathis there. In around 1848 he, his wife and two small children moved to Carroll, County Arkansas. Thomas was 31 when his folks, Joseph and Nancy, moved to Arkansas to join them. 

In the 1860 US Census Joseph Jr. and his family were in Long Creek near Carrollton. By this time Joseph was 64 and Rebecca 53. The younger of their children were still at home but nearly grown. Joseph and Nancy lived the rest of their lives in Arkansas and are buried there.

Thomas, 38, and Nancy, 32 were living nearby, in Hickory, with their 5 children who were between the ages of 14-years and 4-months old. Three more were to come before 1870, including Marshall’s father William Coleman (Cole) Erwin. Cole was the seventh, and second-to-the-last, child and was born and raised in Arkansas.

In 1886, Cole, 24 and his younger brother Michael, 19 were married in a double wedding to sisters India May (May), 19 and Minnie Olive Freeman, 16. Five years later their father, Thomas died in 1892. 

At the time of Thomas’ death, a warranty deed indicated that when he passed away, his children would inherit his farm to “share and share alike.” Cole Erwin then purchased the shares of his brothers and sisters and gained sole ownership of the family homestead. However, an attachment to this warranty indicates, that the deed was not properly recorded and that the problem was not corrected until October 25, 1917. At this point Cole’s brother, Joe Erwin, assumed ownership of the farm. Before Marshall was born, in 1910, Cole had moved his family from Arkansas to Oklahoma. We don’t know the circumstances of how the family farm ended up in the hands of his brother, Michael, if this influenced Cole’s move from Arkansas, or led to his destructive behavior. The letters suggest that the Erwin’s were having financial trouble generations before Cole was born, but Thomas had property to leave to his children upon his death. I will continue to research the family will share what I find.

We do know, thanks to these letters, that we came from a long line of hard-working individuals, committed and devoted to their families, who were strong enough to make a life in the new world. If we look around at each other today, we can still see the residual effects of this lineage within ourselves. There is still much to be learned but we have come a long, long way from the lives our ancestors lived upon their migration to this country and I, for one, will be eternally grateful for what they have done to preserve America and this family.

About the Letters

In my early research of the Erwin family I met fellow researcher Don Erwin at an Erwin reunion. He is a descendant of Cole Erwin’s brother, Michael. He, with cousin Cherie Olson, having done much of the early legwork on the Erwin family tree, he was publishing an Erwin newsletter called the “Erwin Bagpiper.” Within this newsletter, I came across a story entitled “Mining for Gold” by Nanci Presley Holly who wrote the piece in three installments. 

Nancy had received a copy of the old letters and documents from a descendent of Captain Cowan, Ruth Cook. Nancy and Ruth thought that they were from the same line of Erwins, but after spending months combing through these documents Nancy realized that she was from another line. Thankfully, she realized the value of her research and was kind enough to share it.

See her original post: http://www.erwinbagpiper.com/mining_for_gold_II.htm

The writers within these letters are, for the most part, the grown children and extended family of Captain Thomas Cowan. Most were written in regard to his estate and the monies left to his family upon his death in 1817, a family of 12 adult children:

• Catherine was 43, married to Joseph Erwin for 25 years, and had 12 children; 
• Mary was 41, married to William Buntin for 24 years, with 3 children; 
• Margaret was 40, married to Archibald McNeely 22 years, with 7 children; 
• Lydia was 38, married to James Hyde for 9 years, with 4 children; 
• Thomas Lincoln Jr. was 37, married to Elizabeth Brown for 7 years; 
• Anna was 35, married to Moses Graham 13 years, with no children; 
• Jane was 33, married to James Graham 12 years, no children; 
• Elizabeth (Betsy) was 32, married to William (Billy) Thompson, with 4 children; 
• James was 29, married to Harriett Craig, with one child; 
• Abel was 28, married to Lucretia Brandon for 1 year, with a child on the way; 
• Agnes (Nancy) was 25 and unmarried; § Abigail was 23 and unmarried; § Hezekiah was 21 and unmarried.

James, the fourth son, is the writer of most of the letters. It is his house that I visited in Paris, TN. He was a large plantation owner and had a large family of his own. Able, the fifth son remained on the family plantation in North Carolina. The surviving executor of the estate, he was the recipient of most of these letters.

Captain Cowan left two hundred dollars to Catherine, and many of the letters are in reference to her part of the estate. We start to find receipts from the executors to Joseph Erwin in July 1819. A married woman, Catherine herself could not, by law, inherit this money. It was given to her husband to use in the best way he saw fit. 

“Item, I give and bequeath to my daughter Catherine two hundred dollars to be paid to her one year and three months after my decease, by my Executors, and in case she should be a widow and may come to be in want, I leave in the hands of my son Abel three hundred for her support, and in case she should die before her husband Joseph Erwin then in that case, I allow the money to be paid to her children share and share alike as they severally come to the age of twenty years.” 

