Portal:Indian Captivity Stories/The Source

The Source

There's little question that JB Cowan seriously errored in his presentation of his family history. The interesting quesiton is not that he errored, but why he errored. It is the rare person who would make up such a story whole cloth, and knowingly present it as truth---though I can point to several instances where its clear that this has occurred. Thre's no qustion that JB firmly believed what he related.

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To understand that you need to understand the relationship between Margaret Handley and the Cowan's of Blount County. Margaret probably never set foot in Blount County...but her brother Samuel did. Samuel Handly even has his own Indian Captivity story---one which places him in close proximity to the Foothill Cowans as I like to refer to them as---because they were living in the Foothills of the Smoky Mts (Mt Chillhowie to be specific---yes the same Mt. Chillhowie of PD Cowan's work "Shadow of Mt. Chillhowie". Will get to his particular story in a later part of this, but for the moment the key element of this story is that he lived in close proximity to the family of Major John Cowan and his wife Agness Martin.  Major John was probably the son of Robert Cowan and Susan Woods. (There are other possibilities as well;  this part of the story is still a work in progress.)  In fact, Samuel Handley was a relation of Major John---specifically, he married Major John's sister Susannah Cowan (1761-1836)---in addition, one of his daughters married a son of Major John.  And when the Cowans moved on down to Franklin TN, ancestral home of JB Cowan, Samuel Handley moved on with them.

So, Margaret Handley's story would have been known within the Cowan family. In addition, they probably would have been well familiar with another story---that of Ann Walker Cowan who along with William Walker were also captured by Indians, and taken north to the Great Lakes.