From Thomas Cowan’s Will

Hezekiah Cowan passed away in the spring of 1824 at age 27, leaving brother Able as sole executor of their father’s estate. Their mother was still living at Woodgrove when the executors began to distribute the estate. In 1828 she put together her will. Both she and her husband had specific instructions, upon their deaths, for distribution of their slaves:

ITEM 7 – …I also leave my Negro man Charles to my son James at a fair valuation, so that James may for the accommodation of Phebe and her husband, and Charles and his wife, swap Charles to John Feaster (Feaston) for Towney, and in case John Feaster or his heirs should fail to exchange with James for Towney, then and in that case Charles to be equally divided between my sons and daughters; my son Abel excepted…

ITEM 14 – I will and bequeath to Harry and Rachel, slaves left me during life of my husband Five Dollars ($5.00) worth each of my property to be valued to them by my Executors.  I also allow Leach to have a dress worth Two Dollars ($2.00).  This is for her obedience and honesty towards me.  I also leave Charles son of Harry and Rachel Four Dollars ($4.00) worth of my property to be valued by my Executors.

From Mary Barkley Cowan’s will

In October of 1830 James wrote a letter to Able from Paris, Tennessee to Wood Grove in North Carolina. As executor of now both his father’s estate and that of his brother Hezekiah, Able was responsible for agreeing to and tracking family loans. James often spoke in his letters about shuffling funds from one place to the next to help ease financial stress.

This letter leaves us all well except Harriet Adeline [his wife], who has had a high fever for a few days. I hope she is not dangerous. The connections are generally well except Harvey McCorkle’s family. Harvey, himself, is very dangerous and it’s doubtful of his recovery. We have had no rain for better than 7 weeks, and of course very dry.

The cotton state corn very much injured. Jo got a letter from home late, and get the fidgets for home all at once. He left me at a time I could but illy spare him. He, for the last 4 months, has improved very much and is now quite useful. He was very awkward at the beginning and of little account, but he can be well recommended as a young man of good moral habits. (Thank God.) Your deed is in my care, and all complete, except the certificate of the clerk of Summer and can be done any time when the deed is sent. I would have sent it, but still expected to either be there or some of the connections. It’s now out of danger or risk.

I have a very large family to support. It requires great industry to keep my business in order. I have but little time to spare, between the two stores and the plantation.

I don’t know what I will do for one (an overseer) next year. You must take this letter and read it to mother and tell her I would write to her, but this will answer as well. I am glad to hear that she has got better again.

Tell mother I can’t now say when I will be in N.C., but wish to be there as soon as I can spare the time from home.

Read the letter on page xxx.  

Five years later, in another letter home to Able, James writes fondly about his growing family but is feeling his age. He begins to complain about his sister and brother-in-law, Joe and Caty Erwin who, he felt, were not living up to a contract between them.

Was it not for the pleasure I now enjoy with my family, I don’t know what I should do.

It’s my only comfort here.  

You know that the land old Jo lives on is paid for by me. This amt now is upwards of …$1000. I never have recd the first cent yet. 

Can’t you manage her estate in such a way as to throw it into Thos’ hands [Thomas Cowan Jr. – an older brother] who I owe, thereby let me have at least the interest of the money paid for the land, if you can do so, if you wish to protect an innocent man, who did not foresee who he was dealing with…

Old Jo still keeps insolvent, and if he gives up the land with the improvements it will not pay me by $300. That family lives better than you or me, and how they do it, god only knows. All they get is common stock and now Caty has Bill and his wife. Bill as lazy as his Uncle Bill) and you know Caty [the daughter of Joseph and Catherine Erwin] is lately married. Her and her man (Wilson) is also there. My land to live on, and my servant to wait on them. Now, is not this truly provoking.

Read the letter on page xxx.

In the spring of 1835, James wrote about the 442 acres he had just purchased in Mississippi. Slaves were used for most of the labor and he discusses them as if they were cattle, or horses – livestock. A big tiff in the family arose over a slave that he had loaned to Caty, who would not return her. The complexities of family relationships never cease, but they were taking care of each other, even in the most difficult times.

I have 14 good hands there [Mississippi], which leaves me pretty bare here [Tennessee]

I never was pleased here, altho, the soil is as productive as you could wish it & the more splendid farms are not in the County than mine, especially this one. I have 970 acres here, 400 open; 470 on the other, 160 open; besides these wood land tracts of 640 each & a number of scattering small plans. My town property cost near $10,000. I yet have, say 50 slaves here, a good many small.

I find this a very hard country to get along with. Money is so hard to realize, & my debts have to be paid. I owe a good deal, & my debts will be hard to pay all at once. 

I am out of business now except farming a little, say 100 acres in corn, 60 of wheat, 10 rye, 10 oats & 10 of Millett. The balance of my land is rented at $2 per acre, or 2 barrels of corn. I have a serious notion of leaving this state, & selling all off.

 I hoped this year 6 mares and colts, & have now 7 with Colt, 3 of which has five Colts, two of them to a $40 horse. Old Yanke is yet alive, & has a fine Colt.

Unfortunately Thos got me into another scrape with Caty, by saying, if I could see a girl for $300 that I thought would suit Caty, & one that would suit him to purchase her & send her to Caty. Well, that was hard to do, to please both and myself too. It could not be done.

Read the letter on page xxx.

This is just a small example of the letters and documents that were found, there are wills for several of the family members, the deed for James land in Paris, newspaper clipping. It is a fascinating window into this time and well worth the read.

Kathy Munsel, October 1, 2012